I just received mine today and wondering the same thing.

mr.cheapguy wrote:


I do believe the Wicked Edge ceramic 1200 and 1600 paddles are meant to be used dry. I recommend periodically cleaning the paddles with clean water and a scrub brush. Using them dry collects the dust and swarf in the pores of the stone making it less aggressive.

Shaptons and Choseras should only ever use water, BTW.

You believe correctly Tom. The ceramics should be used dry...and cleaning them every so often is excellent advice.

Cheers
Leo

Thanks for the info,

I usually clean my ceramics every 10 knives or so with a still brush and soapy water. I will sometimes do the diamonds at the same time.

Recently I have switched to Barkeepers Friend as I had some on hand anyway and I saw someone suggested it. I found it to work even better restoring the ceramics, but little difference on the diamonds.

BKF works great on ceramics in general, I use it to keep my Sharpmaker rods clean and clear of swarf.

Probably will have no effect at all on the diamond plates, they don't retain swarf the way a ceramic will.

What is this bar keepers friend you guys talk about, I never had heard of it before, I just use a little comet to clean the ceramics.

Lucky

It is a powdered cleanser very similar to Comet, except that it has a very mild acid in it that actually eats the swarf due to it's huge surface area. Oxalic acid, if I recall correctly.

komitadjie wrote:


Off topic, but...

I'm having exactly that problem with one of the arms. The other one is super smooth at all angles. It's extremely aggravating because it slows everything down. It gets stuck on every stroke and I have to futz with/wiggle it to get it to release. I think it has to do with the tightness of the pivot (black piece near setscrew). On the smooth arm, there is no play at all, and on the bad one it sits very loose within it's seat (socket?). It's as if the play allows it twist and bind on the edge. I'm hoping I can get a whole new arm assembly. It not only affects the smoothness of sharpening, but when I extend both arms out to the side and measure with an angle gauge, the sticky arm sits a full 6 degrees lower than the smooth arm. That can't be good. As I said... aggravating.

I thought about trying some grease or lubricant, but I figured it would just get caked with metalic dust and actually be worse in the long run.

EDIT: Just read the rest of the comments. Microlon? Gonna have to Google that.

I just added a drop of Kroil myself, it's a fairly standard penetrating oil, and is definitely NOT ideal as a lubricant. I figure that if mine ever starts getting too caked up with gunk, I'll just take them to the sink and scrub 'em down with some Simple Green to take it all off, then add another drop of oil.

It took care of the problem entirely for me. I've now actually got just a tad bit of "Slick 50" Teflon-bearing lube on them.