I've been trying to achieve great edges for several years. Lansky worked pretty good, then Chef's Choice but it scratched the knives and recently I spent hundreds on Japanese water stones (they are listed for sale on Chef
knives to Go forum). For medical reasons I just can't freehand sharpen. Finally I bought the wicked edge after a LOT of research. I felt "at home" the first time. This is one precision appliance. Today my Shun Premier chef knife felt dull compared to the cleaver.

Local auto parts stores and Woodcraft.com carry the paper to 2,000 grit. Meguiars (the car polish company) has the most consistant paper up to 3,000grit. I did a Google search for one of the Meguiars part numbers and found stocking dealers on the web.

I am always happy to help fellow crazies.

meguiarsdirect.com but Google the part numbers for better prices

Thank you I will update the database as I progress

MartinSinger wrote:


you might want to check out 3M films that are manufactured to very high tolerances for the micro chip / wafer industry.. see this thread link

and be sure to read this and follow links to toolsforwoodworking from there... as trying to buy direct from 3M is a known nightmare..

I use the 3m films to polish fiber optic cable ends to appear scratch free at 100x. Kay told me that Clay doesn't like lapping films. I don't know why but he must have a reason. I have a good supply of the film but so far I am happy with the results of the less expensive Maguiars paper. Woodcraft stores and their website stocks the film for the general public but it is pretty pricey. The film for fiber ends is availabe from telecom and networking cable distributors.

MartinSinger wrote:


so you have me a little confused here (not an unusual state for this old man ) let's take this in turn of each of your comments : so you would object to your edges scratch free at 100X? ..: Clays objection may be to the only know hazard of high spec films and that is the flex of the backing, but there is a lot of leather stropping going on here-abouts, so I hardly could take that point of argument seriously. : less expensive vrs more expensive, well the cheap papers you mention are intended for use in body shops to prep bondo slop for paint applications, typically they have huge gaps in the abrasive portion and large ares of blank paper, which is by design to allow for the intended use, if you are looking to precision sub micron polish blade edges then you have quite a different task at hand...

Just curious, have you tried any of your surplus optics paper on the WE? I am a hopeless experimenter and could hardly resist that temptation.. usually optical polishing is done with PDP nano-crystaline DP, a long long way from the silicon carbide in your body shop paper, so here's your chance to try some really upper end particles on your blades. sounds like a chance too good to pass up