Different angle on each side

Welcome to the forum Craig.  Please share with us which model W. E. Sharpener you are using.

The situation you are describing sounds like the blade lean seen with the “Standard Vises”.

The WE100 uses the Standard Vise.  It is comprised of two triangles.  The left side triangle is fixed and stationary while the right side triangle floats and is connected with a horizontal screw to the left side.  Most knives are shaped like a tall narrow triangle.  When the knife is clamped in the standard vice, with the blade up, the knife side that rests against the left side of the vice fits flat against it and leans or cants the knife to the left, as the right side vise is drawn closer to hold and secure the knife between the two vise sides.  This blade lean is seen in the sharpened knife edge as taller bevels on the left and shorter bevels on the right side.

Read this old forum thread, completely.  It will help you to understand the issue you are experiencing.  Your vise model, WE100, is the most basic function model, and it doesn’t have the micro-fine angle adjustment feature.

The best I can suggest to you to correct the angle settings, in order to correct for the blade lean with your model, is to decrease the left side angle setting one degree and increase your angle setting one degree on the right guide rod.  So if your setting the angles off your Square angle bar markings. if you want a 20 degrees bevel angle, set the left rod at 19 and the right rod at 21.  These leaning errors you see correspond to each knife and the corresponding error correction will change with the individual knife geometry.  Try the one degree correction first.  If the bevels still appear to be uneven in height, you may need to use a 2 degree each side correction factor.

Craig, the second issue you described with the knife tip and the heel not being reached with the sharpening stone is a knife placement issue in the vise.  The position that should give you the most complete edge contact across the entire knife’s length is called “the sweet spot”.  For that I suggest you read the top thread on the forum.  It will help you to learn how to better position your knives for sharpening efficiency and blade coverage.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 7 months ago by Marc H.

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NotSharpEnuff, Organic

If you determine that the issue is not caused by the blade leaning in the clamp then you may need to pay more attention to how much you are working each side. If you work the right side more than the left side then it will have a wider bevel even if the bevel angles are identical. The bevel widths can be evened out by working on the small side exclusively until the two bevels become even.

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Marc H

All knives that are ground like a triangle that slope in to the tip from the spine up will cant or lean left in the Standard Vises.  Only a knife ground with parallel/vertical sides above the spine or a parallel vertical patch in the center of the knife’s sides, (like a double edged knife) where its is positioned and clamped in the vise, will not lean.   That being said, most knives lean.

To get a response from Wicked Edge I suggest you submit a service ticket or call them up.  W.E. doesn’t necessarily keep current or stay involved with issues dealt with in this forum.