A new level of refinement

V

Vegas Blade

Joined
Feb 9, 2012
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In my undying quest for "sharp", I found and absolutely fell in love with the Wicked Edge. This tool is amazing, albeit spendy. IMO it does an amazing job of sharpening knives. Now, as has been said before, there is a difference in "sharp", and "refined". Sharp can be sharp and very,very toothy, or über smooth and refined. The W/E makes it easy for folks to do both. I believe a person can have a great "sharp" knife at any grit. If you cut carpet, rope, fiberous material, apex that edge, knock the burr off and go with the 200, or the 400 grit. As long as you apex the edge, draw a burr on both sides, smooth the burr off in any one of 10 ways, and "voila", you have sharp.

I, being super OCD about my knives, wanted to experiment. This is the point of my post. I bought the 1200-1600 grit ceramics and the 1-.5 micron strops w/ paste. They arrived today and I set about playing. First up was my Hinderer Slicer in Duratech 20CV. I took it through the paces. I was very careful to match my existing 17* angle. Both with my Sharpie marker, and my Angle Cube. Long process boiled down is this HOLY $h/t, this is a new level of refinement. I can literally read newsprint off my edge. This is incredible. Probably not the best day to day edge, but truly SCARY sharp. I normally run my users at 600 grit stones, so this was very different. It is so sharp that it almost feels dull. It will very easily whittle hair, and cleanly slice toilet tissue.

Next up was my PM2 in CTS 204p. Basically the same steel, so the story is about the same.

I don't know if I will continue to keep this level of refinement up, it makes me afraid to use my knife. I don't want to booger that artwork up. :) we'll see.

For y'all that chase the mirror, does it hold up?? Do you find it worth it? I'm anxious to hear from other "edge fiends".
 
I too am on the constant quest for a more mirrored bevel with the wicked edge and really enjoy the edges I get. I don't do any heavy cutting with my mirrored edges so I can't comment on the longevity of them in hard use but for light use I love it. They slice better in my experience. Almost frictionless, but I would guess on more fibrous substances such as rope a toothy edge probably makes more sense. I don't think I would invest the time it takes to highly polish an edge that I know will be a heavy user.
 
I run a high polish on AUS8, VG-10, 154cm and other low alloy stainless or carbon steels. For high wear vanadium steels I like a coarse or fine DMT finish.
 
Vegas Blade,

Assuming you start with a blade with a decent working edge, roughly how much time on the WEPS is required to take it to a mirror edge?

Thanks,

Andrew
 
I keep my blades at 600 grit normally. That makes it a 10-15 minute project. It's simply a matter of going through the 800-100 grit, then changing stones to the 1200-1600 ceramics. I go about 50 passes with each ceramic. Lastly, I move to the strops. Those go quickly. The whole process, assuming you already have your angles set with your W/E, doesn't take long at all.
 
I, too love a super refined edge. I use the Edge-Pro and Shapton stones, then Kangaroo strops and CBN/poly diamond spray. My S90V and CPM -M4 are my "bragging rights" EDC blades, and they shine like mirrors. Polish to .25 microns.

My edges hold up quite well,and IMHO, it's very well worth the effort.
 
Ben, this is certainly fun anyway. It becomes a "quest" if you will. I haven't used them enough to know if they will hold up, time will tell. Today at lunch I worked on my Hinderer Spanto in Duratech 20CV, and my Strider in CPM154. Once I get them set in the W/E, and get my angles right, it doesn't take that long. I have an edge on my Spanto and my Strider that I genuinely can read print on a paper with. Legit "mirror edge". I'm going down to .5 micron paste and strop. Über light pressure on the last 20 or so strokes. Pretty fun.

I was always a 600 grit guy, but these edges are neat either way.
 
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Its a great challenge, and in any event you can't test 'em if you can't make 'em - They are neat to make and test.

I've gotten to a point where I generally make my default edge approx 4k-6k JiS - somewhere around 2-3u. In my former work environment I've gone as low as 60-80 grit (not micron) to get good life out of an edge and make best use of my downtime. I try to fit the edge to the task as my current philosophy is that pressure is what kills an edge, all other things being equal. If I'm mostly cutting a material that yields with the least pressure to a toothy edge with a draw, the edge will last. Likewise if the material in question yields with the least pressure to a refined edge with a pressure cut. Of course, some steels take to certain edge finishes better than others too, and that's always a factor, sometimes the primary factor.

