Can a Wicked Edge sharpen an axe?
- This topic has 28 replies, 13 voices, and was last updated 01/03/2018 at 10:22 am by
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Thanks for re-flagging this thread, Horia. I don’t know whether or not WE is working on an axe-sharpener or not, but I do have an idea that seems to fit.
A few years ago, my smarter brother saw my WE rig and decided to try something home-made. He had a near-by Habitat ReStore which had lots of machinery-related hardware, so he picked up a few parts here and there and made his own version, based on what he could remember about my WE. He had some linear slide parts and extruded aluminum fixture material, so his is floor-mounted. The smallest linear guide hardware was about 1/2″ or 5/8″ in diameter, with circulating ball=bearing slides. He made up his own slide blocks as you’ll see in the middle photo below, attaching the large sharpening stones, as well as one with a triangle stone (from the SharpMaker I had given him) to the slide blocks. It only does one side at a time, but the rig works very well.
It occurs to me that with such a floor-mounted rig, you really wouldn’t need the clamping vise. You could clamp your axe against your bench or in a machinist’s vise, then position the floor section to achieve the angle you want. Maybe the floor-section is mounted to a section of plywood, which you’d stand on to keep it from moving. You could also make up a couple of slide blocks with files, maybe one bastard and the other a mill file. There’s really no limit to the scale of your design.
This first photo shows him working the edge of a chef’s knife mounted in his home-made vise. Sorry for the postage stamp insert. I recovered the photos from a SIM card, so there was no original.
This next photo shows the floor-mount hardware with all of his stones on the rod for storage.
Here’s a wider angle view.
As you can see, this rig took very little effort and expense to build.
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We are still working on it though we’ve totally maxed out the design group and machine shop with all the redesigns we did last year plus the new sharpener. We have the chisel adapter redesigned and waiting prototyping as well as the SWAT jigs. Just need the shop to have more bandwidth. Once we’re smoothly up and running and out of the preorder production for the GOs, development will start to speed up again.
-Clay
Sounds awesome Clay. What is a SWAT jig?
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Sounds awesome Clay. What is a SWAT jig?
SWAT is the new name. VSTA is the original name.  The original design doesn’t line up as well as it should for it’s best effectiveness on the newer style WE sharpeners, thus the redesign.
Marc
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SWAT is the new name. VSTA is the original name.
It’s actually the other way around. Curtis dubbed it the SWAT but our part name is VSTA. A lot of people on the forum, like me, got used to calling it the SWAT jig and haven’t gotten out of the habit.
-Clay
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We are still working on it though we’ve totally maxed out the design group and machine shop with all the redesigns we did last year plus the new sharpener. We have the chisel adapter redesigned and waiting prototyping as well as the SWAT jigs. Just need the shop to have more bandwidth. Once we’re smoothly up and running and out of the preorder production for the GOs, development will start to speed up again.
That will be awesome , because even if out there are a few interesting options like the new “KME Axe Sharpening Fixture” i would prefer to use an axe attachment for my Wicked edge sharpening system.
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Thanks for re-flagging this thread, Horia. I don’t know whether or not WE is working on an axe-sharpener or not, but I do have an idea that seems to fit. A few years ago, my smarter brother saw my WE rig and decided to try something home-made. He had a near-by Habitat ReStore which had lots of machinery-related hardware, so he picked up a few parts here and there and made his own version, based on what he could remember about my WE. He had some linear slide parts and extruded aluminum fixture material, so his is floor-mounted. The smallest linear guide hardware was about 1/2″ or 5/8″ in diameter, with circulating ball=bearing slides. He made up his own slide blocks as you’ll see in the middle photo below, attaching the large sharpening stones, as well as one with a triangle stone (from the SharpMaker I had given him) to the slide blocks. It only does one side at a time, but the rig works very well. It occurs to me that with such a floor-mounted rig, you really wouldn’t need the clamping vise. You could clamp your axe against your bench or in a machinist’s vise, then position the floor section to achieve the angle you want. Maybe the floor-section is mounted to a section of plywood, which you’d stand on to keep it from moving. You could also make up a couple of slide blocks with files, maybe one bastard and the other a mill file. There’s really no limit to the scale of your design. This first photo shows him working the edge of a chef’s knife mounted in his home-made vise. Sorry for the postage stamp insert. I recovered the photos from a SIM card, so there was no original.
This next photo shows the floor-mount hardware with all of his stones on the rod for storage. Here’s a wider angle view. As you can see, this rig took very little effort and expense to build.Thanks @tcmeyer, for giving us some great ideas. Still i would like to find a way to sharpen my axe with the wicked edge system with an addapter somehow; i hope that wicked edge team will continue their great work of innovation and bring us a great attachment for sharpening an axe on the wicked edge system.
It seems like a very larger version of the “Tormek Small Knife Adapter” might be just the ticket. If only it was available.
Marc
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