I've never understood the point behind unserrated steak knives. The FIRST time you cut through and hit plate, the edge folds over and they are dull. Unless you're cutting on a cutting board, it just doesn't seem to be the best solution. Serrations solve that issue as best as possible. Well, the best solution is to cut the steak in the kitchen and serve it cut.

And Opinel is a highly respected, old name, high quality knife. Don't dismiss without doing some homework. If I were to eat with you and saw you had Opinel knives, I'd know you were a knife geek in at least a small respect. One of the germans and I'd not even notice.

cbwx34 wrote:


Heh, you guys have thought more about this than I though Possible. Thanks all for the posts...

To tangent Slightly, since the above is on that, what's the underlying purpose of the 50/80 stones then? I used them quite a bit on the last knife I worked on (www.amazon.com/Smith-Wesson-CKSUR2-Bulls...Search/dp/B000UUTAQ0) ~ sharpie mark on the OEM bevel and passes with the 1000 showed that the edge wandered left and right.. so with the left stone I hit edge at the heel, bottom of the bevel about 2 inch ahead of that, back to the edge and back to the bottom of the bevel. I tried scrubbing it out with the 100's to get both sides to apex but didn't seem like I was getting anywhere after 20 minutes so I went to the 80. Another 30 minutes passed and the right side was good, but I had issues on the left and went to the 50 for about 10 minutes. I didn't really care if I got all the way, I was just trying to get close. Turned out that I was able to keep the bevels mostly even (tip was slight bigger on the left, which was where I had the most issue).

Anyway, proper time/use for those stones? If I'd had to do that with the 100's, I think I'd STILL be working on the knife.

I did get it looking pretty though:



And the owner was happy, though he didn't really give a crap about the looks... oh well.

I don't claim to know anything and I'd love to have this picked apart...

I was doing a couple knives for my brother-in-law today, one being his EDC. I've seen shark bait less mangled than this edge The factory angle on it was 17~18 (no angle cube), and he uses this thing hard so what I did was finish the blade at the factory angle then up it 3 notches/degrees and just use the 800/1000 stones. It was easy to see the secondary bevel form and I even brought up a slight burr. I'm not counting strokes, but it wasn't that many (30 a side?) ~ and I don't own strops.

I'm hoping that this will maybe help the blade stand up to the punishment... if not, then I might be trying to track down a blade more suited to his use. Can't hurt anything and it's a nice starting experience.

Geocyclist wrote:


Heh, glad to know I'm not alone here. I've had the arms come loose twice. I even put on some blue Loctite in hopes that would firm up the screws, but to no avail (the clearance is too sloppy). I'm going to try some Teflon tape to see if that'll fill in the space some and give the screws a little more holding power.

PhilipPasteur wrote:


Okay, that, right there, is the piece of information I've been missing. The last videos I watched were from Smokeeater908 (or something along that line) and he did scrubbing strokes right through all the diamond plates. I followed because it's stupidly easy for a nooB to replicate that, switching to (very slow) alternating strokes on only the last of the 800 and the 1000 ~ which are the final plates I own.

I did reduce pressure about 1000-fold between the first set of knives and the 2nd set, with outstanding results. I'm using such little pressure that some strokes kinda skip on and off the blade. I'm not sure how I could go any lighter on the pressure... though time/experience will certainly show me.


So, today I'm doing 4 pocket knives. I'll get the burr and set the profile, then switch to alternating strokes with every other plate. That begs the question, when is enough? Is that where visual inspection comes in, to make sure all the scratches are uniform in size/depth? Might need to get on ordering that loupe...


Thanks again... you folks are the anti-thesis of most forums I visit (helpful instead of snarky).

Brian

Very good, thanks. Kinda hard to Not raise a burr with the 400, I think it was there after 1 pass. Hadn't considered blade life.. but I'm sure less material is being removed with the WEPS than my dad removed with stones, and the worn knives they had were hand-me-downs from Their parents.

I have a few of my Father-in-laws pocket knives that I'm going to work on next. I'm going to focus more on how the finished product looks with these, so I'll pay more attention to scratch removal. I honestly wasn't worried about the form/looks with my kitchen knives, just the function.

Thanks again though...

is established?

