Knife Sharpening

After many years of hand sharpening my kitchen knives with varying degrees of success, I finally bought an edge pro to try and get all my knives on the same page. Prior to this I noticed all my knives had very wide bevels due to my haphazard honing angles. So today I am slowly trying to bring the bevels back. Any suggestions on the coarsest stone I can get for the EP?

Also, what does everyone else use on their collection?

 

Lapping film.

 

Try coarse wet dry sandpaper glued to a blank that EP sells.

 

Thanks! I have a glass plate I was going to use for film but never thought of using it for coarse wet/dry. One tracked mind I guess. If not I'll get that plate.

 

If you want coarse, there are diamond stones for the EP. I've used them and they work well to bring a really dull knife back into some sort of shape that will allow the finer stones to be used.

 

So when finishing the edge on a kitchen knife, about what grit is most common to use?

 

Probably 5-6k. On butcher knives I like 2-3k but am silly and will sometimes finish on an 800 and then strop. Single bevels go much higher. I like the lowest I can get away with it gives a more well rounded "forgiving" edge in a pro kitchen.

 

Some guys stop at 220, some go to 12,000 and beyond. As a novice Edgepro user I stop at 600, but I have a 1000 stone.

 

an 8k edge is so smooth... I go 8k on my japanese geometries, 1k possibly 4k on my Sabs- depends on how I'm feeling when I'm sharpening and what I know I will be using them for in the next month or so.

I can get 4-6 weeks of heavy use on a 8k finish on my work knives. When I rotate I, sadly, break out the stones one every three months and usually sharpen before I need to just because I like to.

 

Cool... so with the majority of my cutting being mostly chicken breasts into cubes, and some chopping and dicing of veggies, the 220/1k stone with some stropping could easily be enough, then.

 

Has anyone tried the Chinese sharpeners on Ebay that are blatent knock offs of the Edge Pro? The Apex clone goes for around $25 and the bigger one with the suction stand goes for around $35 to $40. I see that the clamp is simpler and does not have the ramp, but the design seems serviceable.

 

The EdgePro clones are a little less robust than the original, but they work fine.

 

Thanks Bill

 

The stones that come with the EP clones really suck though. Even if you just get stones from EP you are making a huge upgrade to the EdgeFaux set. Also I think Bill is understating the issue when he says they are a "little less robust". The one I got to compare them to the original was WAY less robust. In the first two weeks I had mine I had to do a JB weld repair to a break that made the machine unusable.

The rear bracket on the stone holder broke, it was a catastrophic failure to say the least.

 

Planning of selling my EP in a week or so. Ive got 5 stones in the way and making the plunge into freehanding.

I own an EP with a full set of EP and Chosera stones. PM me when interested and we can work something out maybe.

 

ordered and received one of the Apex clones a couple days ago. sharpened my Kai Nakiri and a Gerber utility knife on it. I can see that it is an acquired skill but the scheme seems to be an improvement over my beloved venerable Lansky. I don't find the included stones to be terrible. I will look at some Edge Pro stones, particularly a coarse one to get the initial bevel right and a more fine one to finish the edge.

Paradox, I can see that block you broke is a weak point in the faux versions. I see in the instructions they warn against tightening the stone too much. I found that it really did not take much tension to hold the stones firmly. I do note that if you are doing a knife that you don't want scarred up, you need to cover the portion that touches the blade table with some tape prior to sharpening. Otherwise moving it back and forth will leave striations on the blade over its full length parallel to the blade edge.

One is faced with these dilemmas. The fake EPs are 1/10 the cost when considering that you get 4 stones with them. (180, 400, 800 and 1500 I think). They are truly blatant copies of the EP design and one must consider that much research and development went into the designs, but is the Faux version 10 times worse than the original. I'd say no. It is perfectly serviceable and with the purchase of a few better stones you are still way ahead.

 

in some pics I've seen a magnifying loop. what power is usefull? I have a 60 to 100 power, but it is too finicky to look at the blade edge. My 2 power binocular magnifier is more useful.

 

I've got a couple of these in my "stuff". Not to strong to be unstable, can see wire edges. But, mistakes look really BIG.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002V10862/ref=oh_details_o01_s01_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

Thanks Dave