Can’t get the bevels even!

[Ken Buzbee]

Yes, “improving” eyesight is yet another benefit of getting a little older. Doing it by feel sounds great. I’ve given up for now trying to work the stones like Clay does. 😛

True story! 😉

Don’t give up. Just remember, no matter how many knives you sharpen, Clay’s done more. (well, that and he’s a young whipper-snapper 😉 )

Ken

[Geocyclist]

………….One thing I have noticed is that once I get the stones set with the cube, they are rarely at the same point on the rail. It’s one reason I started turning the arms around and relying solely on the cube to set the angles. It’s a very handly little tool and I can see using for other tasks as well.

The reason for this is the left vice is fixed. The right side moves further down the rail the ticker the blade is. Bottom line, the angle cube is king.

If your right arm is that strong try lightening up. In most case (no necessarily so for strops) the lighter the pressure the better the results.

One other shot is to rotate the WEPS 180 degrees so the tip of the knife faces you. You get better visibility, but I don’t think I have the coordination to sharpen this way. 😛

[John Batinovich]

Hi Geocyclist,

It’s funny you mentioned the deal about the left side of vice being fixed. I found a video on youtube today that explained that very thing, and it makes a lot more sense now. The video suggested compensating, depending on the knife, by moving the arm out a degree on the movable side, using the angle cube to confirm the settings, of course.

I’ve been working on keeping pressure equal with both arms and seem to be getting better. At first my left arm felt really clumsy, but it’s more coordinated after 10 knives or so. I had considered turning the machine around, but having the blade tip facing me was a little unnerving. lol

Do you use the dimpled, preset side of the rail to set the arms, or turn the arms around and use the flat side and the angle cube?

[Geocyclist]

I have the upgrade arms, so it sound like you have the regular arms. From what I have read and seen on line, if you want infinite adjustment (the point of using the angle cube) you would flip the bar to the non dimple side. Still with the dimple side the angle cube is useful to see where you are on each side.

[John Batinovich]

I do have the regular arms. Do the arms you have work the same, with the dimples, etc? The picture on the website show the bearings they use, and shows the allen wrench being used on the arm itself, but outside of that I’m not sure how they differ from the regular arms.

[Geocyclist]

The upgrade arms have almost zero play, they are smooth like butter.

There is a secondary, fine adjust screw with no detents (dimples). This moves the arm itself closer to the vice.

The main screw on the bar does have detents. It moves the whole “block” assembly that the arms are mounted to.

[John Batinovich]

I thought I’d post a follow-up to the issue I was having with getting uneven bevels. I watched one of Clay’s sharpening videos,the one were he sharpens a Benchmade 940 Osborne then push-cuts a telephone book with it. In the video, he talks about sometimes having to grind through to the other side of the bevel to get an even edge geometry.

I’ve been using the Sharpie trick and I took this to mean sometimes grinding away the ink on each side of an edge that has uneven geometry can result in one bevel being larger than the other. By getting to the apex on one side by grinding through to the other, in these situations, you should end up with a proper edge geometry.

I have a new Sebenza 25 I recently sharpened due to a mediocre factory edge. Trying to match the existing bevel, I ended up sharpening to 22°. It was sharp, but not slicing quite like I wanted and the bevels weren’t even, so I decided to reprofile to 17°, 34° inclusive. Using the Sharpie/loupe again, I paid close attention to how even the bevels were as I went along. While I didn’t have to grind all the way through from one side to the other, I did have to do more work on the one side opposite the side with the remaining ink. As a result, I was able to get some pretty even bevels and a nice sharp edge. I say pretty even because I’m still not completely satisfied, but they are as even as any other knife I’ve done so far.

I’ve had the WEPS not quite a month, and there certainly is a learning curve, especially for a sharpening neophyte like me. But I am getting more comfortable and I am enjoying the sharpening. It’s a very engrossing activity. If anyone has any comments or opinions on what I posted, I’d appreciate the feedback.

B)

[Jill Dufour]

I found I do it a bit, because of the technique I use. I use the 100’s to do all of the edge setting and profiling of the blade, then work my way up the rest of the grits just for enhancing the finish of the edge and bevel of course. On a knife I haven’t ever previously set, I grind just one side till I get a burr one the other side. Then I do the other side till I get a burr on the first side. Then I check the depth of the bevel on both sides and adjust as necessary till they are even, then move on to 200’s and start alternating strokes. That way I get a perfect finish and razor sharp every time, and relatively quickly, depending on how bad the blade was to start with. I picked that method up from tips gleaned watching YouTube videos of Clay doing customer’s knives.

I agree totally with this – and I always draw several little Sharpie marks perpendicular to the blade on both sides to make sure the bevels are even before starting the “alternating strokes phase”.

[phillyjudge]

Jill, Can you please explain in more detail what you mean about the perpendicular lines?

[Leo Barr]

Another good method is to use a wide tipped sharpie and cover about a quarter of an inch on each side of the blade this is good to really help to see the bevel width especially if a thinning bevel is been added as well alcohol will remove excess ink after.

[Author]

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