I've done 10 knives now (all kitchen, only one of any quality), am quite happy with the results I'm getting. But I started noticing that once I get a burr with the 100 paddles, it only takes a couple swipes with the 200~600 to raise the burr again. Is there any benefit to doing more than the absolute minimum?




And my vise is now "scuffed" in on the right side. Oh-well, used is used. Guess I should have shimmed up that boning knife.

I love shaving off little curly cues from paper with these knives. No newspaper or phone books here, but normal printer paper easily push-cut on the knives in the vise after the 1000 grit plates.

I'm sure some of you will say/think "well, d'uh!" to this... but OMG was dinner prep easy tonight. I don't think I've EVER had such an easy time slicing up veggies and protein! I felt like I was in an infomercial... 'It slices, it Dices.. it does all the work for you@' heh

Sorry, just excited at how sharp my chefs knife is/was... and the 2nd thought was 'Dam glad I didn't pay someone Else to do this or I'd be afraid of using it because I wouldn't want it to dull'.

I'm gonna have to change the direction of my serrations though as I'm a "pull", not a "push", cutter and it Clearly worked better on the push.

Even if it was a couple days late.... no worries though.

Hey all, I'm Brian and I am NOT a knife geek. I know, what the heck and I doing here? Well, I'm an obsessive individual, if I'm going to do something I want to do it right... helps keep down the "doing it over" aspect. I've lived with dull knives for 38 years... well, maybe not Quite that long, but the sharpest knives I've owned were when they came out of the factory packaging. Heh, I know, that's just where most of you folks Start from to get sharp.

Anyway, about a year ago I stumbled on a WEPS listing in a professional/trade web listing ~ it absolutely didn't fit in but I had time and clicked through. That led to a few dozen hours of research over the next few weeks. WEPS, Edgepro, Sharpmake, water stones, paper wheels... you name it, I probably researched it (I did mention I'm obsessive, right?) I initially went with hand sharpening with an old oil stone my father gave me once upon a time. After hours of trying to get the stone flat, and then days of trying but only scratching the snot out of my knives and never really getting anywhere, I tossed in the towel. Meanwhile, that WEPS listing in my trade listing was still there, taunting me (because I had concluded that this system was the best fit for me while in my initial research). Well, right after T-giving a bonus showed up in my hands and I made the WEPS order.

I ended up purchasing the WEPS, the 50/80 and 800/1000 extra stones and a paperstone base.



Wow, those 50/80 are abrasive! I probably should have opted for the next higher option above the 800/1000, but c'est la vie .

So the first logical thing to do is just dive right on in, so I did. I probably should have used one of my kitchen knives, but the Leatherman was already in my hand from opening the box, so in the vise it goes. Of course, it's so small that I can use the alignment guide or I'd be "sharpening" the top of the vise. S'ok, I'm adaptable. Next, I see that Clay makes the process look Way easier than it is for a rank nooB... so I focus on just one side at a time. The burr comes up fairly fast and I do 25~30 swipes per side with each grit and 30 minutes later I finish and pull the knife. MUCH sharper than it was initially, or than I remember it ever being. Good

I've since done 3 more, one of them a Very ruined Chicago Cutlery that I did most of my "practice" on the stones with. That one I even re-profiled to have a wider bevel at 18* and the edge at 20* (and those 50/80 have left a mess of metal all over now... heh, should have done the Clay thing of using soap on the paddles). All the knives now will shave arm hair, though nothing like a real razor would. Still, much sharper than I've probably ever owned.

This is my Henckels 1-man chefs knife (yes, lots of scratches from trying to use stones.. ugh )




I do have one question that I just haven't stumbled upon yet... mirror finished bevel, mostly a show thing? I understand about the micro scratches and that as you make those finer you approach the mirror finish, but on a given blade/steel that sees the same use (kitchen knife used for all meal prep) will that result in longer time between touch-ups or some other benefit?


In the end, I'm VERY happy that I made this purchase. I'm sure that as soon as I let it leak I own this, I'm going to be bombarded with family requests... thinking about a $1/knife charge to them just to slow down the tide. Looking forward to learning to use it better, and achieve better results... but I'm pretty darn happy right now.