Work Sharp KO M2-after the included set progression...then what?

[bdaabat]

Howdy folks! I'm curious what next steps might be after going through the proscribed progression using the Work Sharp KO Mk2.

The machine includes suggestions for which belts to use in what order. I've been using the machine for the past week or so and am able to get reasonably good edges on my very basic kitchen knives. They cut food store flyers and magazine paper fine. They do not cut cigarette rolling paper well.

After using the micromesh belt, do folks typically strop? Or, is that micromesh belt serving as the strop part of the process?

Or, am I being a bit too OCD?

Thanks!
Bruce

 

[JimDaysen]

Howdy folks! I'm curious what next steps might be after going through the proscribed progression using the Work Sharp KO Mk2.

The machine includes suggestions for which belts to use in what order. I've been using the machine for the past week or so and am able to get reasonably good edges on my very basic kitchen knives. They cut food store flyers and magazine paper fine. They do not cut cigarette rolling paper well.

After using the micromesh belt, do folks typically strop? Or, is that micromesh belt serving as the strop part of the process?

Or, am I being a bit too OCD?

Thanks!
Bruce

Try stropping with 1µm diamond paste on leather. If your edge still struggles with rolling paper, the angle might be inconsistent. Use a Sharpie to check even grind lines.

 

[Wowbagger]

Work Sharp KO M2-after the included set progression...then what?​

I would , personally , buy and use an Edge Pro Apex.
And I do .
Belt grinders are OK , I guess , for thinning out an over built knife blade (which I do to many / most of the knives I buy and use ) and for profilng knives which are WAY too thick behind the edge .

Still . . . they generate too much heat and must be watched like a starved hawk watches it's prey not to over heat the edge .

Yes once all that ugly trauma to a perfectly good hunk of heat treated knife steel ; I tend to "simmer down" and for actual SHARPENING just make a few light passes with a little stone or two in my Edge Pro and the knife will last for generations of use .

It is funny to me ( and sad at the same time ) when I see people "sharpening " their knife blades and in the process turning them into goofy looking little worn away things in a few years just from over zealous use of a too coarse stone flailing way for hundreds of strokes (or too many feet per second on a belt) hoping that they will hit the edge right at some point .

Heck with an an Edge Pro I can and do make box knife blades last for a decade . (Some of my pocket utility knives have required "customized" blades to make an other wise brilliant knife design practical ; see the Aerocrafted Sideslip Titanium utility knife and my Review / Solution on the big river .)

THERE . How's that for a rabbit hole ?

 

[kane22]

I have a belt sander. I only use for some cheaper kitchen knives, and to repair/reprofile an edge for the most part. I've gotten pretty good with it, but you can take more steel off than you want to really fast. My KME is what I use most of the time.
I don't know how fine a micromesh belt is. If you have a leather belt, you can use it for a strop and see if you get any improvement. It's free. You can make a denim strop too, if you have a flat piece of scrap wood and an old pair of jeans. I've used white and green compound in the inside of a cereal box. Another cheap option to try. The diamond emulsion sprays are nice. I have 9,6, and 1mu, it's not something you have to have though.
Also be aware you can strop too much...or more likely at a slightly higher angle and your edge will be slightly rounded and smooth. Not the end of the world, just go back to your last belt or stone and give it a pass or two.

 

[bdaabat]

Try stropping with 1µm diamond paste on leather. If your edge still struggles with rolling paper, the angle might be inconsistent. Use a Sharpie to check even grind lines.

That's exactly what I tried. And, yes, I am not yet consistent with my stropping angles. Stropping for me right now still feels weird.

Bruce

 

[bdaabat]

I would , personally , buy and use an Edge Pro Apex.
And I do .
Belt grinders are OK , I guess , for thinning out an over built knife blade (which I do to many / most of the knives I buy and use ) and for profilng knives which are WAY too thick behind the edge .

Still . . . they generate too much heat and must be watched like a starved hawk watches it's prey not to over heat the edge .

Yes once all that ugly trauma to a perfectly good hunk of heat treated knife steel ; I tend to "simmer down" and for actual SHARPENING just make a few light passes with a little stone or two in my Edge Pro and the knife will last for generations of use .

