Finally gave in and bought a wicked edge pp1, couple newbie questions.

[KyleMS11]

This will be my first good sharpener besides the sharpmaker. I honestly sucked with the sharpmaker so after months of debating i finally gave in and bought the w/e pp1. I found myself not wanting to use my blades as much because i knew i had no way of sharpening them after they went dull. So my w/e is on the way now. But while im waiting i figured i would try and take in some information since im a newbie to sharpening. So here are my few questions...i know that if you put an angle cube on the arms in between switching stones the angle can vary a couple degrees or maybe less, say i do one side at 15.25 degrees and the other at like 15.35 degrees will that mess up my whole edge? I know without the upgraded arms you cant adjust this and i did not have the money to buy the pp2. Another question on the strops it comes with, the 5/3.5 leather strops. So i know you use these after you go through all the grits, but i dont know if you start with the 5 or the 3.5 first and i see the syringes that come with it, do i just squirt the stuff on the strops before i start sharpening? Using the strops at the end, is this what will give me a mirror polish? Last question, when im ready to start a knife for the first time, is there a way to find out what agle the original edge was sharpened at? Say the original edge was 30 degrees conclusive and i do a 20 degree edge or vise versa, will this mess up the blade at all? Sorry if these are stupid questions but i legit have never sharpened a knife in my life and know pretty much nothing about it. Any help/tips would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[wtlj]

There will be some pros around soon. My advice would be spend a few hours watching highly viewed YouTube videos. You'll be amazed how much you can pick up.

 

[Rebel4ever]

Every question you asked has been answered in depth in the Wicked Edge website forum. Go over there and select some videos to watch. You will learn much more than anybody answering your questions in this thread. Im not trying to be a smartaxx or avoid your questions. Everybody who starts out on the WE asks the same questions. Thats why folks have done Youtube videos to answer in much detail.

 

[toker]

So here are my few questions...i know that if you put an angle cube on the arms in between switching stones the angle can vary a couple degrees or maybe less, say i do one side at 15.25 degrees and the other at like 15.35 degrees will that mess up my whole edge? I know without the upgraded arms you cant adjust this and i did not have the money to buy the pp2.

- I don't have the upgrade arms either. I tend to just sharpen until I get a burr and go from there. The slight variation hasn't kept me from getting very sharp edge. If you're worried about it, use a Sharpie to make sure you're sharpening the entire edge.

Another question on the strops it comes with, the 5/3.5 leather strops. So i know you use these after you go through all the grits, but i dont know if you start with the 5 or the 3.5 first and i see the syringes that come with it, do i just squirt the stuff on the strops before i start sharpening? Using the strops at the end, is this what will give me a mirror polish?

- Use LESS than one grain of rice. You do not need to use more to strop the edge. Put some on the strop and rub it around. This should give you a mirror finish or very close.

Last question, when im ready to start a knife for the first time, is there a way to find out what agle the original edge was sharpened at? Say the original edge was 30 degrees conclusive and i do a 20 degree edge or vise versa, will this mess up the blade at all? Sorry if these are stupid questions but i legit have never sharpened a knife in my life and know pretty much nothing about it. Any help/tips would be appreciated. Thanks

- The best way I've found is to see if the manufacturer lists the angle on their site. Otherwise, it's just going to take experimentation. Use a Sharpie to color the edge. Start at around 24 degrees and see how much of the Sharpie mark you took off. If not, reduce the angle. One thing to note is that factory edges tend to be a lot higher than what the steel can usually take. For example, My ZT0777 had a factory edge of 23 degrees per side. I ended up reprofiling the knife to 18 degrees per side and have not had any issues.

Good luck with the WE. After breaking in the stones with about 10 knives, things will become much easier. So grab some kitchen knives and you'll get the hang of it real quick. Then move on to your other more expensive knives.

One more quick pointer. I would keep an Excel spreadsheet with all of your knives. Record the horizontal and vertical position and angles used. Subsequent sharpenings will be a breeze.

 

[Jason B.]

You will never know the difference between 15.25 and 15.35 or 15 and 16 or variations up to 2 or 3 degrees per side. You are WAY over thinking this. Also, be careful going to low angles, it can be a bad look on some thick tactical knives and too low for edge stability on others.

With all stones and compound the grit goes up and the microns go down, higher the grit smaller the micron.

When applying a paste start with one small dot about the size of a pin head and progress 1 small dot at a time rubbing it in with your finger until the strop is covered.

Strops can be used at ANY point to aid in burr removal and edge refinement.

Yes, stropping will produce a mirror edge but just barely at 3.5 microns. 1 micron is where is a true mirror edge will start. It's all about the ground work though, if you don't do well enough with the stones then your polish will suffer. I would aim for a sharp edge before chasing the polish.

Use a sharpie to color the edge and adjust the arm until it removes the marker completely. Most knives will not have even bevels so pick the lower of the two angles and profile the blade. The edge angle given by the manufacture are only a reference and hold little value in reality.

 

[Spey]

+1 on what Rebel4ever said!!

A really simple, and much overlooked example of this is how every different knives spine thickness will slightly offset the centering on WE and how this can changes the relative angles of left vs. right arms. The W.E. forums & Clays videos provide potentially the best knowledge resource for this equipment. There are a huge amount of simple principals that should be understood related to this tool, all covered there in a searchable format.

 

[KyleMS11]

I will check out the w/e forum didnt know they had one thanks.