I got my EP last night and rebevelled my Krein ground Spyderco Pacific Spyderco Salt to 12 degrees per side. It was dead dull, and it took a little bit of fiddling with the blade stop until I found a spot that I like for sharpening the blade without moving it. It was maybe 10 minutes on the 120 grit until I set the bevel, and it would have been faster had I not been really taking my time. The 220, 320, 600, and 1000 grit went somewhat fast, as they polished the bevel out pretty nicely. With the 2000 grit tape I got the knife with a nice start to the polish, and the 3000 grit got it really shiny. The 6000 grit tape got a near perfect mirror, and it was pretty much the same sharpness as my freehand edges. I then cut some of my .3 micron and .05 micron lapping film and further polished out the edge. I seemed to get more sharpness from the lapping films and a bit more shine. It is able to fillet hair with the best of my freehand edges, and looks really good too. I know with some more practice I'll be getting even more sharpness, as I found myself wither using too much pressure or not enough on my hand holding the blade. I did find myself towards the end really getting a feel for where to set the knife on the table and how to orient the edge. I think I did pretty decent for my first try.
I have a work in progress now with my S90V Manix 2 as I was running low on time. I freehanded in my edge at around 10 degrees per side (pretty close to the factory angle), so I measured the angle of the flat grind at 4 degrees meaning 14 degrees on the EP arm would give me 10 degrees on the bevel. The 120 grit took most of the sharpie all the way to the edge except at the tip, where I was just missing the edge. I can see that on this knife while freehanding I was lifting the blade too much, causing the angle to get a tad fatter. It took a good while of pounding on the steel with the 120 grit to get the bavel set, but it was shaving nicely at that point. Since I had to wrap up my sharpening session to go to bed I deburred at 120 grit with extremely light alternating strokes, so that was a real shaving edge, not just a burr.
My initial impressions are very positive of the EP, though I may want to get a DMT X Coarse hone for the EP when setting the bevel or rebevelling with very hard steels. On factory thick knives like the Manix 2 which have a lot of surface area on the bevel that requires sharpening the 120 grit stone just doesn't have the cutting power that I'm used to with my DMT XX Coarse. Once the bevel is set the other hones set their finish rather quickly, and the sharpness for the grit used is pretty impressive. I got 3 glass blanks with my kit for the polish tapes and lapping film, and I really like them. I am used to using lapping film over glass, so sticking the tapes down on the glass blanks and the feel I get from them is very similar to what I am used to getting on my freehand finshing strokes. I can definately see myself saving a lot of time with the EP compared to freehanding once I get the bevel set and getting very nice looking and very sharp bevels in the process. I can definetely see myself getting sharper edges than I've ever gotten once I get a good feel for the machine and train my hand that holds the knife to relax. I will probably freehand in any rebevelling with my DMT XX Coarse until I get the EP sized DMT X Coarse, as even with the hardest and most wear resistant steels the DMT XX Coarse hogs off steel and sets a bevel at a really fast pace. I'm pretty happy with the purchase right now, we'll see if that lasts once I have to start flattening the hones.
Mike
