I have a bother Steve who is a bit of a dilettante. He likes to dabble in various interesting projects, few of which are completed – a family trait shared with his three brothers and inherited from our late father. Steve is a practitioner of acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine, with a brilliant mind, and you’d never guess that he is smitten by all things mechanical. When Steve saw my Wicked Edge set-up and my intense interest in knife sharpening, his creative mind got to spinning and wondering how he could make his own rig, using hardware he’d accumulated from years of shopping at the nearby Re-home center, where stuff discarded by residents and businesses alike is sent for adoption.
Steve had accumulated a number of linear slide assemblies, some of which he and I had considered for adapting a serrated-edge attachment for my WEPS. Then one day in June, I stopped by to visit and he showed me this rig he had built, which uses the Wicked Edge principle, but on a large scale. He’d used some extruded aluminum rails to produce a structure, attached a pivoting rod with an adjustable mount and fabricated a vise. Mind you, all of this from memories of my WEPS from when he’d seen it two years earlier. I’m quite sure he’s never been to this web site to get more details.
The only stones that he has are rather large DMT plates and an early SharpMaker rig that I’d given to him. Note from the second photo how he’s mounted a Spyderco triangle stone to one of his Thompson ball-bushing linear slides. Of course, in the photo he has all three of his stones mounted on the rod for storage.
Yes, this thing works – and quite well. If the structure were robust enough, I’m sure you’d find that the accuracy of the rod and bearing assemblies would be off the charts. With a properly designed vise, you could sharpen rather long blades with ease – I’m thinking swords for those of you who occasionally meet up with them. The radius is so large that you might be able to do two feet at a time – an advantage in that you wouldn’t need to blend so many surfaces. Axes are also a possibility.
This photo shows an overall view – yes it’s only one sided – for now.
This photo shows how his stones are mounted to the Thompson linear slides
This photo shows Steve stoning one of his wife’s favorite knives.
Of course, this project was done purely for giggles – to prove to himself that he could do it. I think it’s pretty cool.
Wouldn’t ya know – a typo in the title block
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