Excellent video! Best explanation of the plateau method I've seen. Well done!

Awesome Jef. Comprehensive and thorough walkthrough. I hope someday I can freehand like you do. 🙌

Cliff Stamp approves of this! :-) Great video!

A couple scenarios: 1. You did not grind enough metal from the belly towards the tip on the coarser stones so micro bevel was not fully formed in this part of the edge. 2. You formed a burr on the 400 stone and did not manage to cut it off on the Washita. 3. You formed a burr while microbeveling. I can suggest replacing the 400 grit stone with soft muddy 320 suehiro or other soft muddy stone up to 1000 King then micro bevel on the washita or Black arkansas. Btw. beautiful Washita stone you have there - mine unknown is coarser and less pure - it cuts very fast for what it is but your should be able to put edges like modern hard norton / dan's. Have a nice day. Practice makes exelens.

Thanks for showing this method Jef. I didn't know about it until now.

Sometimes I have the same problem. When it happens and I'm trying to avoid it, whether I'm using a diamond plate or whatever I put a slurry down on the stone I'm using to microbevel.

you also should consider the grit rating on your last stone, that`s why I said strop on stone then on news paper, if the stone isn`t fine enough, As for the chefs steel this only straightens the blade edge back straight, a wobbly blade won`t cut,

An oldie but still gold

There is another thing you can try, but be for you do is the knife got the same contour ` get your thumb on one side and your finger the other either side of the blade just below the spine, and run them down from the spine to the edge of the blade so thumb and finger meet at the bottom, so your running them down vertical so they Bothe meet at the bottom, some knives are thicker one side and flatter the other side, if slight difference the angle on one side has to be steeper raised than what you do the other, to sharpen But I bet this will work once you finish honing, on your last stone after honing start stropping your blade on the same stone, this will give you the cutting edge your looking for, Let me explain, when you drive the blade forwards on the stone it cuts into the metal leaving some parts removed and some not so much, even when going down to a small grit it will still look like a saw teeth under magnification, now if the blades metal is not of very high quality the segments of metal that were taken away would be more than you thought, and if the stone is not of great quality or if the grit size is not fine enough you will be left with the issue you seem to be having, By stropping the blade so you no longer cut into the stone you pull the knife along the stone backwards , you no longer carry on chipping into the edge ,you actually start thinning the metal out and it gives a straight smoother edge, what happens is the high points of the teeth get flattened out thinner first and come away then as they get shorter they level up with the shallower ones ,then all the edge in one go gets thinner at virtually the same time, So strop after each stone ,so first stone hone then strop a little `second stone hone then strop little` then last stone hone then strop a little more and try that i think you will be pleased, Then every time you use the knife give it a couple of strops on a steal ,so go back wards with the knife on a steal keeping the correct degrees and this will give back the edge every time within a few strokes it will be like a razors edge but not as weak, Good look I always do my knives this way works great without fail, the cheaper knives take a little longer to do, to cheap of a knife then just throw away, this will give such a fine edge ,blunt faster but just do as i said on the steal.

when you come to the curve about an inch from the end` or heading towards the point of the knife raise the knife up more so you get the bevel all the way, when you cut the paper you could see it was nearly tearing it when going down with the knife in part, when it does that you will know where the problem is on the knife, look at the paper where it cuts rough ,Remember to angle the knife higher on the curve

I’m probably talking out of my ass when I say this but I think this may be easier to do with high carbon/ high hardness knives. I have a perfect knife for you to try it on but it’s my precious lol and expensive. I don’t trust mail carriers enough either. I wanna see you beat this though. I keep hitting substantial milestones and often it’s just the flavor of the day: right knife, right abrasive, etc. Keep on keepin on man- Joe Dirté

