Almost Sold

Craig, welcome to the Wicked Edge Forum.  I looked up your Helvie wood carving knives.  These are unlike most knives that are clamped and sharpened with a WEPS.  Besides the wood handles being un-uniform, the blades are quite small.  I’m not sure this is the best tool for you to use on these small wood carvers.  If most of the knives you want to sharpen are of this type, style or fashion,  it will certainly require an adapter like the Tormek Small Knife holder.  If that’s the case I wouldn’t think you need anything more elaborate then the WE120.  Afterall you’ll be clamping the adapter in the jaws.  All the adjustment will be made in the way you tighten the knife handle in the jig.

With the Tormek Small Knife adapter the knife can be positioned out in front of the WE vice so low angles should be easily attainable.

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Organic

Organic explains in the current “Benchmade 580” thread that the Tormek adapter has some shortcomings and he’s correct.  First is the fact that mounting a knife in the Tormek clamp with the edge perfectly vertical can be difficult.  This is a problem because you’ll need to very carefully use the Sharpie method to make sure you’re reaching the apex on both sides.  With the WE130 clamp, you can be sure to achieve verticality and know that the angles you recorded at the last sharpening are going to do the job.  With the Tormek. you can achieve a consistent included angle, but any clamping error off of vertical will cause you to remove more metal than should be necessary.  Not a small thing where the blade is already very small.  That having been said, with a little practice, you can get pretty close to vertical by eye-balling the blade as you clamp it.

The second problem I’ve found with the Tormek adapter rears its ugly head when you find that the knife has a less-than-tight pivot joint.  The blade will move off-center as you work the stones along the edge.  I compensate by backing up the blade with pressure applied with my opposite index finger.  Not a problem with the Helvie carving knives.  I’ve sharpened at least two compact Victorinox “Swiss Army” knives, where the small blade is probably less than an inch (25mm) long and maybe 7mm wide.  Each had rather loose pivot joints, but with the WE, the TSKA and my opposite-hand index finger, it was a breeze.

I don’t want anyone to think that I recommend against the TSKA but rather the opposite.  I just want those considering the purchase should know what to expect at the outset.  I think everyone willing to invest in the high-end product that WE makes should have this tool in their kit.  It solves a lot of issues around odd-ball knife configurations.

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Organic