New to the WE, issues with F&S.

[Nicolas Venot]

Hello everyone!

I finally jumped on the bandwagon and ordered myself a Wicked Edge. I decided to go with the F&S since it was a little more portiable. So far it has been ok, but not what i expected (i put this to inexperiance). I have come up against two main issues:

1. The 12° and 14° angle settings are pretty much useless for any knife that’s not a 3″ wide cleaver. The stones hit the base of the clamp and not the edge. Additionally, Unless i have the bottom most screw on the clamp in all the way, the stone hits that too. Am I missing something or doing something wrong here?

Paramilitary 2 at 14°

Another unexpected thing I’ve found is a little amount of play in the clear plastic brackets at the base of the arms. There’s probably 1° or 2° of play in them (more on one then the other). Will this really effect my results? Lastly i’ve noticed there’s no adjustable depth gauge for clamping your knife, as well as no “ruler” to show where on the blade to clamp it like on the original WE. Does any one have any tips on how i can clamp my knives down repeatably?

I apologise if these problems are caused by my complete incompetence, but I just haven’t found any instructional resources on the “simpler” F&S clamp. Thanks in advance!

[Leo James Mitchell]

When you don’t know what to do…give Clay a call. He will straighten out any problems. I don’t have the F&S but stones touching the screw head should not be there. Give him a call. If there is something wrong with your rig he will make it good immediately

Leo

[Nicolas Venot]

Thanks for the suggestion, I was actually planning on dropping him a line tomorrow.

[wickededge]

Thanks for putting up your questions. One thing I notice right away from your pictures is that you’re sharpening a Spyderco that is full flat ground (FFG) and your blade is not vertical. Please check out the tutorial on clamping FFG knives here: Sharpening FFG Blades. Getting the blade vertical will help a lot with the clearance issues though there is a limitation to the angles you can get with more narrow blades. Another thing you can do is not rely on the shelf inside the jaws to index the blade. I have marked the edges of my jaws at the back where I can see it easily with a white Sharpie to show the highest place in the clamp at which I can still grab the blade well. Raising the knife up will allow you to achieve a lower angle as well. As far as the play goes, you can force almost any system to have play, especially when you have a big mechanical advantage like you do with the leverage of the length of the stones plus the length of the rods. That was something that A.G. Russell taught me a while back when examining the play in a folding knife. He showed me that the joints on all folding knives can be made to wobble if you’re checking them by pushing on the blade toward the tip. I mention all that because the play that’s inherent in the system doesn’t normally factor into sharpening. Once you get going, your hand will apply pressure on the stones and rod in the same way with each stroke and you will get nice, consistent bevels.

-Clay

[Nicolas Venot]

Thanks for getting back to me Clay. I’m glad to hear that it’s not the system, but rather the user that’s at fault here. I’ll definitely have to go out and learn some more about how to use the system.

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