Awaiting the Pro 11 bundle

[Leo Barr]

I have been sharpening knives as a professional side line for a couple of years for bars, restaurants & luxury yachts.
To date the principle tool has been an Edge Pro which is a great tool once it is further refined with a drill stop collar which allows for rapid adjustment allowing for different thickness stones & an angle cube I think anyone using this tool seriously need these additions.
The cons of the system are that the blade can become scratched on the table it produces a lot of mess (black hands) and the stones often need to be flattened although all stones need this process.
On a commercial basis if the knife needs any real work it takes around 20 minutes per knife and at between 5-8€ per knife this is just not enough of a margin considering wear on stones etc.
It is a good system for scissors & odd blades so I shall still use it.
I also use a Syderco for serrated blades such as Leatherman or bread knives.
Another machine I use is a Tormek which I find is difficult to use for knives but is good for chisels or if a knife has a big hollow near the handle I use the black stone to remove the hollow and occasionally withe the Japanese stone wheel which is 4000 grit I will polish secondary bevels. The leather wheel is good for finishing a knife.
I have also learnt to convex sharpen on a mouse pad with fine grit paper going up to 2000 although I have not found the finer stuff jewellers use .
The point I am making is that al systems have their strong points and to be totally professional at what I do I believe the Wicked Edge will increase productivity it is or appears to be way more user friendly and adheres to the princibles of not de-tempering steel which true high speed grinding wheels & belt sanders can do (if sparks are flying the steel is been damaged great before the tempering process but not after).
The Wicked Edge will become my principle tool and it also appears that there is less room for error over the Edge Pro although having gained experience on the Edge Pro the transition over to the Wicked Edge should be virtually seamless.
The engineering of the Wicked Edge appears to be of a very high standard provided it is kept clean since it sounds like any tool if it is to work well it needs to be kept as clean as possible.

Now I shall have to play the waiting game having placed the order yesterday and then allowing for the Spanish Customs I am just hoping it gets to them before August since Spain goes on a go slower to stop in August

[cbwx34]

Welcome to the forum. Nice post.

The Wicked Edge will soon have its own version of the “drill stop collar” for use with some of the aftermarket stones now available.

Sounds like you have a variety of tools available.

Hope you get your WE soon! Keep us posted!

Thanks.

[Leo Barr]

The drill stop- collar on the Edge Pro works fantastically -simple idea without it once I got as far as the sharpening tapes in-spite of working them in a honing direction to begin with often as soon as I worked them they would end up been cut by the blade but with the drill stop collar this was no longer a problem the variation in stone thicknesses after using them for a while is considerable may be more than 2mm which obviously equated to an angle difference probable +/- 1-2Ëš .
I shall definitely be getting the collars for the Wicked Edge since I can imagine that after a time the Chosera stones & the ceramics will vary .

I also read on one of the posts that someone suggested cutting fingers off rubber gloves to act as gaiters for the ball joints it occurred to me that a much neater solution would be the shrink wrap wire covers (they come in various colours ) you get in electrical stores simple shrink to fit with a hair dryer or heat gun ; although in reality cleaning the tool throughly after use is probable a better solution . Cleaning as you go is always best!
Since it is a high precision tool and swarth will do a lot of damage perhaps a small brush and a strong magnet may be the way to go ; oh dear yet another thing to add !

[cbwx34]

I think most of your ideas are in use, except for maybe the shrink wrap (don’t recall that one)… I’ve opted for just keeping them clean. 🙂

Since you’re a Tormek user, you might find their new small knife holder of interest… works well on the Wicked Edge also.

[Leo Barr]

[

Thats interesting although for the Tormek I made a copy of someones coined HK-50 homemade knife rest so I could do good secondary bevels but in general I find it is better for truing a blade (that has a steeled hollow just forward of the handle)before proper sharpening on currently my Edge Pro.

My version used off the shelf aluminium the same width as the wheel but I must say I can see a justification of getting Tormek’s small knife jig since it adds more capability to the Wicked Edge.
Its always good to be able to say yes to a client I can do it !

[DARRELL ALLEN]

Welcome to the forum Leo…………..I also just recently purchased the Pro Pack II and have added stones and strops already, and I’ve only sharpened about 9 knives so far.

Having said that, I think you are going to be most impressed with the WES when you get it…….the clamp design and the repeatability for touch-ups is what sold me………I’ve been sharpening knives for as long as I can remember, using several systems, but this one I truly believe, is the best out there.

A comment about your suggestion of the heat / shrink wrap over the arm ball joints………we use a lot of that stuff here at work, and I personally think if you use that, that the heating / shrinking process is going to limit your range of motion on the arms severely….that stuff contracts and actually hardens when you heat it.
I found something at Lowe’s yesterday made by Dupont that I am hoping will work pretty good……it is a Teflon lubricant that goes on wet, but then dries and seals / forms a protective coating over what you put it on. I am going to try this out and I’ll let y’all know how it works.

[Leo Barr]

I obviously haven’t tried the shrink wrap tubes since I am waiting for the WE although I was thinking that if you just shrunk the potion that sits on the rod screening the rest it may work.
Cleaning I think is the way ahead there are good spray lubes used in the yachting industry for high tech roller bearings both Harken & Lewmar would possible be the brands to look at since the sea is just about the most hostile environment on the earth’s surface if it works there I am sure it will work well on a WE.

One of the main things reading about the WE is the fact that once a burr is attained on the first abrasive it is not to feel for it on subsequent grades plus doing both sides minimises this . The other point I have picked up on is to use some high power magnification to check the sharpening process; I can see this should aid in not removing too mush steel to sharpen ; something possible that I may be guilty of with the Edge Pro (always trying to give the best edge). I have ordered a good hand led magnifier. I could find none below 60+€ in Mallorca ;Amazon wont deliver them to my shipping address since I imagine they are either direct from China or USA.
I found a pocket microscope 60x mag with led on “chefsknivestogo ” I have bought a drill stop collar and an angle cube before . Even the postage from them makes the purchase of the microscope cheaper by quite a margin than anything I can get here.

I look forward to the drill stop collars for the WE which are in the pipeline they are an absolute necessity on the Edge Pro something that I feel should be included in the package and something that is probable equally important for the WE when using different mediums or Choseras.

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