Hey Jeff, i always sucked at microbeveling hard. I always got a nice burr when I tried it and it would only shave on one side and not at all on the other. Granted I use three step sharpening, not plateau. But still, I finally got it right when I actually stopped trying hard and just casually swung the knife over the stone. :D The trick for me is to only actively hold the higher angle, let's say 15 degree microbevel on 10 degree edge bevel for the very first pass on each side. That is with just the weight of the knife. After that, I stop to search for the microbevel angle. I place the knife on the stone very lightly and then I move it diagonally over the stone while not applying any DOWNWARD Pressure!!! That is the most important part. You want to hold the knife with a very lose hand so that as soon as you move the knife forward and across (I.e. diagonally) the knife tilts forward until it hits the microbevel, then can't tilt further because the apex is there and starts to slide on the microbevel. That now gives me tree topping after microbeveling on a 600 grit dmt. It can also help to think about pushing the knife forward with a generous wrist sweep while pulling it across the stone. The most important part is, all force vectors are forward, the knife needs to find the microbevel trough skipping forward. It's way to hard to actively find that tiny of a bevel for every microbeveling pass. Maybe that helps, try it out. Look at Stefan wolf videos or Cliff stamps. They place the knife on the stone lightly, then they start to move and you can see how the first thing that happens is the blade tilting until it then starts to slide over the stone.

Owe yes forgot to say you need to take a lot more metal away from the thickness of the knife , The bevel it looks to thick, the thinner the knife the sharper the knife will be.

Interesting, but think I'll stick with burr sharpening. Still trying to perfect my technique, but still need practice. Enjoyed the video.

Clear explanation and demo Jef. I've not tried this technique myself as yet... I'm interested to know more about your burnt edges comment? Btw I've been getting my best ever edges on my kitchen knives of late 😁

Is that what you call it? I find myself “plateau” sharpening mostly out of necessity for removing stubborn burrs! Some steels, after all stone progressions and even when stropping, just flips the burr from side to side, so I return to my hard black dan’s and raise my angle slightly and sharpen a few light strokes, then back to strop and that stubborn burr is behind me! Am I taking the lazy route?Thanks for the video!

Could be the camera angle but it looked like you used a much steeper angle on the back stroke than the forward stroke on the rough stones...?

So that thing that held the stone was interesting, what was it exactly? Look I use several different methods to sharpen knives depending on what the knife my clients give me, different knives and different grinds along with different steels need different techniques, usually I use a wicked edge system and take my edges to the equivalent of fifty thousand grit, a true polished edge, I can slow cut very soft paper and dial in the angle I want, I don’t really see how your system is an advantage, but I am keen to learn, I only freehand Scandi edges.

Jef, nice work. Maybe give the 3-Step Sharpening Method a few tries first, when that is easy try the Plateau Method, as it is basically an outgrowth of the 3-Step. With Plateau Sharpening, you need to do 2 to 3 time as many microbevel passes as you would with the 3-Step, and also try some spot sharpening at the tip of the knife, as that never seems to get enough passes for some reason. (edit) PS: I usually burr sharpen, unless I am having issues with the steel of a knife. I find burr sharpening to be a little easier to do.

Did you strop it after completing? Maybe a good strop on some 4 micron cbn spray would slick her up? You did way better than I can do. I suck terribly at micro bevels.

So do u apex with original angle on high grit or only do a few more passes and apex on the micro?

I always sharpen to a burr so cant help with plateu sharpening there. If is remember correct even as good as a sharpener jon broida is he said that plateu sharpening was next to impossible without getting any kind of burr. You will in my eyes always create a burr no matter how small it is. On the microbevel though its just getting the pressure down to minimum kissing the stone at least for me it was. I always sharpen very very low to a burr then refine on all the stones and then on the finest/last stone i raise the angle to about 15 and lay the microbevel just a few licks on each side. Havent tried microbeveling on anything other than japanese water stones so cant say if it is the stones or you sorry mate.

Its not the knife its that crap magazine paper lol. Read My last to comments and you should nail it. and after stropping on the stone like I explained on the other comments below ,if you want it even sharper strop om news paper it has a form of fine abrasive in it,

Surely a strop would just finnish it. Or am i not getting the point. That'll not be a first. Lol🤣🤣🤣