Hello all! My name is Dan and I'm relatively new to sharpening with the Wicked Edge. I have sharpened about 20 knives so far. I got less than impressive results with the first 5 or 6. After that, my results stared improving consistently. Now I get edges that continue to amaze me. The latest was my Zero Tolerance 560. I got it to the point that it will whittle hair. Now for some that may not be a big deal, but consider my experience level: I am a BEGINNER! Check it out:



Next I would like to be able to get a mirror edge on this same knife. I realized that the scratches I made when I sharpened it the first time were just too deep to strop away. So I put it back in the WE and took it way down to 200 grit again. This time I paid very close attention to the pressure I was using, and to the scratches on the knife, using a 10x loupe. I havent finished yet, but If I can get a mirror edge that splits hair, I will be one happy cat!

I have come to this forum to get tips and I haven't been disappointed. It's great to find a community where people are the same type of freak as myself (a knife freak)! Well I look forward to chatting with Y'all in the future!

Dan

Welcome to the forum Dan.

Thanks for your post, video, and experience with the Wicked Edge.

There's a Knife Database you can post your sharpening notes in, which can help others.

Looks great!

Hey Dan - welcome to the forum and glad you are finding a lot of useful information here

Amazing - Thanks for the post about your experience so far - great video. When you get that edge polished up post up some notes and pics - love to see them

Thanks guys! Welp, I tried for a mirror edge but didn't quite get there... I did get a somewhat reflective edge, so I couldn't be too far off. But I still see some scratches and haze. I think part of my problem was that I was using a sponge with soap and water to dab my stones. I was wiping down the blade between stones, but I was using the same sponge for all the stones and probably cross contaminating them! Duh! Oh well, I'll chock it up to a learning experience and try again. Can't wait for my new strops to get here in time for Christmas! I think they should help with the reflectivity--I ordered the 1 and .5 micron pastes with balsa strops, and leather strops with .25 micron diamond spray.

People think I'm nuts for having so many knives and talking about sharpening all the time. I don't think they realize how much is involved, or how addictive it can be!

One thing you can try to get a mirror edge is to "work backwards" to help clean up what you have now. I don't know what stones etc. you have so this will be an example. If the edge is hazy as you described, you can go back a step, say to the 1600 ceramic, and see if that helps. If it doesn't make much difference, back up a step to the 1200. Do this until you start seeing an improvement, then go from that point forward again, and you should see a noticeable improvement.

You can also change directions,,, alternate working from heel --> tip to tip --> heel, this will also help clean it up.

And as has been mentioned elsewhere, stone break-in is a big factor too.

I finally got my mirror edge! Sort of. Here's what I'm using: diamond stones: 100 200 400 600 800 1000. Ceramics: 1200 1600. Strops (all leather): 5, 3.5, 1, .5 paste, and .25 diamond spray. I also used 2000 and 2500 grit sandpaper. I didn't quite get rid of all of the scratches, but it's reflective enough that I'm happy with it for now.

I think my diamond stones are still breaking in. Not being able to get rid of all scratches, I went all the way back down to the 800 grit stones. I was able to replace all 800 grit scratches with 1000 grit scratches. However, I could not get rid of all the 1000 scratches with the 1200 grit ceramic. I tried everything I could think of: light pressure, moderate pressure, heavy pressure, soapy water, spending a LOT of time, watching the edge very carefully with a 20X loupe... just can't seem to do it. It seems my 1000 stones are just cutting too ddep, even with light pressure. I tried alternating heel to tip/tip to heel, but my tip to heel technique is not very good yet. At least I know where the problem is. At some point I'll go back and try again, but for now I'm happy and I did learn quite a bit in the process.

DanielSnyder wrote:
I'm glad to hear it! Keep in mind that the ceramics need some break in as well. You are already seeing improvement and you shopuld continue to see improvement. I sprang for the ultra fine ceramics as well so I have one more level than you do in stones, but I only have the 1 and .5 micron strops. I am able to get pretty good mirrors on mine but like you, there are still scratches that you can see close up if you're looking for them. Still, this is the sharpest my knives have ever been, and it will only get better!