+1

Welcome to the community - Have Fun!!!

here is a small wood marking knife from the show today - chisel grind at 22 degrees (just matched the angle on the edge, I actually started at 18 as that is what he thought was on the knife, missed the clamp but not the shoulder!). didn't do any other measurements...

View photo here - can't get to link into post - Mark or Curtis can you help??

interesting Tormek Clamp- thanks for putting it up Curtis. I look forward to seeing more info on how it works for people...

Like Tom I see a lot of small knives like his victorinox at shows - I do have a few pics from older shows but no details. I'll try to get those up

Hey Craig - Welcome to the forum, great to see you here! I did get some arms in Friday as expected so I got them dropped into your package tonight after getting back from the show and your complete PPII is on the way tomorrow

Also be aware that as your blade stock gets thicker the center of the knife is shifted to the right, (not necessarily the cutting edge, but the center of the blade stock) so the right hand side angles will be more acute than what the rod tells you. So you can't just set them at equal angles according to the base rod, you need to measure the angles with some other device like an angle cube and make sure you are even.

I know your using the machete as a teaching aid but like Curtis I'd also suggest if you are in fact moving the edge back to center, working on a smaller (and potentially softer) blade to practice

Of course, since it is a long blade - and if it is something that is just for fun and learning - you could try a variety of methods on different sections of the blade (since it is nice and long) so you can see what happens first hand when you do it different ways.

Oh , I just assumed that your goal is to make the blade 50/50 on the angles, are you instead just trying to even the bevels? In my mind this is a perfectly reasonable goal since most of us can't tell if the edge is off center on most blades just looking at them, the bevel width is a dead give away that something is off though. If that is your goal, angle measurement isn't as important and what I do is creep in on it a degree or two at a time. I use the sharpie and on the 23 degree (4mm) side find the matching angle, then come in a degree or two (depending on the amount of difference in bevel size) so I am riding on the shoulder only with the stone - recolor the edge with a sharpie and go to work pushing down the shoulder (work just that side of the blade). The sharpie will help you see as you approach the cutting edge. As you work keep an eye on the bevel sizes so you don't overshoot your goal and keep going watching as you get closer to the edge with your scratches. If it isn't going to be wide enough, just move in your angle and go at it again. If you get to even width and aren't quite to the edge with your scratches, color in your bevel with the sharpie, move out on your angle so you are off the shoulder and then flatten out the bevel - again just getting close to the cutting edge with your scratches and not pushing on the shoulder, when you are almost there, start working both sides to bring up your burr and then you are off to the races!

Trying to make them even at 4mm now - I haven't ever worked that way that I can think of. I suppose I'd start by working up on the edge on the 7mm side and match the angle on the other side and work both sides evenly keeping an eye on what the bevels are doing as I go. Both sides since I'd be making the blade narrower taking off metal with my stone on the 7mm side so I want to make sure I'm keeping the other side the same width. Then as they got close to even I'd adjust the 7mm side in to flatten the bevel.

Have fun! Great that we can try these things with the Wicked Edge

And hope that made sense (I'm more long winded than Curtis is )

PhilipPasteur wrote:


+1 on that - thanks for the emphasis Phil (and for sharing all your experience with the Choseras), couldn't agree more

Great thread - Eamon suggested I jump on and take a look.

Great information from everyone - I find jumping from the 1000k diamonds to the 2k Chosera to work great for me - the caveat, I realize, after reading this is that my 400 thru 1000 diamonds have done several thousand sharpenings. I had realized that they perform different than what most people experience since I usually have a shine starting already when I'm done with them (and I remember early on being jealous of how Clay's knives were shining after 1000 diamonds), but hadn't really thought about how it affected my transition to the Choseras - obvious now but funny how I think about that in discussing strops and ceramics but hadn't connected it for the choseras

I digress though - I agree with Curtis that you can get to the mirror with the ceramics and strops (and that bragging rights don't come cheap in $ or time ) It does take substantially longer - and the ceramics do make the difference. Without the ceramics I don't know that it is possible through just stropping alone (at least not if you do all the other work with diamonds, which is the point here anyway isn't it ) and adding the microfines to the grit progressing helps immensely.

