Interested…help narrowing it down please
- This topic has 42 replies, 10 voices, and was last updated 12/02/2017 at 8:28 am by
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I have one quick answer, at least, to the issue with tcmeyer’s disappearing post. That one got snagged by aksimet’s spam filtering, which like many helpful anti-spam features is causing more headaches than it solves. So, I’m going to remove that one from the spam folder, and it will show up.
I’m still looking into other issues, as well.
Working to make knife.wickededgeusa.com a great forum!
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Mark76 has mentioned frustration with the lack of any indication that the submission has been accepted. ChrisB: Can you help us out here? Make the button blink or go “gray” or something.
That would be a very good idea, Tom. In fact, there is an indication that the submission has (not) been accepted yet, it’s just not so clear. When you press “Submit”, your message is sent to the server, processed by the server and the page is “refreshed”. This refreshing is indicated by a small “turning circle”, but on my browser it’s very small and disappears quite a while before the page has actually been refreshed and you can see your posting.
While I’m on the topic of forum improvements, it’s driving me crazy how the Reply button slides over to the left after you click Thanks (it changes to ‘Remove Thanks’ and so I’ve accidentally clicked that a couple of times).
Does it? The “Reply” button stays nicely in place on my browser when I press “Thanks”, just like all other buttons in the top row of the message. I normally use Chrome, but I just tested it with IE and Edge and with all three browsers it stays in place, at least on my computer. I don’t get a “Remove thanks” option either.
Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge
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I’ve read a few posts about new users making decisions on what system to buy, so if I missed something out there that would answer my questions, I’d appreciate the heads up. I was close to buying a belt grinder, or maybe even a Ken Onion Work Sharp, but have been interested in this system for a while. I’m not a professional, nor do I have aspirations to make a living as a sharpener. I do however want a system that I can confidently put an edge on my small collection of pocket and fixed blades that I and my family have. I admit that I suck at stones, etc…so I don’t have much experience with sharpening. I want to know what system would best suit my needs to put a hair popping edge on my knives. Knives I would be sharpening mostly would be several sebenzas, benchmades, spydercos…bark river and other smaller fixed blades, and last but not least would be a new set of nice kitchen knives. What would be the best model for the money that would allow me to do this without spending money on niceties that are needed by pros? As the models become more expensive, are there any compelling reasons to move to these for the money based on what I want to do for the type of knives I want to sharpen? Thanks for the time and information/guidance.
TL;DR version: I suggest acquiring the 2017 ProPack2 with case, and after using it for awhile, add whatever you feel you need. This is a great balance of cost and comprehensive sharpening equipment.
Deets:
I’m not sure how you feel at this point, but you’ve gotten some great guidance from the more experienced folks who thankfully are active in the forum. I thought I’d add a bit about my sharpening journey to give you the “newbie” view.About a year ago I too was looking for a way to put a decent edge on a whole bunch of kitchen knives used daily. I’ve been through the Chef’s Choice top tier models of electric sharpeners, major suckage at whetstone sharpening, and the short-lived but positive results (mostly) from sending a knife back to the manufacturer for sharpening. What I learned from all that is twofold: manufacturer resharpening takes too long, is inconsistent, and may not be all that good, and secondly that I cannot hold a blade at a proper angle to save my life. That fact alone eliminated many of the market sharpening systems for me and steered me towards WEPS.
If you are like me, I like to learn how the products perform in the wild before committing. So I went through the website, joined and read this forum as you’re doing, and watched a mind-numbing array of YouTube videos. So I concluded I wanted a WEPS system. So now what? Wicked Edge and Bob Oldawan were both helpful in suggesting essentially the same solution for me: the 2017 ProPack2. It had enough stones to put a great edge on any knife I have, and even permits me to approach a nice mirrored edge, something I didn’t and still don’t think my knives need. The issue for me is that you don’t know what you don’t know going into this. You’ll want enough grits to accomplish the task, but how many is enough? You want a nice open space to set up your sharpening station, but I don’t have that luxury so needed a case for ad hoc setup and put-away. I had so many really dull knives I was spending a lot of time with the 100-grit stones trying to get the burrs established so I added the 50-/80-grit stones. I wanted to visually see the progressions of my techniques so added a loupe-style microscope (NOTE: skip this and get a USB one when you get to this point). I wanted to capture more of the knife filings so I added a couple of strong magnets wrapped in plastic wrap to both sides of the base making cleanup fast and easy. Most recently, I wanted to go for even more edge finishing so I bought (and really like) the 1500-grit/glass stones and fine diamond lapping papers. Then it dawned on me that not only do we have very sharp and effective knives in the kitchen, but I have a new mini-hobby. Sharpening is not a business for me, but it is both productive for the finished knife, and quite relaxing. And thanks to forum contributors, I keep learning trying to apply their guidance and suggestions to improve what I’m doing.
Like any tool acquisition, the more comfortable you get using the tool, the more likely it is you’ll find new and better ways to use it and that may just include expanding the investment. For example, hey, look what my new router can do for setting register grates even with my floor surface. But wow, look what I now can do with my plunge base, 3 sizes of collets, and the newly-needed dust shield that directly connects to my brand new 30-gallon shop vac. I think you get the picture.
Good luck, and please share your decision and experiences!
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Thanks to all. Just a few more questions please.
- I’ve read there was an issue with clamping strength of the gen 3 vice, and that this may have been rectified, or will be. Any thoughts on this?
