Step #1 take a black sharpie pen and blacken all of the existing edge bevel, both sides and all the way to what should be the cutting edge. From the handle end (ricasso) of the edge to the very tip of the blade, I want all of it black.

Step #2 Using the 100 grit stone on the left side, scrub the stone up and down, from the base of the edge bevel to the tip of the blade. Cover approximately 2″ per up and down scrubbing motion. Cover the length of the cutting edge 5 times.

Step #3 Check to see (a) if all the black ink is gone all the way to the cutting edge and (b) using your fingernail tip scan the right side of the bevel up from the blade over the edge. Can you feel the wire edge curled over? At this point, it will be obvious if it exists. Yes or no go to step #4

Step #4 Repeat step #3 on the right side of the blade, checking the left side of the bevel with your fingernail. Yes? go to Step #5

No? Repeat steps #3 & #4. Repeat until you get a wire edge rolled over the entire length of the blade on the opposite of each sides after that side is worked.

Step #5 Repeat steps #3 & #4 with the next finer grit. 200, 400, 600, 800, 1000

Caution: Be certain to use the same number of passes on the left and right sides of the blade. This keeps the edge centered on the blade.

Signs of success:

A) all of the ink is removed all the way from the ricasso to the blade tip along the edge bevel to the very cutting edge.

B) wire edge is curled over for the entire length of the blade. If the edge bevel is not curling over the entire length of the blade work on the areas that are not curling over. You are still too thick there. The wire edge is easily felt at 100 grit. As you progress the curled over portion of the edge will be finer and finer. It will take some experience to feel it at 1000 grit.

C) using a bright lamp look for reflections of light at the very point of the cutting edge. You should see none. If you see some shine where the cutting edge should be, work on that area until it is gone.

Tricks of the trade:

The sharpie is trick number one. Very useful to visualize the black ink. If you see it your not done. It must all go away for the edge to be formed.

Use a loupe or visor magnifier to better see the edge detail.

At very fine grit steps, you can put a cotton ball under your fingertip and rub it upwards towards the edge. If there is a wire edge the cotton fibers will catch on the curled over portion of the edge.

Use a piece of leather or suede on blades that have a full flat grind geometry. Because the blade is triangular without flats for the parallel vice jaws to grip we can use the leather/suede to fill the gaps and get a terrific purchase on the blade.

Take your time. Visualize that the edge is completed the full length of the blade and you can feel the wire edge on both sides before moving on in grits. Start rough, get the blade roughed in, then methodically go step by step through the finer grit stones until you have achieved the fineness of edge you desire. I like mine 3 micron or better. You might like 1000 grit or 0.5 micron. This depends on your needs, the function of the blade and your own special desires.

My analysis is that the next step in the process after the 1000 grit diamond stones is the 14 micron diamond paste leather or balsa strops. This mirrors my instinct that came about after sharpening hundreds of knives. Somewhere along the way I noticed that the ceramic stones were not a useful step so I stopped using mine.

I was at a friend’s house last week, she cuts directly on her granite countertops. YIKES! I had just sharpened her chef’s knife a month before. Granite is harder than steel. Never cut on your granite. Ever.

As soon as I scolded her about using granite to dull her sharpened knives she trucked out a glass cutting board. She dices onions on a window! Glass is harder than steel. Never cut on a glass cutting board. Ever!

What should you use? Well the most available and affordable are the high density polyethylene (HDPE) ones. HDPE is a tough polymer material that is dishwasher safe and much softer than out steel blades. The only other material that is acceptable is wood. Hardwood or bamboo cutting boards are very nice, but difficult to clean.

I recommend two separate boards. One for meat and poultry. Label it with a Sharpie marker! And, one for vegetables. Two boards allows for a quick switch and minimizes cross contamination.

Hey! Wait a minute. My dinner plates are glass or porcelain. How do I cut my food at the table? In all actuality you will be cutting your food with an unsharpened butter knife. Cooked food is generally very easy to cut. The exception is steaks. This is where a serrated edge shines. On a glass plate a serrate knife skims on the surface on it’s serrated points while allowing the sharpened areas inside the serrations to touch nothing but steak. These sharpened areas dull rather slowly because all they ever touch is meat. By the way, this is and the specialized bread knives are the ONLY situations in which I believe a serrated edge to be beneficial.

In closing; get a couple of HDPE cutting boards and your knives will stay sharp longer.

In December 2010 I get a telephone call from Dr. Dullknives. It turns out Dr. Dullknives is a dentist with a thriving practice and his hobby is to cook for his friends, colleagues and family. His career allows him to “cut no corners” (pun intended). He bought a $1200 set of Henkels Chef knives. Not a normal kitchen set from a department store but a real chef’s set. He loved and used them until they got so dull they were unusable. Mind you, these are a high quality blade with high end steel. The factory edges held up well, but sooner of later every knife needs to be sharpened.

