Quality control query

[Shelley]

hi, I just got my Go and am enjoying it and learning how to use it, am up to my fifth knife now but I have two concerns about quality and am not sure where to direct the query to…

First the pen that comes with the Go was broken, the body is cracked and as such the ink has either dried up or leaked out.

Second I have purchased some additional equipment 800/1000 stones, 3 micron / glass platen with 1.5 micron film, and a blank glass platen with 1 and .5 film, I was using this glass platen for the first time after installing the lapping film and found that one of the platters holes is too small, it won’t slide on the rod, there is nothing blocking it inside, it’s just too small, I can (just) get it down the rod but once there is wont move up and down.

Can I fix it by filing or drilling and if so what size file or drill bit should I use?

shelley

[Dwight Glass]

I am sorry to hear that your new equipment wont work as expected, please call Wicked Edge to let them know. there hours are 9:am to 5:pm Monday through Friday Mountain time. Closed for all major holidays. Talk to Wicked Edge before doing any thing. I think they will treat you right, see what they have to say. Good luck Shelley

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sksharp, wickededge, Organic, David

[Marc H]

Sorry to hear you’ve had yet another problem.  Not intending to justify the manufacturing defect, the plastic handles are injection molded.  There is a chance the diameter may be slightly off especially since Wicked Edge is striving to make a product with a tight tolerance to insure precise angled bevels.  I have a variety of stones handles of different mediums and grits and have shared the same experience.

I was able to slightly enlarge the bore hole using this brass gun cleaning brush . It cleans the bore just enough without really removing any plastic and without creating a larger bore than I wanted.  Even if you don’t have the appropriate handle  for the brush, it can be held with a pliers or a vice grips and used that way.  I would think you could chuck the brush handle in a hand drill and use it that way.

Marc
(MarcH's Rack-Its)

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sksharp, wickededge, Dwight Glass

[Shelley]

The agent here in New Zealand has decided to replac my glass platen and my pen, so all good, really I like the system and am excited to try it, just a little disappointed at the quality, or quality control maybe a better term, as I believe everything is well made and should be long lasting, but the checking of product before it goes out appears to be off.

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sksharp, wickededge

[Shelley]

So the New Zealand agent replaced my pen and my glass platen, the first new platen he pulled out of the box was also lopsided and would not fit on the rod, this after he told me that he had never had this issue before, the next one was fine so I am happy now.

i have now done ten knives to break in my stones and have done my first commercial sharpening (a very old chipped and blunt leatherman), I took it from 200 grit up to .5 micron, got good results, the client was truly shocked with the result!

So I am happy, all issues resolved for me. Just surprised that wicked edge management has not chimed in, although I did not they read the comment, maybe what surprised me the most was that an email I sent to them went unanswered.

I do like the product and the result, just thought the customer service could be better.

[tcmeyer]

That’s really unusual for WE not to respond promptly.  Is there maybe a sports show going on somewhere?  Sometimes they shut down for a few days and take most of their crew along.  Even then, Clay or Kyle will usually check in.  Did they maybe respond directly to the New Zealand dealer?

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NotVerySharp

[Mikedoh]

“Blade” show maybe?

[Marc H]

They’re at Atlanta Blade Show.

Marc
(MarcH's Rack-Its)

[wickededge]

Shelley wrote:

So I am happy, all issues resolved for me. Just surprised that wicked edge management has not chimed in, although I did not they read the comment, maybe what surprised me the most was that an email I sent to them went unanswered.

Hi Shelley,

I’m glad the issue got resolved but I’m sorry we missed getting back to you quickly. The guys are correct – we’ve been at Blade Show since the middle of last week, so response times have been slower. Generally speaking, we’re pretty quick to respond and you’re always welcome to reach out to me directly: clay.allison@wickededgeusa.com

-Clay

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sksharp, NickedEdge, David, Organic

[NotVerySharp]

Hi TC.                Glad to see he owner responded back.  I had a little issue, and he bent over backwards taking care of it.   In todays day and age, for someone to even respond back is a miracle  Franky, with most consumer products, I even have a mercedes product, companies just give you the finger after sales.  Wicked Edge.. has given me some of the best support I have got anywhere.  And trust me, I have got a lot of bad support from companies ( outside of the knife business) .      I still liked my old Avatar I had of the bleeding finger : )

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wickededge, tcmeyer, Organic

[sksharp]

Shelley I’ve had a few things that needed attention and WE has went the extra mile to make it right.

