What exactly was the issue for you? Does the Cold Steel Rajah III have a full flat grind and was it a problem to get it stable?
Actually, CS says the edge is hollow ground but it looks to me to be a FFG. The spine is a very thick 1/8″ and tapers quickly and smoothly down to the edge and tip. The thick spine and quick taper made it difficult to position correctly in the vise. The foam tape method would not fill in enough of the gap at the top of the vise to position it properly. I kept getting a variance of up to 1 degree (on either side) depending on how I tried to reposition it. With the draw liner, I got closer … but finally settled on a half degree variance.
I’ve had that issue with a Spyderco knife. I had a problem with non-sticky foam tape as well, because it was more difficult to position. How did you do this?
It was much easier for me with the foam pre-wrap. First I taped down the edge of the pre-wrap at the spine on each side, then sort of rolled it over a few times to fill in the gap which would be present toward the top of the vise. For this knife, I rolled it over three times. Rather than sliding the knife down into the vise, I inserted it from the side (holding down the pre-wrap as I did this). To my surprise it tightened up at a perfect 90 degrees on first try.
I see you’ve protected your knife with blue tape. I also tape my knife in the area where it is clamped in the vise, but why did you also cover the handle with tape?
I did this to keep any diamond particles and steel out of the pivot area of the knife as 1) the WE is new and the stones have not been broken in and 2) I was pretty aggressive with setting the edge as I had to correct some unevenness I created on my first attempt. I think I will continue to tape up my knives like that since it is quick, doesn’t interfere with the sharpening process, and keeps crud out of the liners and pivot.
