Follow-up. I took the same knife to yet another professional sharpener at another healthfood store. The sharpener was female this time and she seemed to take great pride in her work. I made up a story and told her that a friend of mine had sharpened the knife and it felt rough on one side of the edge but I didn't want to say anything to my friend. Could she make it better? She felt the edge and said that it must have been sharpened on a belt sander but mostly on one side. She also said that my friend didn't hone it. She said "let me give it a try". She put it on her belt sander and then on her ceramic hone machine. After feeling the edge, she redid it on the belt sander and honed it twice more. She spent maybe 2 minutes (twice as much time as the other two people) and charged me the usual $2. When she was happy with it, she handed it back to me and said "Check it now. That should be better". It was.

Here is her edge:


Of course this doesn't compare to the WEPS edge but, compared to the other two attempts, this was pretty good.

What I learned is - it matters who the sharpener is and their skill level - with those professional sharpeners. And, of course, nothing compares to the WEPS system.

I was really bored this week so I decided to have some fun comparing a knife blade sharpened with the WEPS system vs local professional sharpening services here in San Diego, California. There are several of these services that have a booth outside of health food stores on various days of the week.

I used this old cheap beatup Winchester knife:


All of the following photos are at 400x on the Veho microscope.

First, I sharpened it with my WEPS at 20 degrees (up to 1000 diamond) and then put a microbevel on it at 25 degrees:


Then I distroyed the edge with a 100 diamond stone and took it to the first professional sharpener who spent about 60 seconds on his belts. He charged me $2 and here's his result:



Then I distroyed his edge and took the knife to another professional sharpener the following day. He also only spent about 60 seconds on his belts, also charged me $2, and his result is even worse than the first one. It even left an obvious bur on one side of the blade:



Below are before and after photos of the point of the knife:

First the knife point after my sharpening with the WEPS:


And now the knife point after the first sharpener ruined it:


I know this was a silly experiment but I was curious.

I sent you a private message.

The 50/80 grits also work very well if you ever want to change a serrated edge to a plain edge.

I have both types of stones and experimented with using them in different progressions. I've noticed a considerable difference in the resulting mirror polishes. I prefer the polish left by the Choseras. It's more consistent for me. The ceramics leave a "wavy" mirror finish - maybe it's just the way I use them because I haven't noticed where anyone else has commented on this.

However, I haven't gone straight to the 10,000 Chosera after the 1,000 diamond. I've only done it by going back to the 800 Chosera and progressing to the 10,000. I think it was jendeindustries who recommended dropping back to (at lesst) one grit coarser than the previous grit - when changing types of stones during a progression.

I'm not sure about differences in sharpness, edges, etc between the Choseras vs Ceramics.

Maybe I'm the only one who doesn't know about "Angle Tilt Rate Calculation". What exactly is it and what does it do to add to the regular Angle Cube in relation to the WEPS?

Deputy115 wrote:


I had a different result as far as mirror edges. I sharpened a Kershaw Blur from 100 diamond thru 1600 ceramics. Then I switched to 5,000/10,000 Choseras before going on to the 1.4/0.6 micro ceramics. The mirror edge after the 10,000 Choseras was great, to the naked eye. But after the micro ceramics, the mirror edge had changed - inconsistent polish thorughout the edge that just didn't look right. Has anyone else noticed this?

However, at 400x magnification, the edges seemed about the same.

I couldn't get the lightening right with regular photos showing the mirror edge difference but I did take some 400x photos of both 10,000 Chosera and 0.6 micro ceramic edges.

After 10,000 Choseras:



And here are two more photos of the same blade after the 0.6 micro ceramics (different lightening):



This is just one knife so I'll try some more after lapping the micro ceramics.

Thanks Mark76

I got another one right



I think I've got this down. When I sharpen the blade, especially when I make heel to tip strokes, I stop short of the tip. Then I work on the tip separately and slowly. Also, if there is even the slightest flex in the tip, I reposition the knife to get the tip closer to the vise, to stabilize it.

This is an on-going learning experience, isn't it.

Somehow I got one right but I don't know how I did it. Just lucky I guess.

Do any of you have 400x magnification photos of the very tip of your knives after sharpening?

The very tip of my knives (0.25mm) don't look so good at 400x magnification:


Here's some more knife tips after sharpening at 20 degrees through the .6um ceramics and even putting a micro bevel at 25 degrees.










Let's see what some of your tips look like.

If your tips look better than these, how are you doing it?

holymolar wrote:


Here's how I finally got those stubborn torx screws out. I used a dremel to carefully cut a slot in the head of the screws and used a plain screwdriver to unscrew them.



Here's one of the T6 torx screws (on the right) compared to untouched torx screws:


I'll post this on BladeForums too.

Along this same line:

If you run into a torx screw that is stuck, do you know any tricks to loosen it?

I like to disassemble/reassemble some of my knives but I have a couple of knives (Kershaw OSO Sweet, Byrd Cara Cara) with stuck screws that I may have to send back to the companies. I'll do that as a last resort but I don't like to feel defeated. I've tried loosen them with TuffGlide, WD40, PB Blaster, and even banging on the bit with a hammer. I've rounded off Torx bits as well as the screws trying to loosen them. I've tried using T7 bits in T6 screws. I have something called Micro-Grabit that is a screw/bolt extractor but I'm hesitating using it because it will distroy the screws and I'm not sure if I can get replacements.

The knife companies probably run into this problem often when they repair their knives. They must know how to deal with those badly stuck screws.

Anyone have other suggestions that have worked for you?

I'll try add to this study with before and after sharpening with the SharpMaker and KME system. I used Kershaw Crown knives that were on sale at Walmart a few months ago. The bevels are at 40 degree inclusive angles. With the WE, I stopped the progression at 1000 grit and didn't strop. The edge photos are at 400x.




factory edge


KME system


SharpMaker

Wicked Edge



For fun, I took a look at the knife point before and after sharpening with the Wicked Edge.
I didn't try to sharpen the top of the point. It just turned out that way for some reason.

I saw on another forum, BladeForums.com, that someone used the Gatco Guided Rod System to grind out serrations on a blade. So I decided to try it on my Wicked Edge. I picked a less expensive knife, Gerber, for my first try. I used the 50 grit diamond stone on the serrations and the rest of the blade for about 15 minutes then progressed through the stones to the 1000 grit, at a 20 degrees/per side bevel. It didn't take as long as I thought it would. Here are before and after photos. I think it turned out pretty good. What do you think?

leomitch wrote:


Hey Leo,
Why don't I have a Thank You button in my posts?
I feel left out.
LOL

StevenPinson wrote:



Well, I just gave you another "applaud".
Now you have 2.
LOLer

Could someone please explain the Karma ratings thingey at the bottom of our screen names when we post?

Does anyone have experience or thoughts about the following?

Since the new 1.4 / .6 micro-fine ceramics are 15,000 / 30,000, does that make the Chosera stones (that only go to 10,000) no longer necessary? Or would using the 10,000 Chosera before (or after) the Micro-Fine Ceramics but before the strops, make sense?

Thanks Mark76. I sent Ken a PM. Then I saw BobNash's reply. I wish I had known that the kangaroo strops for WEPS was available. I would have ordered some as soon as they became available. I'm excited to get them and put that beautiful final finish on my blades.

Is there any word on when, or if, kangaroo leather strops will be available for WE? If not, has anyone tried to make some?

For example, can the kangaroo leather strops (that are for EdgePro) be used on WE? Maybe the aluminum backing could be removed and the leather re-attached to WE paddles? Any suggestions?