It is funny to me ( and sad at the same time ) when I see people "sharpening " their knife blades and in the process turning them into goofy looking little worn away things in a few years just from over zealous use of a too coarse stone flailing way for hundreds of strokes (or too many feet per second on a belt) hoping that they will hit the edge right at some point .

Heck with an an Edge Pro I can and do make box knife blades last for a decade . (Some of my pocket utility knives have required "customized" blades to make an other wise brilliant knife design practical ; see the Aerocrafted Sideslip Titanium utility knife and my Review / Solution on the big river .)

THERE . How's that for a rabbit hole ?

View attachment 2928189

Thanks Wow.

I have an old EPA. I'm trying different options to see what will work best for me and what can be done to improve the efficiency of the process.

Q: for a basic kitchen knife, what's your grit progression with the EPA? Do you use a strop?

Thanks!
Bruce

 

[donnord]

When I first got my Worksharp KO M1 I struggled to get the edges I really wanted. Over time I messed around with the pull through speed and made sure I raised a burr on the entire edge. Also some knives have uneven edges from the factory, so I find it easier to start at about 20-18 DPS setting and a coarse belt to establish the edge then go finer, each time making sure to get a burr along the entire edge. One thing to be careful of is to not spend too much time on one side. If you do you risk making each side uneven, thats not really an issue insofar as cutting ability is concerned. regarding pull through speeds I will have the edge spend more time on the belt where there there is an issue like a roll or chip.

Also get a magnifying glass to examine your edge You will be see the apex and buirr form as you go. All of these devices have learning curves.
The other thing about the KO that I noticed is that the guide jaws will flex outward if your hand moves and that will give you an uneven edge. About the cigarette paper I find it hard to cut that cleanly at edge angles steeper than 18dps.

Oh also cheaper kitchen knives seem to made of steel that will not get as sharp as some "better" steels. Not cracking on your knives, just something I recently discovered when trying to help someone out and resharpen a bunch of old 90's chineseium. I can only get them a bit better than working sharp, after committing a lot of time to the adventure. For comparison I dropped a magnacut blade on concrete and dinged the edge in a couple of places, it took less time to fix that than those aforementioned kitchen knives.

 

[AFAustin]

I've used a Work Sharp for setting my initial edges since 2011---first with the original tool, then with the WSKO (Ken Onion), and now with the WSKO Mk.2.

I should note at the outset that I'm in the minority---I actually prefer "softer" steels rather than the newer "super" steels. I use my knives pretty lightly and prefer ease of sharpening and a very fine edge over extended edge durability. My comments here reflect my experience with the WSKO on those softer steels. On the occasions when I've used the WSKO on super steels, it's taken much longer and been harder to achieve a very fine edge. If I were a super steel fan, I might go with some kind of diamond system instead.

Recently I've come to prefer leaving a little tooth on my edges, so I stop at the x22 belt and then deburr with a leather strop belt loaded with DMT 1 micron diamond paste. I have a 1/2" wide Surgi-Sharp leather belt that they made as an experiment and which I lucked into many years ago. But more recently I've seen leather stropping/honing belts for the WSKO offered elsewhere.

Sometimes I get to hair whittling right off the WSKO leather belt. But more often I need to do a few passes with a hand strop to get there. There are 2 hand strops I most frequently use: a homemade one with denim on (large size) Home Depot paint stick with Ryobi H buffing compound; and a small Jende Nanocloth strop with Jende 1 micron diamond emulsion. The former is a little more aggressive and the latter is the best at final burr removal.

I'm a big fan of the Work Shop KO sharpeners, and for my purposes they do the job better than any other system I've tried, and I've tried most of the popular ones. All the above minutiae aside, the single most important thing I can suggest is to forget the angle guides and instead sharpen freehand with sharpie applied to the edge to show where you're abrading. And as donnord mentions above, a magnifier or loupe is essential for constantly checking your edge as you go. I use a 15x lighted loupe and it works great for this purpose.

I can see why the edge guide is appealing to non-knife folks who want a quick and simple sharpening method, but I've never liked using it. It uncomfortably confines your movements so, for example, you can't tweak certain areas to compensate for uneven factory grinds, or adjust to a slightly more obtuse angle as you approach the tip so as to maintain a more consistent bevel width.

