Just bought an Edge Pro Apex

5.56 said:
Jim, your vids were a big part of my decision too. :thumbup:
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Is this the part where a bunch of people tell Jim he was our inspiration for going with the E.P.? Because I bought the E.P. after seeing his sharpening videos too. Thanks Jim! :D
 
BladeChemist said:
Is this the part where a bunch of people tell Jim he was our inspiration for going with the E.P.? Because I bought the E.P. after seeing his sharpening videos too. Thanks Jim! :D
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Thanks. :D

Glad to see you got one. :thumbup:
 
Ankerson said:
They have sticky backs, just like stickers.
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Good news! It has literally taken me weeks to decide but tomorrow I am ordering the apex 4 kit from accuratesharp. I'm really excited about it.

Another question, is the 120 grit stone rough enough for reprofiling? And also about how long do they last? One more thing, can you point me in the direction of your videos please? Thank you for being patient with me.
 
I received my edgepro apex a couple weeks ago, at first I was concerned it was not worth the money because of having to make "jigs" for small blades but after going through my EDC collection I have no buyers remorse. There is a bit of a learning curve but I get better with every blade and my kitchen knives are wicked sharp. Some night when I find the time I am going to have to work with the tapes and see how well I can get that mirrored bevel.
 
CrimsonTideShooter said:
Good news! It has literally taken me weeks to decide but tomorrow I am ordering the apex 4 kit from accuratesharp. I'm really excited about it.

Another question, is the 120 grit stone rough enough for reprofiling? And also about how long do they last? One more thing, can you point me in the direction of your videos please? Thank you for being patient with me.
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It's Silcone Carbide so oh yeah. :)

Here is the Link to the Reprofiling Playlist

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=22C65E7B727F309F
 
gunmike1 said:
I would love to have bought the Pro model, but my wallet was screaming at me. How do you like your Apex? Is it your go to sharpener that you use the Sharpmaker to compliment it with microbevels. I think when mine gets here tomorrow I'll be trying hard to find the best way for me to set good bevels on knives with a decent bit of belly that are a bit longer than the blade table. I understand I'll have to move my larger kitchen knives on the blade table, but I want to find a good way to index a blade like my Millies so I can leave it in one spot and not have the angles change. Ankerson gets perfect looking bevels, but most importantly extremely sharp bevels, on his Millies. I wonder it he moves the blade, or let's the stone roll a tad towards the tip, or if he just gets it centered on the blade table and just goes straight along the edge keeping the stone flat. I got the "level" app on my iPhone to judge the angle my FFG blades reduce the listed pivot angles by, so that will be nice. I guess with my Caly 3 and Caly Jr. ZDP knives I'll be able to get about 6 degree per side angles on them by going to the 10 degree setting and laying the blade grind flat on the table. From the looks of it blades like my Millies and Manix will be about 11 degrees on the 15 degree setting, which is close to the factory angle on my 2 S90V Manix 2's and a couple degrees less than my Millies factory angle. I'll try the sharpie trick and practice on some beaters I have to see if I can manage to get a consistent bevel that doesn't make the tips a zero grind when I sharpen at the thin angles I like on my high end steels. As Ankerson said, let the madness begin! I'm sure I'll be sharpening all night as soon as the brown truck drops off my Edge Pro tomorrow as I apply the OCD I use on freehanding to figuring out the Edge Pro. I will accept nothing less than push cutting newsprint over 7" from the point of hold, which is what I get freehanding. OK, I'll stop babbling, my sharpening OCD meter is just off the charts right now in anticipation of playing with a nice new toy that may bring me better edges more consistently than my freehanding does. Oh, the possibilities!

Mike
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It's fantastic, I just wish for the Pro to sharpen scissors on!!!! Yeah, between this, my sharpmaker, and some dmt and ceramics, I'm pretty much set. The big thing, I think, is to get your technique down for holding the blade stable. And I do mean YOUR technique, everyone is different. When I am sharpening a saber grind, do I hold it on the primary bevel, or on the parallel upper? It's really up to you.

