Edge pro - frustrating problem

M

Marblo

Joined
Mar 21, 2014
Messages
45
Hi guys,
I have the Edge pro and I can get decent results with it. I bought shapton pro stones which are awesome but with finer stones my problem is more visible. I use the drill stop collar and angle cube. For example I set the bevel with 320 shapton stone, do the trick with the collar and start sharpening with the 600 stock stone - I can see the angle is wrong because the stone is hitting +- 1/2 of the bevel - so I have to adjust it manually which sucks. The frustrating part is that before changing the stone the angle cube measured 14° and after the same. The blade is always put into the same position due to the plastic shim. Any idea what I could be doing wrong?
Thanks!

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Logically it must be either the depth of the stones or the position of the knife thats changing if your not altering the height adjustment rod id have through? So have you checked that the shapton stone is the same thickness as the edge pro stone?

Ive not used an edge pro so thats just my thoughts which could well be completely wrong!
 
Well the stones are not the same thickness but I have the same problem with the stock EP stones. As I say, the blade does not move, I consempate the different thicknesses with the collar and when sharpening the angles are off no matter what I do.. Now Im testing the collar and it really works stock 600 stone 14,00° > 1K stock 14,00° >5K shapton 14,00°... When sharpening it always looks like the angle is bigger like 14,20° but angle cube says 14,00°..
 
Hmmm , well provided your using the DST correctly then the only options are

A) Your stones need flattening
B) Your not holding the knives in the same spot every time.

In the case of the military pictured I rest it on the FFG and then bring the heel area flush up against the blade table. You may have to move the knife forward this way , but I find its very accurate.

The 320 pro is the softest of the pro stones , which makes jumping to the much harder 1k pro a bit of a chore(on something like the EP). Try flattening your 320 before making your final few passes (I use light edge leading strokes for the best burr removal) If you have been using it for any serious stock removal then it could be dished , leaving a slightly uneven bevel. Long term I would advise picking up a 140 Atoma and 150 Nubatama. The atoma makes for great stock removal and never loses flatness. The 150 Nubatama makes short work of the Atomas deep scratches. From here you can jump right to the 1k pro.
 
Well the 320 I used was brand-new so I dont think it needs to be flattened. Do you have experience with shapton pro stones? I wanted to fix the bevel on this knife, there were about 14,5° bevel so I went to 14,2 and I had this problem I described. So I went from 14,2 to 13,5° and the result is perfect as long were talking about angles :-) I used only shapton pro 320 > 1K>2K>5K>8K>15K and the result is pretty mirror, but under light I can find there pretty deep schratches I think are result of the 320 or 1K stone which is strange because I spend on 1K and 2K stones most of the time.
 
What I am saying is that with use the 320 dishes , making the move to the flat 1k not perfect. Use it like you were and flatten it before making your finishing passes on that stone , that way you get the edge true before moving to the 1k.

The pro stones have some idiosyncrasies that can present challenges to the EP user who has never used them before. They do take some getting used too.

With the scratches you are talking about this can be hard to diagnose. However what you can do is alternate your scratch directions so that you can see you are removing all previous scratches. for example

320 scratches //////////////////
1k scratches \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
2k scratches ///////////////////
5k scratches \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
and so on...

This way you can see all previous scratches are gone before moving onto your next stone. The other thing is that the jump between 2k and 5k on the pro stones is very important. if you think your spending long enough on the 5k , spend 3x longer. I lap my 5k three times when I am striving for perfection. It should be a mirror , but you should still be able to pick out a definitive scratch pattern under the right lighting. The 8k and 15k I would only do extremely light edge leading strokes , doesn't take much at this point. By 15k you should have a hard time picking out any definitive scratches.
 
Thanks for all the info :thumbup: BTW : When sharpening 320 and then 1K how do I know when Im good to proceed to 2K stone? Its hard to see it when sharpening with the shapton pro 1K.
 
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Alternating scratch directions as mentioned above, I wouldn't rely on a burr as burr formation can occur before you bottom out the 320 scratches.
 
Does shapton make a 500# pro stone? I don't know about the pro's, but I have shapton glass and the 500 is plenty for reprofiling. 320- 1000 seems like you'd be working the 1k for longer than what should be needed, but then I don't know how the pro's cut personally. I go 500>1K>2K>4K>8K>16K>30K
 
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I know when I first got the EP, I had a bit of a tendency to do two things wrong... "over analyze" what was happening, and trying too hard to keep everything perfectly aligned, which usually translated into too much pressure. When I learned to stop doing this, and even more important, learned to relax my grip on both the knife, and especially the handle, everything seemed to line up better, and, for lack of a better term, "just worked". Stones line up better, metal gets removed where it should, etc. If you watch Ben Dale's videos, he pretty much let's the stone 'float' over the blade, and he doesn't even adjust between stones.

So, assuming that you're doing the setup correctly, perhaps try going thru a sharpening session trying the above,,, and see how it comes out. Relax and have faith that if you're setup is correct, it will come out right. You might be surprised.
 
KNaB said:
Does shapton make a 500# pro stone? I don't know about the pro's, but I have shapton glass and the 500 is plenty for reprofiling. 320- 1000 seems like you'd be working the 1k for longer than what should be needed, but then I don't know how the pro's cut personally. I go 500>1K>2K>4K>8K>16K>30K
Click to expand...

No 500 pro stones. The 1k is more like an 800 , and it has no problems removing scratches from the 120 , 220 or 320 Pro stones , nor the 150 Nubatama Stone.
 
cbwx34 : I just tried to sharpen my Rat-1 and I have to say, you are right. I think I was using too much pressure :-)
 
I'm guessing that you're rocking the blade a bit. Might be too much pressure on the arm.which will cause the blade to move on the table
 
Yep, the problem was probably too much pressure. Now Im sharpening that the stone is just swinging around on the blade just with its weight and the result is awesome. I was very surprised that it takes +- the same time to get the same result with more pressure.

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