What to start with? Edgepro question

B

Belly

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May 21, 2000
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After giving my knives a full, first sharpening, starting with the 120 grit and going all the way up to 3000, how do I decide what grit to start out with next time I need to sharpen? I got a really nice mirror finish and a great, shaving-sharp edge. After a little bit of use, the razor edge goes away. I am not sure what grit I should use on the next sharpening. Obviously, it depends somewhat on how dull the edge gets, but does anyone have a method they use to determine the ideal grit to use if the razor edge is gone vs. still having a working edge vs. a fairly dull edge?

Thanks!
 
It can be hard to say. Depends relly on what you have been doing , only you know how used that edge is. Light use , start right at 3000. More use drop down. Time and experience are the only tools you can use to determine otherwise.
 
Guess > test > revise. That's most of the fun from sharpening anyway. Ever knife, steel, edge and use will give you a different answer every time.
 
It depends on how degraded your edge is I rarely go all the way down to 120 once I do my first sharpening I maintain my edge with the tapes. On occasion If my edge gets damaged or I wait to long between sharpenings I will drop down to 400 and work my way up to the tapes , but rarely do I drop down below 400 unless I'm reprofiling but YMMV...I recently got a spyderco 302 if bench stone and it takes care of most of my touch up needs that stone really is worth its weight in gold....
 
If I get to the point that they knife needs legit sharpening I never go below 600 unless I need to re-profile it. 600 will get it sharp, after that its just preference on how much you want to polish it depending on what you want to do with it.
 
With the Edge-Pro stones, if all the Knife needs is a "touch up, I'd use the 800 or 1000. If that wasn't enough, drop back to a 600.

If the edge is fairly well dulled, drop all the way back to A 320.

A really good stone for the EP is the aftermarket Shapton 2000. (www.chefknivestogo.com or www.jendeindustries.com) It will touch up, polish, and unless the knife is quite dull, it's a superb "all around" stone.
 
Ben Dover said:
With the Edge-Pro stones, if all the Knife needs is a "touch up, I'd use the 800 or 1000. If that wasn't enough, drop back to a 600.

If the edge is fairly well dulled, drop all the way back to A 320.

A really good stone for the EP is the aftermarket Shapton 2000. (www.chefknivestogo.com or www.jendeindustries.com) It will touch up, polish, and unless the knife is quite dull, it's a superb "all around" stone.
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I like the 2k , but I lovvvvvvvvvvvvve the 5k. That's where I finish most customer knives nowadays.
 
Sadden said:
I like the 2k , but I lovvvvvvvvvvvvve the 5k. That's where I finish most customer knives nowadays.
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The Shapton 5K is an excellent all around finish stone and a near perfect "intermediate" if you polish to 10K or beyond.
 
Ben Dover said:
The Shapton 5K is an excellent all around finish stone and a near perfect "intermediate" if you polish to 10K or beyond.
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Would jumping from the 1k to the 5k be too big of a jump? I'm looking at micron numbers and it seems that way, though I'm thinking that with how fast Shaptons remove steel, it would just mean spending a bit more time on the 5k before moving on to an 8k.
 
Sure , just make sure you have all previous scratches gone from anything before the 1k. The 2k really does speed up the process though.

I find that stones in the 1k range can be very critical , I spend most of my time in my progression on my 1k shapton. Its where you stop shaping an edge and really start to refine it , if that makes any sense. My advice would be to spend some more time with the 1k and then go to the 5k.
 
Cynic2701 said:
Would jumping from the 1k to the 5k be too big of a jump? I'm looking at micron numbers and it seems that way, though I'm thinking that with how fast Shaptons remove steel, it would just mean spending a bit more time on the 5k before moving on to an 8k.
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I purchased a 2K simply because, in my opinion, going from the 1K to the 5K required far too much work with the 5K to prepare the blade for the 8K.:thumbdn:
Stones are just not that expensive. The 2K will save a great deal of wear on your 5k, and perhaps more importantly, on your nerves.:D
 
Ben Dover said:
I purchased a 2K simply because, in my opinion, going from the 1K to the 5K required far too much work with the 5K to prepare the blade for the 8K.:thumbdn:
Stones are just not that expensive. The 2K will save a great deal of wear on your 5k, and perhaps more importantly, on your nerves.:D
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Ah, that's what I figured. Thanks for the reply. As usual, it seems like there are no shortcuts without giving something up along the way.
 
Cynic2701 said:
Ah, that's what I figured. Thanks for the reply. As usual, it seems like there are no shortcuts without giving something up along the way.
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It took me a while to get here, but now, after the edge is shaped and profiled with the coarse stones, my progression is 1k, 2k, 5k, 8, 10k, 15k. Some few, like my EDC "bragging rights" :D blades get 30k, then leather and/or nano-cloth stropping to .025 micron CBN. If I skip one, the amount of work required with the next is unacceptable.
 
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