Finding the sweet spot video help?
- This topic has 10 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 01/22/2018 at 1:45 pm by
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Greetings, airborne!
As a relatively new user myself, I feel your pain in finding informative videos. There are plenty of videos showing people sharpening a knife, but very few that show the nuances of the system itself.
As far as finding the sweet spot, this is what I do:
1. Put the knife in the clamp, rest it on the depth key, but do not clamp it down.
2. Put a fine grit stone on the guide rod.
3. Let the stone go all the way down to the bottom of the guide rod and then rest the stone against the flat portion of the blade.
4. Using your thumb (or a piece of tape), note the exact location where the stone is touching the blade.
5. Move the stone along the blade and watch how the spot marked by your thumb / piece of tape interacts with the blade. Move the blade forward or backward in the clamp until the spot you marked hits the blade edge all the way to the tip.
Make sure you keep the stone at the bottom of the guide rod throughout the process. No need to move the stone up and down the rod.
Please note that your piece of tape may not make perfect contact with the entire blade edge on every knife. It depends on the size and shape of the blade. This procedure is simply the best way I’ve found to quickly locate the general area of the sweet spot. It’s not always perfect, but it will get you very, very close.
You can use the sharpie trick outlined in the user manual to fine tune if necessary.
Hope this helps.
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Go to You Tube and search “wicked edge finding the sweet spot”. At the top of the list is a great video for this subject with a very good explanation of how and why. It’s done by Curry Custom Cutlery.
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Here’s another video on finding the Sweet Spot on YouTube:
Hope it helps.
Marc
(MarcH's Rack-Its)6 users thanked author for this post.
Good evening MarcH,
Thank you for posting this video. As soon as I saw this gentleman’s explanation the “sweet spot” light bulb went off for me.
Here’s another video on finding the Sweet Spot on YouTube: Hope it helps.
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Derek, You’re doing the what I did, and what I would like to see all new WEPS users do, go back and read older posts. There are very few problems a new user experiences that a different new user hasn’t experienced when they were first starting. Pretty much every question that is presented to us has been presented and answered well at an earlier time.
I know this is so because when I joined the forum , I was one of you new users asking these questions and gracious Forum members and contributors, here before me, answered my questions while referring me to previous forum posts and various videos. I learned from their direction an began going back and looking at the Main Forum, then the Forum Category like “Technique and Sharpening” then Forum Sub Category Like “Basic Techniques and Sharpening Techniques” and read, read, read from the beginning to present. I skipped some as it became repetitive an weighed back in some where further in the discussion. Then I picked another Category and did the same.
As time passed when I had a question I would first look for a Forum Subcategory that encompassed my question and I read first before I just posted it. What I found was I could get the gist of it from the Forum and I could ask more detailed, clarifying questions when I asked questions. Then I also would use the forum “search” feature that I used then with success. Now I find it more difficult to use.
Reading back in our Forum is a great help. Derek, we thank you for doing that!
(Of course now we have newer model WEPS presenting newer issues that we look forward to tackling with enthusiasm and renewed vigor).
Marc
(MarcH's Rack-Its)3 users thanked author for this post.
Good afternoon MarcH,
Questions, like sins are very similar. Rarely does someone come up with a new one.
I have so many questions and when I stopped reading the forum and started thinking about what I’d read I thought there is no way these experienced guys are going to answer all of my questions. The lazy and disrespectful (I’m usually fairly direct) thing to do would be to simply post the questions until someone got tired of answering them and told me to do the research. Wanting to be a long term member of this community I thought I’d avoid the uneasiness and unnecessary confrontation.
Admittedly, I’m a ‘B’ student and a visual learner so here’s where I’m having issues:
- As I start reading the answer to one of my questions (say I’m trying to determine how to find the knife’s sweet spot) the answer starts off simple enough, that is to say I understand the answer and then all of a sudden we take a deep dive into the complex. Most often someone starts justifying their answer with math and I’m lost, I start looking for another, hopefully more simple, thread.
- I’m finding it’s hard to find answers related to specific knives. It seems like the questions are often asked about sharpening a recurved blade for example, when the person asking the question is actually referring to a ZT 0301. If a beginner knew the knife was a ZT 0301 (with a less pronounced recurve) and not just a recurve blade that would be incredibly helpful.
This forum has been incredibly helpful when I stick to the basics and don’t try getting involved in more complex tasks that deserve my attention at a later date.
