Calling ALL Wicked Edge Hair splitters....

RubiconSS

RubiconSS

Joined
Jan 12, 2011
Messages
5,064
I know many of you guys get to hair whittling on a variety of sharpening systems. Right now, I am using my W.E.

I am to the sharp, mirror edge level and have the weekend to putz so I am shooting for splitting hair on my Acies.

As I said, this knife is yellow page slow cutting, hair pops of your arm - Sharp.

Drag a hair or try pushing a hair towards the edge and it just slides across.

What should I do or what step do I go back to in order to get the hair splitting level??

I have the knife to a 15* (30*inclusive) with a 17* micro- bevel with just strops.
 
if yove raised a burr and gone through all grits finishing lightly on the last few, just give it a strop (like 5 a side) on a compound loaded piece of leather to refine the edge and knock any evidence of a burr off and it should split hair :)
 
Does it bounce on the edge when you pull it over the edge? Like it is grabbing? Also hair tests are not all the same since not everyone has the same hair. You should be holding the tip of the hair and slice towards the root of the hair.
 
On your WE leather strops, spay them lightly with .25 micron (or even .125) poly-diamond or CBN, and strop them lightly. It will take a few minutes, but you'll get there! :p
 
If you stropped in a micro with leather or other soft surface strops then getting to hair splitting might be difficult with a rounded apex. Also, most of the time a microbevel will make it harder to split hairs.
 
Appreciate all the input and wouldn't consider it bad if the thread drifted to other aspects of sharpening. I am debating/considering the pros and cons of micro-bevels as well as what should be my final edge test, is it hair or paper or shaving arm hair? I usually test edge sharpness with does it grab my thumb callous easily.
As for the Acies, I might just go back and stay at the Full Bevel angle of 15* and go back to 800-1000 and take it back up to 3.5 on the strop (finest I currently have) see what happens.
 
Im a fairly recently new Wicked Edge owner and I have been able to produce some really sharp knives but haven't gotten them as refined as I want them to be.
I go from 100, 200, 400, 600, 800, 1000 and then the 3.5 and 5 micron strop. Im guessing I need to get the 1200, 1600 ceramic to get a mirror polish.
Most of my knives are at 40 inclusive so I haven't really tried any micro bevels yet but I may take the edge back on one knife and try it out.
 
Feeling the edge will work at any point but at high grits it takes a while for your fingers to become in-tune with that degree of sharpness. The edge will start to instantly cut your skin on contact, it will not be a bite like lower grits but a on contact no movement needed the edge is in your skin kinda feel. Eventually you will learn what a edge should feel like with any grit you have and also what hair splitting sharpness feels like. Also I would consider 3.5 micron to be on the upper limit of compounds that would provide refinement enough for consistent hair splitting sharpness. It can do it but its not going to be easy for someone taking their first shot at it.

Microbevels are great for making a edge last but the increase of angle at the apex that adds this strength can also rob you of pure sharpness. If you want the sharpest edge possible go as thin as you can and apply the highest grit finish you can. I would also switch to films or hard high grit stones to apply microbevels so that micro apex is as pointy as possible. (When sharpening with a microbevel)

If you really want to explore high grit sharpness I would recommend a digital microscope as it will bring you more insight on the subject than any wall of text.
 
Knifenut is spot on with the digital microscope. 5.0 and 3.5 micron diamond are very coarse for stropping.

Work down to 1.0 .5,. 25 and .125. micron paste or spray. That will, of course, require that you acquire more strops, but that is the method needed get a truly refined, long lasting edge.
 
Extra set of blank strop paddles from Clay, where do you guys get the super fine paste/spray? I bought a 100x magnifier but not much help there tried buying one of those fancy electron microscopes but they wanted like a million dollars.
 
Chefknivestogo carries HA, I would recommend 1 micron diamond.
 
That would work but you might find little use for the .5 I know I still have a half or more full bottle of .5 that been collecting dust for some time. I would however get the .5 chromium oxide, works great on carbon steel when you want to get silly :D
 
Well thanks to your input and help, I finally experienced success in my first time ever whittling a hair.

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What grit/stone do you finish with before you jump to the strops? Is 1000 diamond to big of a jump to 5 microns?
I'm itching to get a mirror polish. My edge still has some pretty visible scratches.
 
snowreaper1 said:
What grit/stone do you finish with before you jump to the strops? Is 1000 diamond to big of a jump to 5 microns?
I'm itching to get a mirror polish. My edge still has some pretty visible scratches.
Click to expand...

I went back to my ceramics 1200/1600 then used some 2000 grit sandpaper taped to my paddles.
Then the strops 14/10/5/3.5.
As for the jump from 1000 to 5mic. I would say that is a pretty big jump. I found observing the increments to be an important ingredient in the process.
 
snowreaper1 said:
What grit/stone do you finish with before you jump to the strops? Is 1000 diamond to big of a jump to 5 microns?
I'm itching to get a mirror polish. My edge still has some pretty visible scratches.
Click to expand...

Many times the scratches are from cross contamination between grits. Going from 1k to the strops can be a bit of a stretch but can be done. The 1200/1600 ceramics or some 1500 and up grit sandpaper taped to the 1k stone is a good mid step b4 strops.
 
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