Interesting! Can you create some video?

I agree with cbwx34. I had similar set as you, only 5/3.5 on leather, not balsa, and got 50/80, microceramics and 1/0.5 on balsa.

I don't used 50/80 much, becouse I reprofiled my knives allready, so I used them only for knives for my friens. I reprofiled dozens of knives with my 100 before getting 50/80, so my 100 are much more broken than my 80, so there is big gap between 80 and 100. 50 and 80 work fast, but you spend a lot of time removing the stratches with 100 thereafter. On the other hand, my 100 works much slower than in the beginning (but leaves much smoother bevels also), so reprofiling with them is tedious.

I like 1/0.5 on balsa, but I don't disquinquish between influence of particle size and different substrate. My 5/3.5 leather strops are quite damaged also.

Microceramics are great IMHO. If I want great edge, I do progression 1000 diamonds -> micro coarse -> micro fine -> 1 balsa -> 0.5 balsa. It leaves quite shinny and hair whittling edges.

I don't have new arms, but I think they are useful with waterstones (becouse of angle microadjustment). They have less play also, but I solved this with consistent and sure grip of the paddles - it comes with practise. I think this is the key - smooth, light pressure, strokes.

So my recommendation is - get 50/80, if you want to repair chipped blades.

If you can't get consistent hair shaving edges now, practise and work on your technique. 1/0.5 strops wouldn't help you. Maybe got cheap hand microscope (5-10$ from dealextreme or ebay) - it helps finding where the problem with the edge is. Once you have good skill, I recommend getting microceramics with 1/0.5 strops together.

razoredgeknives wrote:

I think the same way. It should also requires longer base rods to achieve bigger sharpening angles, but system will be less complicated and probably more foolproof.

Looks great. I have in mind another extension jaws - very similar, but low and wide for flexible fillet knives. But there can be 2 issues: 1. knives are of different lengths, so no width will be ideal for every knife. 2. knives are thinning from heel to tip, there can be clamping problem.

I spoke with my friend who is cook in a restaurant. He uses cheap knives from local factory (about 51 HRC, 5$ for chefs knife) and sharpen them with steel. So I think sharpen them commercially on WEPS don't make sense - it will be more expensive than a new knife.

Hi,
check these threads
www.wickededgeusa.com/index.php?option=c...d=1052&Itemid=63
www.wickededgeusa.com/index.php?option=c...6&Itemid=63#7886

I think in case of you are reprofiling, you need patience and skill, but it could be done. In case of touch ups, you want to use very light pressure anyway, so it is not such a problem.

Another tomato video:
I think that important is not only sharpening angle but also overall gyuto geometry (thin vs thick). I am looking forward some WEPS modification to attain steeper angles, but was promised about 2 years ago, so probably some technical isues exist.

If I make the knife as sharp as I can and then place it to show-case, it seems to me that after several weeks or months is somewhat less sharper? Is it real, or is it just my OCD?

Ok Josh, it sounds reasonable

Interesting idea, but Clay and others claim, that play in the old arms is not issue (old arms produce equally great edge like the new ones with much smaller play), so I think it isn't worth increased cost and maintenance.

I have an angle cube. Are you able to set angles different from the preset holes? (I have old arms). Once I tried to go under 15 degree with tall kitchen knive to create steep back bevels, but the arms were not holding position and moved around the rod.

Yes, I considered that. But what about thinning the strops, and thus changing the angle. Did you some adjustements?

MartinL1 wrote:

This one dx.com/p/60x-100x-zoom-microscope-with-l...mination-light-25239

TedS wrote:

Hi TedS, I did about 25 reprofiles. If you don't need to reprofile, the amount of work is much less. The edges after 100 grit look very well under microscope now, but the speed of reprofiling is reduced. I don't know how long this state will persist. But it seems to me that diamonds are rounded only, not removed from the base, so I think they have much time ahead. I suppose finer grits to endure very long as you don't use (you shouldn't) pressure when refining the edge.

I now well broken 100/200 and quite new 50/80 now. I did many reprofiles with 100, so now are finer than my 200, so I use progression 200>100>400>600.... My 50/80 works much faster than 100/200. Stratches are quite deep, so I have to spend lot of time with my 200 ( I recommend to use small hand microscope from dealextreme to control taking out deep scratches), but in sum, it can spare a lot of time when heavy reprofiling. I think the scratches will become much shallower as my 50/80 will break in.

I have some knives made from similar steels to 440A, and reprofiling of them is quite fast in comparison with some other steels.

My balsa strops get damaged with use. Do you tried to change the balsa strips for the new ones? Clay, did you thinking of selling only substitute leather/balsa/roo/nanocloth strips without paddles and platens?

A few observation after 8 months with WE. Recently I bought 3 new items - micro fine ceramics, balsa strops with 1 and 0.5 um diamond paste and ultra coarse diamonds. I think that micro ceramics and balsa strops improved my edges somehow. I lapped micro ceramics as recomended, it takes surprisingly much time - they are very hard, but it works great. Ultra coarse diamond are very fast, but my 100 diamonds are quite worn off (maybe they are finer now that 200), so there is a big gap between 80 and 100 diamonds.

My 100-1000 diamonds are well breaked in, but 100 works much slower than when being new. I use scrubbing motion only to raise a burr at first, becouse at finer grits it seems like waste of time to me. But now I use scrubbing motion with every grit. I control burr only with 100 (or the coarsest) and with finer grits I perform some scubbing motion with very low pressure before turning to sweeping. Now it seems to me more efficient in refining the edge than using only sweeping motion. And the changing of motion reduces fatigue. Anyway, low pressure is the key in refining the edge. In this way I am able to produce hair whittling edge if I continue to micro ceramics and strops.

Long and thin blades are more difficult. They require patience. I use a small cheap microscope dx.com/p/60x-100x-zoom-microscope-with-l...mination-light-25239 to check the progress along all the blade.

But using a full available progression is quite time consuming. I am not able produce fast touch ups with WE. So with my knives I use polished steel from Dick to keep my knives sharp. Some members of my family aren't able keep knives sharp and I have to sharpen them often. So I use short progression 100-600 diamonds and then 5 um leather strops. Its much quicker than full progression and resulting edges are still pretty sharp.

But this interests me. How do you solve touch ups? And when you buy new diamonds, how do you place them between existing worn off stones?

Welcome John. I think you should choose more accurate title I reprofiled and sharpened my 270 mm sujihiki yesterday. It is guite flexible knife also. I clamped it twice when i create a burr with coarse stones - once in the rear part and once in the front part. I clamped it quite up. Then I clamped it near the middle and little bit lower. This lowering of the position slightly increased sharpening angle, it justified hitting the edge. I followed with finer grits and use as low pressure as I can to prevent flexing. Using low pressure is good for resulting sharpness anyway. I used diamond stones up to 1000, then super and micro ceramics and 1/0.5 um diamond pasta on balsa and attained hair whitling edge on almost all length of the blade. Fillet knives are maybe more flexible, so you I don't know if the same progress are reasonable. But I think that it can you teach to use very low pressure, and low pressure is the key to great edges

mr.cheapguy wrote:

+1

What is the benefit of using 100-1000 diamond progression first? I heard that 400 Choseras work very fast, so why you don't start with them?