I wish there was a class I could go to or even a set of videos that required a paid subscription.
Thank you for all 0f your help. I’ll continue to do the research prior to asking you a question.
Derek
Derek, You’re doing the what I did, and what I would like to see all new WEPS users do, go back and read older posts. There are very few problems a new user experiences that a different new user hasn’t experienced when they were first starting. Pretty much every question that is presented to us has been presented and answered well at an earlier time. I know this is so because when I joined the forum , I was one of you new users asking these questions and gracious Forum members and contributors, here before me, answered my questions while referring me to previous forum posts and various videos. I learned from their direction an began going back and looking at the Main Forum, then the Forum Category like “Technique and Sharpening” then Forum Sub Category Like “Basic Techniques and Sharpening Techniques” and read, read, read from the beginning to present. I skipped some as it became repetitive an weighed back in some where further in the discussion. Then I picked another Category and did the same. As time passed when I had a question I would first look for a Forum Subcategory that encompassed my question and I read first before I just posted it. What I found was I could get the gist of it from the Forum and I could ask more detailed, clarifying questions when I asked questions. Then I also would use the forum “search” feature that I used then with success. Now I find it more difficult to use. Reading back in our Forum is a great help. Derek, we thank you for doing that! (Of course now we have newer model WEPS presenting newer issues that we look forward to tackling with enthusiasm and renewed vigor).
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Gazillion, when he says flat portion of the blade he means a flat portion of the knife’s cutting edge of the blade. Almost all of our angles we set the WE for and almost all or our work we do to a knife is to the cutting edge of the knife blade. When a person references the curved portion or the flat portion 99.8% it’s the flat or curved portion of the knife’s cutting edge. Anarchy’s description or instructions work on his particular model WEPS. These instructions may not work with your model.
If your stone when slid down or sitting all the way down on the bottom of the angle rod is too low or unable to rest against the flat portion of the cutting edge of the knife then you may need to slide the stone up higher on the angle rod to be able to rest the stone against the knife edge. If you model requires that you raise the stone higher up the guide rod then it would be handy if you had something on the guide rod that could hold the stone at that position. We call this a “stone stop”. The sharpening stone rests on the “Stone Stop”.
Here is a picture of my lower stone stop:
This is just a rubber washer that I picked up at a hardware store. It’s made to repair leaking water faucets. It served my purpose because it will fit tightly on the guide rod and stay in place, and by sliding it up or down I have a tool, an attachment or a modification, (whatever you chose to call it), to hold the stone in place at the height determined by the placement of this washer, the “stone stop”. It’s called the “stone stop” because it stops the motion of the sliding sharpening stone.When I need to hold the stone in a position higher up the guide rod, as I believe is your situation, I just slide the “stone stop” up the guide rod so the stone can rest on the “stop” and lean on the flat portion of the knife’s cutting edge.
With the stone resting on a stone stop you can do what “Anarchy84” is instructing you to do to help you determine the sweet spot. What he’s trying to teach you is to mark a position on the stone where it touches the knife’s edge so the knife is positioned so that this mark touches the knife edge as close as possible at that same “mark” along the entire length of the knife edge, flat and curved portions alike, as you move the stone with the guide rod while it’s still resting on the “stone stop” through the rods entire arc of rotation. If the “mark” doesn’t contact the knife edge every where, then adjust the knifes position in the vice clamp so the mark will touch the knife edge everywhere, again, flat and curved portions alike, as close as can be possible. When the knife is in this placement you have found the knife’s sweet spot. Record this knife’s clamping position so it can be used again latter.
Hope this clears things up, if not, we’ll keep trying till we get it.
I also use an upper “stone stop” to limit my upward motion when needed.
Marc
(MarcH's Rack-Its)- I’m finding it’s hard to find answers related to specific knives. It seems like the questions are often asked about sharpening a recurved blade for example, when the person asking the question is actually referring to a ZT 0301. If a beginner knew the knife was a ZT 0301 (with a less pronounced recurve) and not just a recurve blade that would be incredibly helpful.
Derek, I don’t know models an shapes or styles of many knives. Particularly folding or pocket knives. When someone references or names a particular model pocket knife, I open another browser window on my computer and go to Amazon.com. Amazon has pictures of just about every model knife I ever looked for. If Amazon doesn’t get me the answer I go to Google.com and google for an image of the knife.
Marc
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