I was able to get absolute screaming, BBS (baby butt smooth) edges on my very first knife. You'll do better, OCD always wins in this kind of thing. :D

I gotta say, your 7 inches beats me by 3 at least. Let others read into that what they may.... ;)
 
CrimsonTideShooter said:
I still don't grasp why you make a "flat spot" on the blade before working on the edge. What exactly is the reason for that? And will I have to do that with every knife I want to sharpen on the EP?
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You will understand once you get it and watch his video. :)
 
Just resharpened this in literally a few mins after doing some rope cutting testing.

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Ankerson said:
Just resharpened this in literally a few mins after doing some rope cutting testing.
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I think I understand what pwet is talking about Jim. It's not just sharpening, because I think that most of us can do that in just a few minutes. I guess it's about reprofiling.

You may be one of the lucky ones to get a 120 grit stone that cuts fast. OTOH. I got one that cuts really slow, especially when the bevel gets wide. Ben Dale told me to lap it with SiC, so I ordered some and lapped the stone. It improved somewhat but still didn't cut fast enough. So much so that reprofiling anything above VG-10 seemed too burdensome(took about 2-3 hours to set bevels). So I ordered another 120 stone. Same thing. And not just the 120 grit stone, also the 220 grit cuts really slow.

That's why I was looking for another way of removing metal faster. I may be wrong but maybe that is what Pwet is talking about.
 
singularity35 said:
I think I understand what pwet is talking about Jim. It's not just sharpening, because I think that most of us can do that in just a few minutes. I guess it's about reprofiling.

You may be one of the lucky ones to get a 120 grit stone that cuts fast. OTOH. I got one that cuts really slow, especially when the bevel gets wide. Ben Dale told me to lap it with SiC, so I ordered some and lapped the stone. It improved somewhat but still didn't cut fast enough. So much so that reprofiling anything above VG-10 seemed too burdensome(took about 2-3 hours to set bevels). So I ordered another 120 stone. Same thing. And not just the 120 grit stone, also the 220 grit cuts really slow.

That's why I was looking for another way of removing metal faster. I may be wrong but maybe that is what Pwet is talking about.
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I am on my 3rd 120 grit stone and they all cut fast for me. :)
 
I am ordering my EP Apex 4 kit today at approximately noon! Does anyone know a place to buy it that will give me the option to overnight it? I want to play with it this weekend.
 
Ankerson said:
I am on my 3rd 120 grit stone and they all cut fast for me. :)
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I definitely want for a DMT replacement x-coarse myself.

I had to do a fair amount of work to balance the bevel on a CRKT ringed razel factory bevel and it took a few hours with the 120 stone to finally get it all settled and balanced. Mind you that's only a 3" edge. It would be a horror show with 10" kitchen knives or cleavers, so I haven't done the work on some of those yet.

What's confusing is that several people mention that the x-coarse DMT which is designated as 220 actually, is far faster than the 120 grit EP stone. First 220 to me isn't x-coarse really, 80 or a mill file would be, but I suppose it is x-coarse compared to a 6000. Also, why is DMT grit rating different than that for a stone?

I've also been tempted to take a file, cut it to length and use a bench grinder to put the bevels on for EP mounting.
 
the 400 grit diamond sold by ben dale directly is already WAAAAAAAAY faster than my stock 120 stone.

220 dmt will be awesome. don't forget that diamond cut fast and deep.
 
Ankerson said:
Just resharpened this in literally a few mins after doing some rope cutting testing.

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Cropped_Wilson.jpg
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I want that knife! I need to get on Phil's waiting list for a S110V, 10V or M4 knife soon (or maybe I should get all 3?) as I just love his knives and his philosophy on cutting performance and getting the absolute most you can out of a stee with the heat treat, grind, and ergos. What steel is your knife? I'm guessing a very hard high carbide steel, and if the EP brings it back in minutes from dull to screaming sharp sharpening the full bevel then it is better than I thought. I'm lazy and just microbevel on ceramics and lapping film usually 5-6 times before re-doing the whole bevel because it usually takes a good amount of time to sharpen the full bevel freehand. Than again, on a thin knife like that the bevel is so small full bevel sharpening doesn't take nearly as long as most production knives, which is one of the many reasons I love mt Krein Grinds.

Anyway, I'll try to mail you the lapping films this afternoon. I'll be getting my EP this afternoon too, so it should be fun sharpening everything in sight tonight to learn the ropes on it.

Mike
 
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