Knife Support

Bill,
Two supports should be adequate for most knives to keep them straight and prevent most oscillations as the paddles are used. What is really needed is to have the ability to move the paddle pivots front to back along the knife to find the best compromise of paddle arc to knife curve. Such a device would also be great for long knives. I have a couple of sketches of things to try along this line, but haven’t made any prototypes yet.

What I’m presently trying to do is make a track for the vise that bridges over the bar that holds the paddle rods; which is not that hard until I start to figure how to move two knife supports along one plane while keeping the relative alignment of the paddles and make it thin enough right to left that the width of my bridge doesn’t affect the ability to obtain a narrow sharpening angle.

Here is a picture of my present secondary knife support.
In reality the Wicked Edge System is a work in progress and all of the feedback by real users on this forum has spawned some amazing upgrades. But even so it is the best all around sharpening system available. It is a very versatile system that lends itself to all sorts of modifications. Just spend some free time reading through the forum for all sorts of innovative ideas and advice, you won’t be disappointed. Feel free to make your own mods and post pictures.

Bill,
I dusted off an old sketch and redrew it using a ruler to make it a little more legible. Feel free to use anything you can. The thought was to use an aluminum channel about the width of the WE riser block and support it from some plastic blocks at both ends so that the 5/16″ square bar that holds the rod pivots would go underneath and be supported at both ends rather than the center [maybe a fitted plastic block in the center to support it and dampen any motion]. Hopefully I can figure out how to make the ends of the bar move up and down so I can put my angle cube on the bar and compensate for a knife not clamping vertically. My best prototype method of making the channel immobile was to just make a couple of bars that would screw down with allen fasteners using the existing hex wrenches.
Tapped holes along the channel would allow a wide variety of mounting locations for the Ram Mount system ball and socket items I already use.
I am lucky that a friend gave me a large chunk of micarta for a base and I can drill and tap anywhere I like; otherwise I would probably find a large chunk of aluminum.

Bill,
I already have a stick of 5/16″ key-stock that I bought at Fastenal for about $3 to use with no holes in the middle. I have turned the bar around and don’t use the detents; I don’t want to make any irreversible changes that may affect my going back to the original. I already have some 1/8″ thick extruded aluminum channel and was thinking of making the first set of blocks out of hardwood for cost and ease of making them on my table saw until I’m sure of the design v.s begging friends to use their milling machines. I prefer the hold down straps over the slots you have drawn because they will take up less room and will not cause torsional weaknesses. Also the slots may interfere with the use of the Ram Mount ball and socket auxiliary support items whereas if the surface is free, I can drill and tap almost anywhere.

It’s still a work in progress and I find it fun to build things. What I really want to do is to make a steel vise that is as tall as the WE with the riser block and the low angle extension only about 50% wider and using 4 clamp screws to allow a better grip on tapered [handle to tip] blades. I’m thinking leaf springs would torsion enough to accommodate most blades and the arc of the spring may be helpful to concentrate the clamping forces.
Good luck with your modifications.
–Gregg

Bill,
Two supports should be adequate for most knives to keep them straight and prevent most oscillations as the paddles are used. What is really needed is to have the ability to move the paddle pivots front to back along the knife to find the best compromise of paddle arc to knife curve. Such a device would also be great for long knives. I have a couple of sketches of things to try along this line, but haven’t made any prototypes yet.

What I’m presently trying to do is make a track for the vise that bridges over the bar that holds the paddle rods; which is not that hard until I start to figure how to move two knife supports along one plane while keeping the relative alignment of the paddles and make it thin enough right to left that the width of my bridge doesn’t affect the ability to obtain a narrow sharpening angle.

Here is a picture of my present secondary knife support.
In reality the Wicked Edge System is a work in progress and all of the feedback by real users on this forum has spawned some amazing upgrades. But even so it is the best all around sharpening system available. It is a very versatile system that lends itself to all sorts of modifications. Just spend some free time reading through the forum for all sorts of innovative ideas and advice, you won’t be disappointed. Feel free to make your own mods and post pictures.

I like that a lot. Sharpening a sword would be so much easier.