What am I doing wrong?

Greetings. I’ve been lurking on this forum for awhile, but haven’t done any posting. But I have a problem getting my knives sharp with my WE unit.

Here is the issue: The problem is that the guide rods are at different angles to the knife, even though the guide settings on each side are identical. The result is uneven bevels, and knives that are not sharp. I’ve had my WE unit for a couple years, but, at times, the results have been less than satisfactory. Not sure what I’m doing wrong.

For example, for my fishing fillet knives I set the rods at 22 degrees on both sides. When I’m done, the bevel on the left side (with the knife in the vice) is very narrow and smooth. However, the bevel on the right side is much wider, and is rough because the burr has not been eliminated. And the knife is not nearly as sharp as it should be. This tells me the stones are not hitting the knife at the same angle, so I’m not eliminating the burr. But I’m not sure why since the settings are identical (22 degrees). As anyone with a WE knows, setting the correct angle is the critical step to getting a sharp knife.

Last month, I was at the Pacific Northwest Sportsman’s Show (Portland, OR). I talked with Kyle at the WE Booth. I brought one of my fillet knives to him as an example of the problem. After examining the knife, he quickly came to the same conclusion: the stones are not hitting the knife at the same angle. He put my fillet knife in his WE unit, and within a few minutes it was razor sharp. It was a lot sharper than I can get with my WE unit. I’m not sure if the problem is my unit, my sharpening technique, or how I mounted it (granite base).

So I measured the distance from the base of the vice to the end of the settings bar. It was identical on both sides of the vice. So I eliminated that as the problem. I tried setting the guide rods at differing angles, with some success. For my fishing knives I set the left side at 22 degrees and the right side at 24 degrees. That seems to help somewhat, but I’m just guessing. Sometimes I guess wrong, and the knife comes out duller than when I started (because the burr is still present) even after going through 100/200, 400/600, 800/1000, two ceramic stones, and two leather strops.

This doesn’t seem to be as much of a problem with my Wusthof kitchen knives. It’s still a problem, just not as bad. However, these knives are considerably wider. My 8-inch cook’s knife is about three inches wide at the bolster, whereas the fillet knives are about an inch or so at the handle. Not sure why a wider knife would be different, but it seems to be.

Any suggestions on how to correct the problem of the guide rods being at different angles even though the settings are the same? I’m hoping someone else has had this issue, and it’s been successfully resolved…….