Linkage play–your technique for consistency?

[wickededge]

Clay,
I guess I am being a bit repetitious
But how do I know that the blade is really vertical in the clamp. I can eyeball it… but that is about it.

Phil

you get different readings even though you’ve verified that the knife itself is vertical? If that’s the case, we have some troubleshooting to do…

[/quote]

You could use a square, one side placed on your base and the other against your blade (this will only work if your blade extends beyond the blue base.) You can also use the angle cube if you set each side the same and then put a stone against the blade with the angle cube on the other side of the stone. If the reading is the same on each side, you should be very close. The bevels of the blade might throw it off very slightly, in which case you could move the collars out to 30 degrees on each side so that the stones are resting on the very apex of the blade and not the bevels. There might be some kind of plumb to be fashioned as well which would tell you if the knife is true vertical, but that would only work of the base were absolutely level. I’ll think on some other methods for determining if the knife is vertical.

-Clay

[Michael Lingard]

Most of my knives are Spyderco full flat ground blades so I’m always having to eyeball if they are vertical or not.

I also just lay the stones up against the blade and measure the angles. I had bought an angle cube but it seemed grossly inaccurate so I’m just using my level app on my Iphone which I’m sure isn’t very accurate either. Most times, the two sides read as much as 1-1.5 degrees different but I have just been attributing it to the Iphones accelerometer being less than perfect. The sloppy linkage in my arms doesn’t help and my eyes play tricks on me when I try to eyeball if the blade is sitting perfectly vertical in there with the foam tape… The joys of knife OCD. I really wish there was a simpler way to always insure a vertical clamping of FFG or convex blades. My Fallkniven F1 acts the same as a FFG with it’s convex shape.

I’m probably going to send my arms in to get modded for the linkage play Clay. I couldn’t find washers thin enough and when I just used a machine screw and nut it was either too tight or still had some play. Do I just pop them in a courier envelope and mail it to your address on the website contact info? Do I need to include a letter or anything?

[wickededge]

You can just send them in a flat rate box with your return address info and we’ll take care of it. I’m guessing you’ve used the double sided foam tape to help center your blades. If you’re filling the empty spaces equally on both sides of the knife, the blade should be vertical in the clamp.

-Clay

[Michael Lingard]

Yeah, thanks clay. I’ll send them in soon. I do use the foam tape, so I think I’m getting the knives vertical, it just sometimes takes a bit because the tape I’m using gets squished pretty flat every time so I put new stuff on every time. In any case, I am getting them blazing sharp so I can’t complain. 😀

[wickededge]

Glad to hear it. I’ll be testing out some o-ring material when it comes in this week and I’ll be sure to post results.

-Clay

[Phil Pasteur]

I also just lay the stones up against the blade and measure the angles. I had bought an angle cube but it seemed grossly inaccurate … my eyes play tricks on me when I try to eyeball if the blade is sitting perfectly vertical in there with the foam tape… The joys of knife OCD. I really wish there was a simpler way to always insure a vertical clamping of FFG or convex blades. My Fallkniven F1 acts the same as a FFG with it’s convex shape.

I wonder if the angle cubes suffer from QC issues? Mine seems pretty good. I can zero it on the quartz base set up my angles on the arms with the stone resting on the blade, then return it to where I zeroed it and it is at zero. If I re-measure the arms … and have the stones contacting the blade at the same point, it will measure the same angles that I set originally. One thing I have to do is to use the same side of the cube for all measurements, or it seems to be off. I have checked the angles as close as I could with a hand held 8″ protractor and the cube is right on as far as I can see with the graduations on the protractor (obviuosly not to the hundredth of a dregree that the cube measures).

I have the same problem with eyeballing the position of the blade in the clamp. I have several convex and a few double edge knives along with a bunch of Full Flat Ground (FFG) blades. They are all a bit of a guess. I read what Clay said about a square. If you checked both sides of the blade against the square, at least it would give a better visual reference for getting the blade vertical. The problem is still that you don’t have a flat surface on the knife that you can use to butt against the square to make the adjustment. That is the same issue with the angle cube, though I suppose you could (as with the square) measure both sides with the cube as close to flat against the blade as you can get. If the angles are the same, the blade should be held in the clamp pretty darn straight.