A final thought: Be careful with those ultrafine Micromesh polishing belts. They're flexible in the extreme and so more likely to fold over your edge and blunt it. I love Micromesh products but I avoid those polishing belts.

Good luck with your sharpening.

 

[TwinStick]

Yup, which is why most people end up with a plethora of sharpening equipment. If anyone else is like me, sooner or later, for whatever reason, you will have great difficulty sharpening certain knives and as a result, purchase and try different things to get the desired result. I am guilty of this as well.

Not sure if it is my technique, the steel or if I am just having a bad day ? Sometimes I can go through all the grits at the proper angle and it still won't pop hair. Sometimes a few passes on ceramic sticks does the trick, other times a few swipes on my butchers steel does the trick, and yet other times stropping does the trick.

I think the downfall of many sharpeners is that while you are sharpening, the blade flexes slightly in its mount. I am still waiting for someone to come out with a ROCK SOLID mount, kinda like a vise, that still allows you to get your desired angle. I know that the vise in my garage would hold a knife blade without flexing but the sides would definitely prevent you from getting the angle you need. But maybe it's just me ?

 

[bdaabat]

Yup, which is why most people end up with a plethora of sharpening equipment. If anyone else is like me, sooner or later, for whatever reason, you will have great difficulty sharpening certain knives and as a result, purchase and try different things to get the desired result. I am guilty of this as well.

Not sure if it is my technique, the steel or if I am just having a bad day ? Sometimes I can go through all the grits at the proper angle and it still won't pop hair. Sometimes a few passes on ceramic sticks does the trick, other times a few swipes on my butchers steel does the trick, and yet other times stropping does the trick.

I think the downfall of many sharpeners is that while you are sharpening, the blade flexes slightly in its mount. I am still waiting for someone to come out with a ROCK SOLID mount, kinda like a vise, that still allows you to get your desired angle. I know that the vise in my garage would hold a knife blade without flexing but the sides would definitely prevent you from getting the angle you need. But maybe it's just me ?

Another response that feels like someone telling my experience exactly!

I now have Edge Pro Apex, Sharpal 162N hand sharpening stones, and a Work Sharp KO Mk2.

I'm still a noob and working on technique but I'm pleased to be able to get pretty good edges consistently using any of the tools above. What I have not been able to achieve (yet) is hair whittling sharpness with any of these tools. I'm working on it! After getting my Scout troop's knives sorted, I've even extended offers to my neighbors to sharpen their knives. Good practice for me and hopefully a service for folks in the community.

Bruce

 

[bdaabat]

A final thought: Be careful with those ultrafine Micromesh polishing belts. They're flexible in the extreme and so more likely to fold over your edge and blunt it. I love Micromesh products but I avoid those polishing belts.

Good luck with your sharpening.

Good to know! I'll adjust my progression to see if that makes a difference!

Bruce

 

[Gottagofishn]

Well, sounds like you're headed down the right path. I went from stones to a Chef's Choice, to a KO, to a belt grinder, to a knock off Tormek and finally a Tormek... and a paper wheel with FVB's as well.
For me, the only way to achieve the edge I wanted by mechanical means was with a guided system. Edge Pro was great but slow and had some limitations.
Tormek, a couple CBN's and a BESS tester, now I can generate the edges I was looking for...>70 on the BESS, depending on the steel of course.
Good luck on your quest.

 

[bdaabat]

Well, sounds like you're headed down the right path. I went from stones to a Chef's Choice, to a KO, to a belt grinder, to a knock off Tormek and finally a Tormek... and a paper wheel with FVB's as well.
For me, the only way to achieve the edge I wanted by mechanical means was with a guided system. Edge Pro was great but slow and had some limitations.
Tormek, a couple CBN's and a BESS tester, now I can generate the edges I was looking for...>70 on the BESS, depending on the steel of course.
Good luck on your quest.

Thanks!

BTW: Quest sounds like exactly the right description. It's starting off on an adventure, knowing there will be pitfalls and tragedies, seeking advice from wise sages along the way, while hoping that at some point, there will be understanding and enlightenment.

Bruce