Microtech edge angle

Derek,  I would wait till your sharpening stones are well broken in before attempting to sharpen that knife.  I always start a new knife with the marker and a wide angle at least 20º to determine the “Sweet spot” clamping position.  I use a very fine grit in an attempt to remove just the marker and very little steel.   Be sure to works the entire length of the knife blade, from heel to tip, to help fine tune the knife’s “sweet spot” clamping position.  It may require tilting the knife in the vise, tip up or tip down, to achieve the best clamping position.

After I determine the “sweet spot” clamping position, I record this position in my sharpening log.   Then the next step is to continue with using the marker, reapplying it as necessary, with this same clamping position, to now determine what the knife’s existing bevel angles are.  For this step I also start at a wide angle setting of at least 20º and work down the guide rod angle settings till I’m removing the marker from the entire bevel height; shoulder to knife edge.  (Sometimes I find I need to go wider in angles to match the bevel angles).  I do each knife side independently because the bevel angles may be different from side to side.  The angles you determine will help you to decide what angle you want to profile this knife to…only when your stones are finally fully broken-in.

Derek since you’re using the WE100 with-out the micro-angle adjustment feature,  it will be very hard to match, exactly, your knive’s existing bevel angles.  Here’s a work-around for that.  If you remove the mini”L” bracket knurled knob locking screws from the front side locking position where they screw down into the positioning detents in the square angle bar and screw the knurled knob thumb screws into the rear threaded holes in the mini”L”brackets.  The screws will not have the positioning detents to lock into, just the flat bar.  This will allow for you to slide the mini”L”brackets freely and lock their positions wherever you choose.  This will allow for a wider range of angle selection then just those angles designated with the detents in the front of the square bar.

If you determine you like the results of the work-around.  I suggest you un-mount your WE100 from your base.  Then disassemble the square angle bar, flip it around so the detents are orientated to the rear, then reassemble and re-mount your WE100.  This will make access to the flat square bar from the front to allow for the free selection of gross angle positions.  By slightly sliding the micro”L”bracket along the square bar you’ll have unlimited selection of angle positioning, similar to that afforded by the WE120 model, with the micro-angle adjustment feature.  This will do you till the time you decide you may want to invest more in the system and upgrade your model.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Brewbear