BTW, I should be getting my modified arms from WE today or tomorrow. I decided to buy an additional set of arms and have them modded. The cost was nominal, and I have not had to be without my sharpener at all.
Once I get them I plan to try them with the Holymolar subway straw bushing idea and will post back on what I see.

Phil

[Josh]

Dude, the Subway straws work perfectly! The only thing I had to do (after cleaning off the rod arms w/ rubbing alcohol and sliding the straws on) was to melt the bottom part of the straws to conform to the base of the rod arms near the pivot so they wouldn’t slide off… this prevented me having to glue them whatsoever. Now the only issue I’m having is play in the joints themselves. I have already taken them apart and re-inforced them with some knife-making (i.e. really thin) washers. I am going to get some small screws as Clay had suggested and tighten them the perfect amount so there is no play but they will still move freely. Thanks for all the suggestions guys!

[Josh]

I tried the straw bushing idea, too. By accident, I discovered something that works very well. I simply cut the length of the straws to fit the entire arms and slid them onto the arms (not into the stones). I didn’t slit the straws and I didn’t use any glue. I got these straws from a Subway Sandwich Shop and fortunately they are the perfect size to fit over the arms. I firmly pushed the end of the straws into the flat pieces of the arms that fit into the black part. The straws stay put very nicely. I just sharpened and polished a knife and the straws never moved from the arms – and I went through a total of 16 sets of stones, choseras, and strops. It may look like the stones might catch on the end of the straws when putting them on the arms but that didn’t happen. The stones all slide onto the arm/straw combo with ease. I’ll report how long the straws last before I have to replace them. Here are some photos. The last two are trying to show how the straws are pushed onto the flat part of the arms.

Note – I used alcohol swabs to wipe down the arms (to remove any oils) before sliding on the straws.

Did you tap the joints yourself and put in the allen screw or do you have those screws going into a nut on the other side?

[Joyal Taylor]

razoredgeknives wrote:

“Did you tap the joints yourself and put in the allen screw or do you have those screws going into a nut on the other side?”

Clay did the modification on the arms of my WE.

[wickededge]

razoredgeknives wrote:

“Did you tap the joints yourself and put in the allen screw or do you have those screws going into a nut on the other side?”

Clay did the modification on the arms of my WE.

I tapped the joint. Am going to play with using nuts too, to see if is easier.

-Clay

[Josh]

razoredgeknives wrote:

“Did you tap the joints yourself and put in the allen screw or do you have those screws going into a nut on the other side?”

Clay did the modification on the arms of my WE.

I tapped the joint. Am going to play with using nuts too, to see if is easier.[/quote]

keep me posted…. what size screws do you recommend to fit through the existing hole?

[wickededge]

razoredgeknives wrote:

“Did you tap the joints yourself and put in the allen screw or do you have those screws going into a nut on the other side?”

Clay did the modification on the arms of my WE.

I tapped the joint. Am going to play with using nuts too, to see if is easier.[/quote]

keep me posted…. what size screws do you recommend to fit through the existing hole?[/quote]

I used a #8-32 screw (Part# at McMaster-Carr: 98164A134) but it was a little larger than the holes so I had to bore those out to fit. I think a #6-32 would work too and maybe wouldn’t require boring out the holes.

-Clay

[Chelsea Page]

Hey Clay, would it be possible for me to just buy a couple sets of new modded arms?

[Phil Pasteur]

I just called the main number and ordered some last Friday. Kyle said he was working on some and he would make me up a set. Haven’t got a shipping notice yet. But, he said I would get them this week.
Will be happy if I do..
🙂

[wickededge]

Hey Clay, would it be possible for me to just buy a couple sets of new modded arms?

Yep, please call the office tomorrow and we can get you set up.

-Clay

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