And I agree you get to a polish faster with the chosera or shapton stones (well really anything that doesn't work as aggressively as the diamonds do). Phil and Ken's statements about backing up in grits make great sense to me given the aggressiveness of the diamonds - guess I'm gonna need to break out some new diamonds and try it out.

EamonMcGowan wrote:


Using any stone that wears over time is a case where I definitely suggest having and using the ball joint arms - and when using stones that vary significantly in thickness. Making the angle adjustments when changing stones is much easier with those arms than with the basic kit arms. Not that you can't do it with the basic kit arms, a lot of us have for a while now, but it is so much easier being able to drive the ball joint in and out a little to match the angle.

And - shameless self promotion warning!!! I build custom handle set of atomas, choseras, shaptons, strops etc.... as well. And we should add Tom at Jende to that list also

NicholasAngeja1 wrote:


Concur! That Mac should be lower, and worth at try at 70/30 to see how you like it... Thanks Nicholas

And thanks for sharing the photos too - nice job!

cbwx34 wrote:


Agree that consistency is the key! So just make sure you record how you mount it, although with the sharpie you should be able to find the spot again pretty quickly

For my piece of mind (not straining my memory or my ability to interpret my own notes later ) I generally stick to resting the spine on both pins of the depth key unless I can't get to the sweet spot any other way (or of course the blade is too narrow).

Like Curtis says though - I don't think it does matter. As long as you have the knife positioned correctly front to back, the flat (flatter) portion of the blade is going to be along (or approximate) a tangent of the circle so the angle is consistent there and it still tracks down to the tip evenly. There are of course some blade geometries (steel thickness or cutting edge shape) where this doesn't work and we have to sharpen at different tilts or in sections; moving the blade to match another circle to get the hone to track correctly

I say tangent as in Steve Bottorff's book "Sharpening Made Easy" (which deals mainly with guided angle systems but was pre Wicked Edge so doesn't mention it specifically) he indicates that the sweet spot occurs where the distance from the pivot straight up to the cutting edge is equal to the distance from the pivot to the tip. I haven't actually tested those measurement on a variety of edges so can't testify that he is correct but the geometry in my head seemed to back that up since if it were possible to let the stone move through full circle along the plane of the cutting edge, it would trace circle on that plane which would be the base of a cone and the angle at the outside of the circle would be the same all the way around. Man I hope that makes sense

I don't want to hijack the thread but do wonder what your thought are - does that sound correct or match your experience?

BrentlyWhite wrote:


Why limit yourself! - This tool is great for building the relationships with your neighbors' knives too

BillWood wrote:


Hi Bill - welcome to the forum. Great to have you here And don't apologize for asking questions - we all learn from them and love sharing information and experiences! Have a great weekend

Thanks for the update - great to know your experience.

someone just showed me that iphone app last weekend at the AZ knife collectors show, it is pretty cool

There is also an android version which you can find by searching the play store for the same name Wayne has in his post

NicholasAngeja1 wrote:


Hey you guys - and welcome to the forum Not sure that I've shared a thread with any of you yet or said hello!

Nicholas is correct, while they don't look the same in shape as the knives in Wicked Edge's diagram, the technique is the same no matter what the knife shape. You'll still be watching how the hone removes the sharpie along the full blade length and repositioning based on what it tells you using the sweet spot diagram that he linked to

You shouldn't have to reposition the knife on this style and length of blade - the settings I use on mine are pretty much what Jeffery has - bottom holes, D and 19-22. - These settings will vary slightly with the curve of the knife but they give you a ball park on where to try your knife as a starting point.

When you do reposition in the sharpening, you need to create an overlap and match your angle to that overlap - to say it another way, when you move the blade the next length you sharpen will include part of the knife you have already sharpened. You'll match your angle against that already sharpened part using the sharpie, then follow the same sweet spot sharpie technique to get the knife in the right position so that the stones track your knife evenly at that matched angle.