- I have several Bark Rivers…how is it possible to preserve this type of bevel on such grinds? Is it simply better to use something else for this? If so, what?
- I’ve several fixed blades that are thicker stock, such as the BR Bravo and it’s smaller brother. I also have a few Esee’s…where my 5 is 1/4 inch. Please explain how this system can handle this, or cannot for that matter.
- When sharpening larger kitchen knives, should the blade be centered in different locations through the sharpening session to keep the same bevel across the entire length?
thanks
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Thanks to all. Just a few more questions please.
- I’ve read there was an issue with clamping strength of the gen 3 vice, and that this may have been rectified, or will be. Any thoughts on this?
- I have several Bark Rivers…how is it possible to preserve this type of bevel on such grinds? Is it simply better to use something else for this? If so, what?
- I’ve several fixed blades that are thicker stock, such as the BR Bravo and it’s smaller brother. I also have a few Esee’s…where my 5 is 1/4 inch. Please explain how this system can handle this, or cannot for that matter.
- When sharpening larger kitchen knives, should the blade be centered in different locations through the sharpening session to keep the same bevel across the entire length?
thanks
- I honestly don’t think there was ever an issue with the gen. 3 clamping strength. The 2017 re-design of the generation 3 clamp offers adjustable clamping tension. This allows for solid clamping on a very wide variety of stock thicknesses. I did a youtube review of the new clamp where I show that I can clamp a chef knife and then lift the whole setup only holding it by the knife. I even shake the thing and it does not budge.
- Wicked Edge sharpeners can be used to maintain convex ground bevels. This is accomplished by creating a multi faceted bevel and then blending the facets with the strops. I can’t speak from personal experience, but if you search youtube there are videos where people demonstrate the process including one by Clay himself. This process is going to take longer than a typical V-grind sharpening session and there are other tools that will put a convexed bevel on (Work Sharp Ken Onion, freehand sharpening with sand paper and a mouse pad as backing, KME with their convexing rod), but none of those options will match the precision and the ability to reproduce your results every time that the Wicked Edge offers.
- The generation 3 clamp will require the accessory jaws designed for thick knives in order to handle the blades you mentioned. The older style clamp can handle thick knives with no modifications, but you will find that you need to take some extra time when setting up the angles to make sure that both sides are even because only one side of the vice moves. The instructions on how to do that can be found on the forum if you are in need of that information in the future.
- All knives will be best clamped if you find the sweet spot. In addition to the instructions that come with every Wicked Edge sharpener, there are youtube videos on how to do this and there has been a bunch of discussion on the forum as well. Many of us regularly sharpen kitchen knives in the range of 8-12 inch blades and have superb results.
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jrk, sure, there are some limitations to the WEPS. But most can be side stepped or overcome with experience and intuitiveness. The WEPS is just a tool that clamps and holds your knives allowing you to hand sharpen them at a precise, repeatable angle. The user still needs to learn how to clamp and sharpen a wide variety of size, style and shaped knives. Yes, there are general rules or suggestions, how to best clamp your knives, but it’s still up to the user to learn to put these suggestion to practice. Some users find it easier to use the WEPS than others. It does, like I said, take a certain level of intuitiveness and mechanically sense and ability to gain the most capabilities out of the WEPS. It is not hard to do but it isn’t totally simple either. There is definitely a learning curve. Some pick it right up. Others may never get the hang of it. The WEPS is not easy for everyone. Even after almost 5 years using this system I’m still often challenged, learning and adding techniques to my sharpening repertoire. That’s why some of use stay plugged into the WEPS Forum. For me the challenge of the newbie questions keeps me learning and keeps it fresh.
Marc
(MarcH's Rack-Its)5 users thanked author for this post.
Hi Marc, re: Graphite, were you logged in to the Forum, (just trying to figure out why)? Maybe do a shutdown and restart. That always cures a myriad of problems for me.
Nope, a restart didn’t cure it. I see this on maybe 1 in 20 youtube videos. It’s strange how some will have audio and a small fraction don’t, for no readily apparent reason. It must have something to do with the A/V format and some weird random conflict with my audio driver or hardware (wild guess, maybe some are saved as 2-channel audio format and others as multichannel, while my PC speakers are only 2-channel). Curiously, I can hear the audio on this one if I plug in headphones, but not via the speakers. I’ll have to remember to try that when I come across other youtube videos where I can’t hear audio via the speakers.
Anyway, back on topic, nicely done on the video Organic. One of the first things I plan to do when mine arrives is to test out the distally tapered clamping ability since I have a number of DT knives.
It’s hard to imagine how that slot in the 2017 jaws allows much flex, and it obviously is limited in how much it will flex. I think I may do something like take a piece of solid 10# copper wire in the front of the jaws and 12 gauge in the far jaw, then see if the clamping force on the smaller end is high enough to hold the thinner wire tight (and then visually compare how much it compressed the copper in each wire).
Then repeat with 10/14 and 10/16 gauge copper wire. That probably represents more distal tapering over that short distance than you’d see in 90% of knives. Or who knows, maybe that’s more taper than any knife. If it passes all these, it will surely clamp my distally tapered knives securely.
BTW, on a related note, I came across a neat gadget made by Tekscan (a 1/2″ diameter paper-thin pressure sensor) where you could actually quantify the clamping force on the front and rear of the jaw on a distally tapered knife. They sell a development kit: https://www.tekscan.com/products-solutions/electronics/flexiforce-oem-development-kit but for $350 I guess I don’t need the clamping force numbers that badly ;o).
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