Hello From Northern Utah
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Hi guys, my name is Shane and I am a custom knife maker from northern Utah.
I just got my new WEPS Pro-Pack II plus a couple extra stones and strops in the mail today and spent a couple hours after work playing around with it.
Overall I am very impresses with the sharpener … great design, nice machining with good tight tolerances, and very easy to use. In about an hour I was able to put a nice mirrored edge on a blade that is just insanely sharp. I think once the stones get broke in it will get even better.
I am very happy with the setup except for a couple things … The diamond stones cut great but I am not real impressed with the fine ceramic stones. They don’t look like they are as well made as the diamond ones are. They are thinner than the diamond stones, which slightly changes your sharpening angle, and one end of the stone is thinner than the other end. I think I will pick me up one of the 1500 grit diamonds to use instead. The other thing I am not real happy with is the allen key. It’s a cool design and very handy but not very sturdy. The smaller allen key easily stripped out inside the handle while tightening the sharpener to the base, so it just free spins now. The larger one is also loose inside the handle but still works. Not a real big deal and easily taken care of with a couple of regular allen keys.
While I was waiting for my WEPS to arrive I made a holder out of a chunk of granite for all the paddles and also made a backboard for the granite base for the arms to rest on.
Again, I am very happy with the WEPS and look forward to participating on the forum.
One question I have is how much paste do you put on the strops and how often do you apply it?
Shane
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Welcome aboard Shane! We can always use some new input on this forum and especially from one who is a knifemaker.
I don’t think the robustness of the Allen keys has ever been a question here. I hope that you aren’t applying too much torque. The cap screws use 5/32″ hex wrenches, while the smaller screws use the 1/8″, and the torque required is actually quite low.
One thing that bears repeating here is the amount of force to be applied to the screws in the non-Gen 3 vise (which I see in the photo you have). The upper screw is used only to set the gap between the jaws to approximately match the thickness of the blade at the spine. I tighten mine only enough to keep the blade from falling out. Then the lower screw is used to generate the force needed to securely hold the blade. In most cases, this is only about 1/4 to 1/2 of a turn past contact with the opposite jaw. This is usually enough to pick the vise up by the knife handle, base and all, without moving the blade in the vise. For knives that have unusually slippery surfaces or awkward grind angles, it might be necessary to wrap a small patch of tape around the blade where it clamps in the vise. If you’re cranking hard enough to strain the little Allen key, you’re also over-stressing the screws and their matching tapped holes.
I don’t use strops anymore, but I did use them for a while. I would squeeze out about a quarter inch of the paste and then rub the two faces of strop material against one another to get an even distribution. At first, the paste is squeegied out between the blade and the strop material, giving you the impression that maybe you need to add this much each time. Not so. The paste embeds itself in the strop material and eventually, you’ll find that the abrasive needs replenishment fairly seldom. I didn’t have a long-term experience to share with you, but the amount of paste required is quite small. Hopefully, one of our stropping friends will pipe in here with some real world experience.
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Hi Shiner, welcome to the forum! Great, you like your WEPS. Let me say that the ceramic stones get better with use, but the 1500 diamonds are great. Very nice paddle holder, by the way.
I do use the strop paste, by the way (and wrote a couple of blog posts about them: https://moleculepolishing.wordpress.com/category/stropping/). I sometimes add 1 micron or 0.5 micron spray to the WE diamond paste.
Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge
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tcmeyer thanks for taking the time to reply. The small allen key stripped when mounting the vise to the granite base and I was applying very little pressure when it stripped. In fact the vise was still loose enough to slide around on the base. I had to snug it up with a regular allen key, so the key was probably bad to begin with. Thanks for the info on the strop paste. If you don’t use them anymore, what do you use instead? The lapping films? I’m going to have to get some of those and try them out. Thanks again, Shane
It sounds like the allen key may have been defective. I would venture a guess that if you call Wicked Edge they would be willing to send you a new one.
The stone rack you made is beautiful.
Welcome to the forum!
Hey Shaner – welcome! Organic is right in that we’ll definitely replace the Allen keys for you. Just give us a call: 877-616-9911 or email: support@wickededgeusa.com and we’ll take care of it. It looks like you’re already well on your way to good results and you’re right that your results will continue to improve as your stones break in.
-Clay
Thanks for the help guys!
Thanks for the comments on the paddle rack as well. Pretty simple to make … use a solid carbide bit to drill holes in the granite, add some dowels and you’re done. I think I will also add some holes along the front edge for the pastes to stand up in too. I have room to add 4 more paddles but I suspect I will be running out of room soon and will need to build another one.
Hey Shaner – welcome! Organic is right in that we’ll definitely replace the Allen keys for you. Just give us a call: 877-616-9911 or email: support@wickededgeusa.com and we’ll take care of it. It looks like you’re already well on your way to good results and you’re right that your results will continue to improve as your stones break in.
Thanks Clay (I assume this is Clay but I could be wrong). Like I said above, the key is not a real big deal but since you’re offering I may take ya up on it.
Love the WEPS you’ve designed and it looks like the customer service is great as well!Thanks,
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Hello from Michigan Shaner and Welcome,
I do use strops but they do require some experience and experimentation. Angle, pressure and application all come into play when using them. After I played with them they have their place in my arsenal. I use them to finish a large percentage of my edges.
I would suggest that you don’t store them with your diamond stones though. One stray diamond or even the metal shaving from your stones can easily contaminate them and effect your results with them.
Good luck my friend.
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I just finished making a small Hunter knife and used the WEPS to put a wicked edge on it.
I ground the final primary bevel to a thickness of .008 at the edge and then used the WEPS to make the secondary bevel at 20 dps. I was impressed how fast I was able to get a scary sharp edge put on it and maintain a nice straight even bevel.
Loving my wicked edge
Hey Shaner – welcome! Organic is right in that we’ll definitely replace the Allen keys for you. Just give us a call: 877-616-9911 or email: support@wickededgeusa.com and we’ll take care of it.
@wickededge I sent an email to support about the allen key back on the 16th but never heard back from them. I let them know that I had just placed an order and they could throw the key in with the stuff I ordered to save on shipping costs. I know Blade was going on so figured ya all were probably swamped getting ready for it.
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Thanks guys!
MarcH I mostly stick with the high carbon steels. This one is made with W2 tool steel, which is one of my favorite steels to work with. It’s very durable and holds a great edge.
Another with W2…
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Wow, incredible! Those are among the most beautiful photographs of knives I have ever seen. And knife photographs are only a small part of it… I bookmarked the site and I also love the nature photographs and many others. Shane, you refer to a pbase account on the Internet that should contain more photographs, but I get an error when I click on one of those links.
Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge
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