Help me decide my next purchase?

[Skyler J Baker]

I’ve noticed I have to be careful to avoid the clamp when i take the edge angle down to 17dps or less, the paddles in the bottom possition will hit the clamp near the tip. I have a knife I want to take down to 30 degrees exactly or a little less. The ball joint arms will go down to 13dps it seems, but I’m curious how that works in regard to not hitting the clamp, would I be better off getting the low angle adapter?

[CliffCurry]

Aloha sbaker, just got back from a trip and saw your question. I’ve purchased the LAA and it does work, to a point. It will never have the greater clamping ability of the stock WE vise.

To go the lowest you can Id recommend the tormek small knife jig as others have suggested to me and it works but also induces a bit of wiggle that I compesate for by stabilizing with the off hand. It does raises the knife above the vice a bit and allows for the lowest angles possible.

Hope that helps a bit… 🙂

[Josh]

Personally I would also go with the Tormek over the LAA…. Its more versatile. Cliff’s advice is right on!

[tcmeyer]

The Tormek adapter holds the handle quite solidly, but the blade itself is not clamped. The “wiggle” you get with the Tormek adapter is caused by the pivot joint of the knife being loose. Better/newer knives don’t have much (or any) wiggle.

[Mark76]

I guess it’s a bit up to the knives you want to sharpen. If it’s purely about lowering angles, I’d personally go for the LAA. It’s more stable than the Tormek adapter. However, if you want to sharpen really small knives, like small Swiss army knives, the Tormek adapter is your best option.

Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge

[Skyler J Baker]

I’m thinking the tormek jig, it should eliminate issues with the clamp and ffg Spyderco knives should it not? The lowest I would ever take a knife would potentially be 25 degrees inclusive. I would settle for 26 inclusive that the ball joint arms should give. But I find using the stock arms, with a thick knife I hit the clamp at 30-32 inclusive. Meaning I might only get 28-30 with the ball joint arms.

[Author]

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