In-office showdown, EdgePro vs Wicked Edge

[cjb80202]

My friend with an EdgePro brought it in to my office this morning and we did a little competition. Wicked Edge won. Although he is very experienced with his EdgePro and was able to put a sharp edge on our knives.

Here are my impressions of the EdgePro (this is probably old hat for many readers, but new to me). Nothing profound, just wanted to share my impressions.

• I’ve been spoiled by the stability of clamping the knife in place, with Wicked Edge. The EdgePro feels very sloppy, because you just hold the knife handle with one hand while you sharpen with the other. Naturally, the hand holding the knife wobbles it a bit.
• It feels slow to only work on one edge at a time, instead of the great rhythm of Wicked Edge, working with both hands symmetrically, on both sides of the blade.
• The Edgepro seems very imprecise in setting the angle. There are just some colored dots on the vertical bar, but they don’t indicate the actual angle you’re at.
• You have to put mildly soapy water on the EdgePro stones, and that’s a bit messy.
• Trying to sharpen a longer blade seems tough on the EdgePro because the blade tends to bend downward as you work toward the tip. So you have to work on one section of the blade, then reposition the knife and work on the the front half. I prefer the flexibility of the stones on the guide rods.

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Mark76, sksharp, Organic, Alan, Marc H

[Josh]

This is great, too bad you didn’t get a video!!

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cjb80202, Mark76

[Alan]

Before my WE Gen 3 Pro, and Field and Sport Pro, I used to own a Edgepro Professional.  I sold it after six months.

After sharpening a set of knives I would be exhausted.  Holding the knife handle with one hand while sharpening one side of the blade with the other was a lot of work!

Not nearly as precise as the most basic model of WE.

This is a big one:  I absolutely hated the watery mess the Edgepro would make!  Slurry all over the place.

I switched to WE and what a difference!  Love my WE sharpeners.

(I probably sound like a commercial for WE)

Alan

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cjb80202, Josh, Mark76, sksharp, Organic, Marc H

[Mark76]

I intended to never write about the EdgePro since it is no competition for the WE. But when I bought my first WE (about 6 years ago, I think), it was just one the market (at least here – I had to order it in Germany, which is another country than where I live) and I did consider the EdgePro for a very short while. But the build quality of the WE is so much higher than that of the EdgePro.

In addition, you can be so much more precise with the WE. (The fun thing is that on this forum we have a lot of discussions on how you can be even more precise, but that is because the WE allows you to be so precise, not because it is necessary. Consider that 95% or so of the people sharpen their knives by hand and are happy if they can remain within a few degrees.)

And finally a funny story. After a while, I asked this German supplier whether he also sold Shapton and Chosera stones. He did not; he said they didn’t fit in the philosophy of the WE. At that time I didn’t understand what he meant (and I eventually bought my Shapton and Chosera stones in the US), but now I do: the WE is also built for ease of use. And not having to soak your stones and not sharpening with wet stones (whetstones) is user-friendly.

Well, this is the last time I have written something about the EdgePro 🙂 .

Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge

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cjb80202, Josh

[cjb80202]

You can see the file laying on the table; I got that idea from Clay’s video, showing him taking a sharp edge an ruining it with a file. I wasn’t real excited about doing that myself, because I had gotten those knives very sharp. But they’re cheap knives. So with some treatment from the file, it went from slicing strips of paper to pushing the paper into a crease. But it was surprisingly quick to bring the sharp edge back, much quicker than it took to get it sharp originally. I guess the file just puts a flat edge on the blade, but the rest of the bevel is still ready to be sharp, and it just takes a few strokes.

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Mark76, Organic

[Pinkfloyd]

I still use my EP Pro model. I just had a very small paring knife that a customer wanted me to sharpen, I tried many ways to use my WE Gen 3. There was no way to clamp it, even with the Tormek small knife holder. So I breakout the EP Pro model and use the small knife adapter, was able to sharpen. As to the EP Pro not being accurate, I disagree because you can and I do use the angle cube for an accurate setting. There is also a way to use a drill stop collar for accounting for varying stone thickness. As for the messy stones I switched to Atoma diamond stones and Diamond lapping film. All that being said I still prefer the WE most of the time

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Organic, wickededge, Mark76, Marc H

[Marc H]

I recently purchased the latest Spyderco Tri-Angle Sharpmaker with a full compliment of grit bars for that same reason; finding an alternate method to sharpen “that knife” when the Wicked Edge just isn’t the answer.

Marc
(MarcH's Rack-Its)

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Pinkfloyd, wickededge, Mark76

[Mark76]

Yup, I also have the Spyderco Sharpmaker, only with the finest grit they have. It stands in the kitchen and I sometimes use it to touch up a kitchen knife before I use it. That’s just a little faster than setting up the WEPS and clamping the knife. And I sharpen a lot of kitchen knives at 15 degrees per side, which is one of the two default angles of the Sharpmaker, so that turns out well.

Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge

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Marc H

[Author]

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