Have KME and diamond stones, should I look at the WorkSharp?

My edc knives I don’t tape, but some I do. I just won’t put tape that close to the cutting edge.
 
Eli Chaps said:
Agreed. I never taped my blades. They're knives.
Click to expand...


I don't mind scratching them during use. Having a thousand hairline scratches from sharpening looks stupid, in my opinion.

I didn't know taping would affect things that much, I figured the stone would grind off what it needed to as it needed to. For the Gerber I was just trying to maintain the factory edge for now and see if I could do that. I ordered the 140 grit diamond stone from KME to help with re-profiling in the future.
 
Yeah , tape is funny when it comes to the stones. They are made to grind steel, but unless you were bearing down really hard, it will glide over the top of the tape. And as far as grinding off tape as it needed, it would end up with paper and adhesive in the pores of the stone if it did which would gum it up probably. Trim that tape back to leave some metal exposed and put some magic marker on the edge and watch what happens. I can clearly see in the pic where the tape is curled over the base of the apex, and that is affecting how the stone hits the blade.
 
I have a suitcase full of high end stones as well as the work sharp (with the 18"belt addon), an edge pro, and a bunch of other related sharpening stuff. I use the stones really only for hand plane irons and chisels and a couple of angular tantos (work sharp has a tendency to round if you want straight, at least in MY hands, I haven't tried again now I'm better at using it though)

I really love the worksharp and belt sharpening in general now. It cuts too fast and can damage a blade? Only if you're using too low of a grit. I never go below 220, and only 220 or 320 briefly, carefully and with a light touch (because yes, it's spinning faster than my hand would. speed IS variable though)

Advantage? I need to do movement on only one plane. There are jigs for straight edges (wharncliffe, planes, chisels) but nothing really useful for curved knife blades. The edge pro is much better as far as repeated action, but I can still get a dozen quality knives to hair popping with 2 or 3 belts, including the linen strop with green on it, in less time than 2 knifes on the edge pro.

There's definitely a learning curve for either freehand or work sharp, neither do the work for you, but it certainly helps a lot. Sort of like an impact driver vs a screwdriver. The impact driver has a higher chance of eating apart the head or breaking that screw, but their sales certainly aren't suffering over screwdrivers.

Really, when I first started really caring about sharpening and having quality steels, I could get about as sharp as I can now, but it was a lot more work and took a lot more time.

When I sharpen something with the WS I always end up stropping almost Everything, as well as any knives friends need sharpened.

I really need to put it back away so I can finish up the new chisels though!
 
Well, I know the angle is crap but I think I accomplished what I set out to do, which was keep the stock angle and not foul it up at all with one side having more of a bevel or anything. Also didn't round off the tip at all. Put closest to a mirror edge I've ever done and it shaves hair, so eh. I'm sure it would cut much better with a better angle, maybe once my 140 grit gets here I will reprofile it and try again. But for all my back and forth, I'm pretty pleased with the outcome. Now I'm just worried I'll forget how I attained it and have to start all over, so I need to try the other knife now so it becomes muscle memory.


kmMypzQ.jpg


jVNzQfK.jpg


bTLjlTy.jpg
 
Definitely an improvement over the first one we saw. Looks like your getting it down to a science. Congrats!
 
There you go.

If you want a great furthering education on the KME, look for Dean O on YouTube. His stuff is excellent. He even did a video on upgrading the knobs and such.
 
Yeah, I already bought the knob he suggested, much more comfortable.

I did the Kershaw in about 30 minutes tonight. Ran it over a glass bottle a bunch so it was so dull it wouldn't catch on my nail. Now it's as sharp as I've ever gotten a knife, just the weight of the knife will shave. According to the angle cube it was about 17.8 degrees. Given how bad the primary bevel was I think it turned out pretty good. Some spots could be better though.

ETTV6X8.jpg


70uOj41.jpg


XECUP0u.jpg
 
Thanks. I'm not really sure either, I just watched the intro the KME from Doug, use a sharpie and my angle cube. Maybe I just haven't run into a really bad edge from factory yet that will throw me for a loop again.

Here's my RitterGrip I just did tonight:

H2wyQmT.jpg


 
It's amazing how frustrating a guided system, that we all initially think will be near-full proof, can be. There's no doubt that although these systems help control and repeatability, there is no doubt that there is still a learning curve to them. It might just be that you relaxed. Not trying to oversimplify it, but I know that if I get flustered when sharpening, guided or otherwise, I more than likely will just make things worse. I've done exactly that on the KME several times.

Keep up the good work and I'm glad you're finding your stride. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top