Dr. Dullknives then buys sharpening stones from the local chef supply. Better than nothing but consistent edges are not forthcoming. One time they would be great, the next, not so much. He buys an electronic sharpener, that device mangled the edges badly. He then took them to a professional knife sharpening shop. $160 later his knives were OK but the shop could not fix the worst mangled blades. Flabbergasted, our dear Dr. buys a second set of Henckels. Now he has sharp blades for another year or so.

As that year was nearing to close and he can tell his knives need to be sharpened he sees the Wicked Edge system online and call me for information. I send him links to Clay’s sharpening videos and our Dr. is nearly ready to buy. “Can it fix these mangled edges?” he asks. Then he has an idea. If I will sharpen one of his knives, he’ll pay the postage both ways and if the knives are factory sharp or better he will buy the entire Wicked Edge System!

He send me a 6″ utility knife with a badly mangled bevel. There was a series of evenly spaced gouges from the electric sharpener. OK, I get to work. First I mount the knife in my Wicked Edge and go to town with the 100 grit (100 grit is plenty coarse enough to clean up this edge). In a few minutes I have a knife with a 15° 100 grit finished bevel down the entire length of the 6″ blade. I then go to town getting progressively finer until I have strop polished the bevel with 3.5 micron diamond paste. The bevel is shinier than the blade and cuts better than new. I send it back. I wish I had taken before and after images. It was night and day!

A few days later I get an email with a request for the entire Wicked Edge system with a request for “ongoing training” as needed. I sent him the kit and walked him through one blade. Now the only time I hear from him is if he wants to gift someone a Wicked Edge or when he has made a referral so I can look out for his friend.

My story is similar. Nearly 30 years of exasperation over not being able to restore a knife’s edge. I get versions of this story every week, “I can’t make my knives sharp with other methods, will this work?” Yes! Now go buy a kit!

When you buy from The Sharpener Shop you are buying from a family business. The proceeds go directly to the Solar Family. If you buy Atlas Knife products from us our wholesale purchase benefits the Steffes-Clayton family and especially Atlas himself.

I am proud to offer his products. Welcome aboard Charles!

Below is my homemade hardwood plywood base. I installed a series of aluminum rods at 15° angle to store my stones on. I also added a simple drawer pull for a handle on the “top” edge. Seen in this image is the system hanging on the wall by the handle in my workshop.

One way to mount and store your Wicked Edge.

email your images and caption info to scott dot solar at gmail dot com

Things to consider when choosing a knife sharpener

What kind of precision and sharpness do you require?

If your knife is to be used to open boxes at work and a quick touch-up on the edge once a week is reasonable, then a bench stone for hand held sharpening may be the perfect choice. But if your hunting knife is going to be asked to clean an entire elk in the remote high country where sharpeners are non-existent and a pocket stone simply cannot do the job, a knife sharpening system that can make a precise edge bevel leaving a precise razor’s edge before the hunt is necessary(along with a very hard, high grade tool steel blade). A straight razor needs a nearly perfect fine angled bevel and very smooth edge so as to make for a smooth clean shave. In this case whatever stones that are used should be able to sharpen at a very fine grit finish, perhaps 15,000 or even 30,000 grit. The more rugged clamping system such as Wicked Edge have the upper hand in precision simply because  the blade is solidly held while it is honed. Hand held stones are the worst for precision because it is impossible to maintain precision while sharpening by hand. That said, they may be good enough for certain uses you may have. Of course there are many in between.

What kind of steel are your knives made from?

Generally the steel is chosen to match the job, stainless in the kitchen to avoid rusting of constantly wet blade, tool steel in knives that need to take a lot of abuse. The high quality stainless and tool steels used today can only be sharpened by high quality stones. I prefer diamond stones and strops coated with diamond paste. Some of the man made stones on the market are very soft and cannot remove metal on higher grade tool steels. Others (Shapton and others) are of such fine quality they do an excellent job of putting the very finest edge on any type of steel blade.

What is the blade used for?

Similar to the first segment above. If your blade is used in shipping and receiving, hunting, cooking or chopping the quality of the edge must match your needs.

How big is your blade?

some sharpeners can only do blades up to say 12” well. These generally clamp the blade in a vise and stroke the edge bevel with guided stones. The maximum length of the blade sharpened is related to the length of the stone guides. Think Lansky or Wicked Edge. Others allow for the blade to be relatively stable while allowing it to slide across the sharpener as the edge is refined. Think Edge Pro.

Is your blade double edged or tapering from handle to the tip?

As in very long knives the non-clamping styles are more effective here. The clamps have some trouble centering and holding sufficiently to allow sharpening without shifting the angle of the blade. The clamps excel on knives with parallel faces. The the non-clamping Edge Pro is likely best for tapering and double edged blades.