In my experience, pushing a refined edge much past the low single digit micron range will produce shrinking returns, but that will depend on the steel, geometry, and application. Have been experimenting in the kitchen with using my Chef's knife at a bit of an angle as I chop instead of straight up and down - it makes a difference in longevity. I imagine there's plenty of other low hanging fruit when it comes to intelligent cutting technique, I try to be smart but sometimes you just have to get a job done.

Was tinkering with a bit of .5u CrO compound as a follow up to my 4k compound on my work Washboard. I don't normally go finer than my usual 4k-6k so this is out of the ordinary for me but I hadn't taken out the microscope in a few...

The edge was dropping hairs and treetopping a pile of leghair with each pass. The edge could be even more true if I'd done more stonework leading in, but still pretty good for relatively little effort. Scale upper left is just under 1.5u, single red blood cell is about 5 of those scale marks end to end. My usual edges are three finger sticky and can just treetop leghair and dryshave facial stubble.
My prediction is that as you become more familiar with the higher finish you'll start to default back to a lower finish for EDU but manage to come up with excuses/reasons fairly often to polish up an edge just for the sake of it.

Martin

BR_CrO_WB_1000x_zpse16807dc.jpg
 
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I have the Wicked Edge with Choseras and strops with paste down to 0.5 micron. I find it fun to get the mirrored edge, but really prefer to stop at the 1,000 grit for EDC. I primarily cut cardboard, rope, etc and this edge is perfect for me. But, sometimes it's just fun to take an edge all the way.
 
600 grit cleaned up is probably the best all around worker but I just dig a mirrored edge.

I have been doing mirrored edges with my belt for some years now, but the accurate edge the W.E. is capable of is just badass.

I take half sheets of 1200, 1500, 2000, etc..... and cut them to 3/4" strips on a paper cutter.

I get all the scratches out with the 800/1000 diamonds then clean the stones with alcohol and apply Scotch 2 sided poster tape to the 1000 sides of the stones and hit the edge with 1200, 1500, 2000 .....at this point it has a decent shine and flat as hell..

I then go to my 1x42 belt with some pink and smack each side a couple times and the edge is like chrome then for S&Gs I switch belts and smack each side a couple times with some green.

I spent many years and countless $$$ trying to master the edge and thanks to the W/E I am content with my skills.

I was going to pull the trigger on the cool stones many times just to have them but I'm cool with how the paper is working out and it's pritty clean.
 
Oh forgot to mention....I just loves a mirrored 15° per 30° inclusive...it's just a Wicked Edge.
 
Vegas Blade said:
I don't know if I will continue to keep this level of refinement up, it makes me afraid to use my knife. I don't want to booger that artwork up. :) we'll see.

For y'all that chase the mirror, does it hold up?? Do you find it worth it? I'm anxious to hear from other "edge fiends".
Click to expand...

I do like a mirror polished bevel. I just micro bevel with a lower grit to get that toothy edge.

The polish gets dinged and scratched but it's still obviously a polished edge. I don't mind a marred polished bevel. It still looks good to me.
 
singularity35 said:
I do like a mirror polished bevel. I just micro bevel with a lower grit to get that toothy edge.

The polish gets dinged and scratched but it's still obviously a polished edge. I don't mind a marred polished bevel. It still looks good to me.
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So are you going, say a few degrees and hitting it with like a 600 grit? That might be super cool. The 600 grit to "tooth" it a bit, with the smooth, mirror to cut the drag friction. Am I on the right track with you?
 
Vegas Blade said:
So are you going, say a few degrees and hitting it with like a 600 grit? That might be super cool. The 600 grit to "tooth" it a bit, with the smooth, mirror to cut the drag friction. Am I on the right track with you?
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Yep, that's it. I usually go around 26° inclusive and polish that bevel. Then I micro bevel at around 36° with a SiC 600 moldmaster. If I'm cutting especially abrasive media, I'll go 400 grit. The mirror might work to lessen drag but it's primarily aesthetics for me. :D
 
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