INFORMATION

THE EDGE PRO ACCESSORIES:
The Water Stones are very different from the Japanese water stones that most people are familiar with. These are Aluminum Oxide and Silicone Carbide. They are much harder than the Japanese Stones so they maintain their shape and they don't clog up like oil stones. The Ceramic is capable of finishing the edge and bringing back the edge over and over again to reduce the number of times you will need to sharpen the knife, therefore lengthen the life of the knife. The Polish Tapes are Strips of Mylar sticky back tape that are coated with Aluminum Oxide. They will produce a shaving edge and a mirror finish in minutes. The Diamond Stones & Polish Tapes are used for Ceramic knives. Some customers do use the diamond stones on their very hard custom knives over 60 Rockwell. We do not recommend diamond stones for most knives because they are too soft. The diamonds sink into the steel, the steel surrounds the diamond and won't hold it. So, The diamonds are pulled off the plate quickly. On the harder materials the diamonds just run along on the points and are undisturbed. The instructional video is demonstrated utilizing the Professional Model edge Pro. However, The sharpening Instructions are Compatible with the Apex Model. It is available in DVD or VHS/ PAL Tape Format. 22 Minutes in Length. For assistance in choosing which accessories will best suit your sharpening needs, Please contact us. ' To Clamp Or Not to Clamp ' There is no clamp. when you first start using the machine you will grip the knife very tight. This is not necessary but you have to sharpen 10 or 15 knives before you can teach your hand to relax. Then you just need a small amount of pressure on the back of the blade to keep the stone from lifting it. You do switch hands to do the opposite side and it does not create any angle change. You will find on most knives you sharpen for the first time, that the bevel is not the same on both sides, this is very easy to fix with the Edge Pro. You will find, if you get a Edge Pro, that the clamp is the problem with all the other systems. It severely limits the size and shape of the knives you can sharpen. You can't do serrated knives, double edges, very large or small blades, flexible knives, and any knife that does not have a flat surface for the clamp. These systems also limit the angles you can sharpen at. The Edge Pro Systems have infinity variable angles ( Apex 10 to 37 degrees). This means you can set the machine to exactly match the angle on any knife. I have machines out there that are 15 years old and have sharpened over 1/4 million knives and are still going.

LIFE SPAN ON STONES
The stones have very different life spans depending on the grit. The coarse will do 30 to 40 knives but you will seldom use a coarse in regular sharpening. You need it to refurbish a old worn knife or to dramatically lower the bevel on a thick knife. You start most knives with the Med-fine 220. They will do 150 to 250 knives. No one has ever gotten a count on the 320 or 600 because that last so long, you just lose count. The polish tapes will often only do one knife especially when you are learning to use them. Once you get the feel of them you can get 2 or 3 knives from one tape. We use the tapes on hairstyling shears, wood carving tools, and on any knife that will be used to cut hard material like wood or plastic. The polished edge does not work well on kitchen knives because it is to smooth. The micro serrated edge you get from the stones works much better on kitchen knives. We finish the edge with a 1200 grit ceramic steel which leaves just enough micro serration to allow the edge to be very aggressive but so much that it sticks in the cutting board. You can re-sharpen the knife 10 to 15 times with the ceramic before you need to go back to the machine and re-sharpen the knife and you only need to use the ceramic once every 2 or 3 weeks in a home kitchen. So over time you take very little metal off of the knives. If you have an evenly pressured stroke and you straighten your stones, as soon as they get uneven, they will last longer.

POLISH TAPES
The polish tapes are used to put a mirror finish on the edge. We use them for hair styling shears and wood working tools and a lot of my custom knife customers use them just because it looks so cool but they do not work well on a kitchen knife. You need some micro serration on the edge for the knife to instantly drop through the skins on vegetables. The polished edge is perfectly smooth and just wants to slide. We recommend the diamonds for hard blade sharpening, you just have to resist the urge to use them on your softer knives or they will wear out very fast. I only stock the fine and super fine diamonds, the coursed ones wear out so fast, it isn't worth buying them. The last diamond we tested was a DMT Industrial Super Coarse, it lasted for 10 knives and it was completely smooth and it never came close to cutting as fast as our coarse. Nothing I have ever found, cuts faster than our coarse. If you get one of our fine diamonds, you will think it cuts faster on the first few knives. Them it will dramatically drop back to a finer cut. I have the diamonds, primarily for ceramic knives and if you use diamonds on just ceramic or carbide, they will never wear out. Knife steel is just to soft for them to deal with. When you use a diamond on ceramic, the diamonds run along on the points and the bond is never disturbed. When you use them on a knife, the diamonds sink into the steel, the steel raps around the diamond and the bond wont hold it. That is why, on all the discussion groups on the web, when anyone talks about using diamonds on knives, they always tell you to use as little pressure as possible, to make the diamond last longer. However I do have some customers that are using them on their knives over 60 Rockwell, just to cut the bevels in. I still don't like to use diamonds to do finish work with. They just leave to much burr for you to have to clean off of the knife.