Re: Knife Sharpening
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Oneshotman</div><div class="ubbcode-body">What do you guys use to sharpen your blades? I have sent a few to Steve Woods and he does a heck of a job just wondering how i can get the same result at home? Any one use a electric sharpener or just the old school stone and oil idea? Mainly have a few folders and a good collection of woods fix blades and other fix blade stuff. </div></div>
I just wanted to update this thread since I was talking about getting a Wicked Edge sharpener. It arrived this past week and I mounted it to a board today. All I can say is that it is everything they advertise it to be. I ended up getting the kit and also ordered the ultra course (50-80), extra fine diamond (800-1000) and ultra fine (1200-1600) ceramic stones as well as the 14/10 micron and 5/3.5 micron strops. I spent a couple hours reprofiling and sharpening the edges on all my pocket knives this afternoon. It takes a little bit of getting used to, but if you take it slow you will absolutely get a scary sharp blade, SCARY SHARP! No way I'd ever be able to do that by hand. Now I know what "hair popping" sharp really is and am missing the hair from my wrist to about 6"s up my arm because of it, the hair actually "pops" right off instead of shaves off. You can take one light stroke down you arm with the knife and it will literally make a hairless stripe down your arm with no effort! You don't have to "shave" at it, just one light stroke and it's gone. Right now, the extra fine and ultra fine stones are on back order, I imagine when I get them it will make it just that much better. I was going through the different grits of diamond from 50-80-100-200-400-600 and then jumping all the way to 14 micron strop down to the 3.5 micron strop, that's a pretty big jump going from 600 grit to 14 microns. The stones on back order should make a better transition to the strops than 600 grit. I liked the idea and decided to take a chance that it was what they claimed it to be, hoped it would be of good quality. I was pleasantly suprised at the quality, it's a very well thought out and built peice of equipment. It does take a little bit of time to sharpen up a blade if you go through all the different grits, but I imagine that after having set the angle on my kinves I doubt I'll ever have to go below the 800 grit stone to bring the edge back to razor sharp. Had one booboo with my 3.5 micron strop, I was moving the left hand strop along the blade and moving the right hand strop back to start another stroke when I got too close to the blade with the right hand strop and cut into the leather. Didn't put any pressure on it at all and it cut about 3/8" deep into the strop! I'd never really given much thought to the stropping process, but now that I've done it I've been made a believer. It takes it from very sharp to scary sharp and really polishes up the edge. Only thing I'm not a fan of is the compound. It comes with maybe 1cc of each compound which should last a pretty long time but it's fairly expensive for the amount you get. I'm going to look into other compounds on the market and see if there is something better for the money as far as the compound goes even if it's not the exact same grit. My verdict would be that it is expensive, yet worth every penny. I spent $445 on everything, and that is buying via one of WE's vendors who sells cheaper than you can buy from the company themselves. I highly reccomend!!