Hope that helps and have a great weekend!

Hey Jeremy - welcome to the forum - great to have you here.

The only thing I would add to Sauce's post is that you should stand the handles on end to dry. The hones are recessed into the plastic trays so water can pool behind them

There was some discussion on the life of the diamonds also in this thread on polishing - a bit hard to find - and shameless self promotion (or maybe I'm just saving typing...)

I'm not sure about the grit changing or not - I've heard different stories on what goes on as the diamonds break in. They definitely will smooth out and not cut as quickly over time - but then they just really make things shine. Has anyone seen any articles or other information on what happens with these fixed monocrystalline diamonds? I'd be interested as I've heard that the edges of the diamonds become less sharp with time and that is why they become less aggressive and that it is possible to redress the diamonds to create or maybe refresh the edges.

Dang Brian - at first I though you had bled all over that emerson

Hi Rick - nice seeing you here on the forum!. Not familiar with how tight the radius is on your knife, but on many you might be able to just use the stock diamonds - the newer stones are slightly rounded on the corners which helps - I've gotten away with that on several - but not all. Curved ceramics will get you a "pretty good" edge (as you've probably seen in Clay's videos - ) and you can follow with leather strops - they are soft enough that working the edges does a pretty good job
If you have ceramics or whetstones you can also work the corners to get coarser of finer grits than those 400 and 600 curved.

Can't help with how well it will hold as fine as 15 degrees or lower as I don't actually have any D2 in my collection and have only done them for others at shows where I have matched what was on the knife - usually at 20-24 per side. I do see one D2 entry in the knife data base at 21 per side - DPX gear Hest 1.0. I would be willing to give it a try as I expect it could do well at 15 - hopefully someone has tried it out.
The one thing I would say, is that in my experience D2 can be deceptive in raising a burr. It will feel as if you have a great burr created and then you'll get up to 600 and won't have an edge - or at least not an edge that bites the way you expect it to with the Wicked Edge - and you have to back up and start over. So I always raise a strong burr, one that will actually catch on my finger nail strong enough that it will stop my finger as I slide it from the spine up and off the edge.
Look forward to hearing other peoples' experiences, and how it goes if you try for 15

Hi - and welcome to the forum!
Not to be a smart*&& but Yes - and yes. It depends. Going "backwards" in the grits when you move to the stops IMO can help with removing scratches - improving your polish - so is not detrimental, but it is not necessary. At the published grits for the MF ceramics, even at 1 micron you are making a slight step backwards. Generally if I use the MF ceramics, I just follow them with the 1 and 0.5 as I like finishing with leather (bovine or kangaroo). If I am polishing, I may go back to 14 micron or larger on the leather (and or balsa) and work my way back down again. I'm sure other folks will have their preferred methods and good suggestions - best advice I suppose I could offer is to try it out and see what you like best - and share your results when you decide.

Hi Graham - Welcome to the forum and glad to hear you are getting great results right off the starting line
I have two lighted loupes that I use the most - 1 30x and 1 45x. They are great for quick in the clamp examination - and for extra lighting which I use them for even more often as my eyes seem to be aging much faster lately.
I also use a veho USB microscope 400x - VMS-004 (though I don't use it as much as I'd like). It was pretty inexpensive and works pretty well for me - though I do want to get a better stand, the little one it comes with is not very versatile. Hoping to find time to use it to capture some progressions at some point

Hey Kevin - welcome to the forum - hope your pinkie is healing up nicely
Great advice here on keeping from whittling away your leather - and your fingers Only thing I would add, is that unless you actually take off a big chunk of the surface or they are about to fall to pieces like Cory's were, you can just keep on using them. I occasionally have to reverse the handles on the rod as the surface can get a little bumpy. That smooths things back out again.

Gotta move out the rod faster than you move along the blade - that is what I always think about when stropping and.... xuzme720 wrote:

Nice job - and looks like a great spot near the fire to sharpen - I'm jealous! Thanks for sharing the photos and settings