Convenience of use:

A casual box cutter touched up weekly on a bench stone is the classic example of convenience. Other contraptions can be so complicated to utilize they are not useful. The Wicked Edge while seemingly complicated is very simple to use. Mine is mounted on a plywood base with facility for hanging the entire system (stones included) on a wall in my shop. If I need to sharpen a blade all I need do is take it down and clamp the blade in place.

Price:

You should consider it worthwhile to spend the most you can afford in the class of products that best meet your needs. A Boy Scout with his jigged bone friction folding knife may only be able to afford a combination coarse and fine grit bench stone. As your budget grows so will your collection of the worlds most useful tools, knives and cutlery! Do not forget to upgrade your sharpening tools as well. A knife is simply a letter opener unless it is sharp.

Someone once said, “Only sharp knives are interesting!”

In conclusion, the knife sharpener or knife sharpening system you choose must match as closely as possible your needs as described above. Unlimited budgets are rare, but they make things easy. If you rely on your cutlery for your work; spending more is definitely in order. If your collection includes many longer bowies, kukris and even swords, then a non clamping system such as the Edge Pro Apex may be the best choice. For kitchen knives, EDC blades and most “general use” knives a clamping system is in order. If you can afford it The Wicked Edge is a terrific all around sharpener. Take your time, analyze your needs and make sure your purchase can do what you need it to. No matter how good it is, if it not easy to get out, use and put away it wont be very useful. You’ll have another item to store.

When I started this business of selling knife sharpeners I realized every kitchen in the USA needs one of my products. In reality, if I had a 5% market share I could retire! When I spoke to friends, colleagues and acquaintances I was always asked the same question. But why? Why should I spend $XXX on a sharpening system when everything seems to be fine as it is?

First and foremost is safety. A dull knife requires extra force to get the job done. Simply put, that is dangerous. Pushing too hard to accomplish a cut could cause the hand or blade to slip leaving us with a nasty bloody cut. We all know someone whom has done it, perhaps you have!

Professional chef’s have a service keeping their blades keen. They don’t have time to force a blade through a cut of meat or a case of onions. Worse yet, they can’t afford a trip to the ER for stitches because they cut a hand or finger badly. The solution? Keep the knives sharp, lightly use a steel throughout the work day and when needed send them out for a new edge. The home chef really should be utilizing the same techniques as the pros. With all the many cooking shows, schools and recreational cooking classes many folks seem to understand this. Then why do they have dull knives? Because nobody has taught them they need this, until now.

The next reason to have razor sharp knives is the time saved. A sharp knife will glide through foods exactly as you intend. A dull knife requires more time to saw through the food. Try to dice a ripe tomato with a dull knife for a fresh salsa. Not so much, right? A sharp blade puts that healthy and delicious salsa on the table for you, your family and all your friends. Imagine being asked to bring your “world famous” fresh salsa to potlucks. I do!

One very good reason is the increased quality results in the kitchen. A dull knife may be able to prepare your meats and veggies for an edible result. But wouldn’t you like your food to be more than edible? One of the reasons we like to dine out is the restaurant chef’s food looks much nicer and tastes better. A sharper blade allows a better quality of finished product. Chiffonade, slice, dice, mince, julienne, brunois, batonnet are all terms for styles of slicing vegetables. They make the produce look nice in the dish and deliver better more consistent flavors. While these can only be accomplished with sharp knives, they are easily within reach of the everyday home chef by utilizing sharp kitchen cutlery. Sharpen your kitchen cutlery and enjoy your home cooked meals better!

Save money! Saving money is a terrific reason for keeping your kitchen blades sharp. I see whole chickens on sale for $1.49 a pound, once as low a $0.99 a pound! Or you can spend $2.99 for already prepared wings, $3.99 for legs and thighs and $4.99 a pound for breasts. All of these from the same $1.49 per pound bird. Buy the entire bird and break it down yourself with a freshly sharpened cleaver. Spatchcock by removing the breast keel and the backbone to make a flattened bird that cooks evenly in half the time of a whole chicken. Or, break the carcass all the way down by cleaving the legs/thighs and wings from the body. Save the back and ribs for broth.  Never buy canned chicken broth again, you have it for nearly free from the castoff parts of the whole chicken you bought at bargain prices. Now matter what your path doing some simple butchering yourself saves a ton of money and in fact over the course of a couple years the savings will pay for the deluxe new sharpener!

Now, go buy a sharpener, sharpen your knives and your kitchen will be a happier better place to work.

Any orders placed after noon (PDT) Friday March 30th, will ship on Monday April 2nd.

I will be available for sporadic email communications during this time. Please allow me a day or two to respond as I won’t be at a computer every day. It is likely I will not be able to entertain calls during this week.

Granite Base upgrade update: The manufacturer has encountered a glitch in supply of granite bases. They are not available for the foreseeable future. All orders for Granite will be filled with Quartzstone.  Quartzstone is a very beautiful product and I am sure you will be pleased.

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