The first time I noticed the issue that you had was a year or so ago when they changed the rod sizes. I had purchased the longer (12″) with my original machine and they were a larger diameter rendering 4 or 5 sets of my stones and strops useless. Since they’ve changed the way they make the paddles all so. Anytime changes like this are made little things like this pop up. I used an accurate drill bit of the appropriate length and drilled the holes a touch bigger instead of sending them back. Tolerances as close as WE works with will cause issues, however they are very good at working us through these issues when they pop up. Only requires a little patience on our part.

Glad you got your issues taken care of! Best of luck!

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wickededge, Dwight Glass, Marc H

[tcmeyer]

When I switched over to the new rods and handles, I noticed that the old handles worked just fine on the new rods, which were larger in diameter than the original rods.  Even with the larger diameter, it seemed as though there was still a little clearance.   Having an industrial case of ADD and being a little OCD, since I had a 1/4″-28 die, I bought a length of 0.257 drill rod so I could make a set of 14″ rods.  These were only about 0.002″ larger than the new rods that came with my Gen 3 Pro, so I figured I was golden, but of course it wasn’t that easy.  Several of my handles (both new and old) wouldn’t slide freely over the 0.257 rods and it seemed as though they all had a tight spot right in the middle.

Running a 0.257 size F drill (I bought a long shank bit so I could drill out my old home-made bronze-bushing handles for the new rods) thru them made little difference, as the plastic had enough “give” to avoid actually shaving even a little bit of the material out.  I solved this by running a .243 bronze rifle brush in a drill for a few seconds while it was held about in the center of the handle bores.  The bristles scraped enough material out that the handles now pass freely over the 0.257″ rods.

Why did such a small difference in rod diameter make such a difference?  I concluded that the bores in the handles were not perfectly true – they had a slight bend to them.  The bore at one end was not parallel to the bore at the other end.  The handles are assembled out of two halves.  I’m sure they use a length of rod to align the two halves as they screw them together, but maybe the process creates some internal stresses which cause the misalignment when the rod is taken out.

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Organic, sksharp, Marc H

[wickededge]

tcmeyer wrote:

Why did such a small difference in rod diameter make such a difference?  I concluded that the bores in the handles were not perfectly true – they had a slight bend to them.  The bore at one end was not parallel to the bore at the other end.  The handles are assembled out of two halves.  I’m sure they use a length of rod to align the two halves as they screw them together, but maybe the process creates some internal stresses which cause the misalignment when the rod is taken out.

Did this occur w/ handles that have the center portion in black w/ colored trays on either side or the two-tone version?

-Clay

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tcmeyer

[tcmeyer]

Clay:  I have a total of eight pairs of handles which hadn’t been modified to take the bronze bushings.  Four pairs are the red/white blanks, three (100/200, 400/600, 800/1000) came with the Gen 3 Pro beta unit and one pair are new leather strops.  None are black, all are two-tone.  Of the sixteen handles, perhaps four or five had the tight-fit problem.

At first, I thought the problem might be a slight bend in my 0.257″ rods, but I couldn’t see an appreciable amount of run-out when I rolled them on my granite plate.  Both rods were tight in the same place, which made bent rods seem unlikely.  I’ve bent rods made out of softer stuff when I was threading them, a problem caused by leaving too much rod unclamped while threading, but in this case, the bend (if there was one)  appeared at the opposite end of the rods, where there was no torque applied.

Out of curiosity, do you in fact use a pilot rod to keep the halves aligned while you assemble them?  My first set of home-made handles (w/ glass platens) were of G10 and made with a half-round groove cut into each half, then assembled (epoxy) with a 0.246″ rod as a pilot.

[wickededge]

Tom, thanks for clarifying. We don’t use a rod to align the two halves. Instead, they each fit into a special fixture or “shoe” in the sonic welder. I don’t think it’s an alignment issue w/ the new design, but rather a welding issue that was causing material to flash into the bore. We’ve made a lot of little tweaks to the mold to prevent it from happening and it’s getting much better. Initially we were rejecting a large percentage of handles, then we were doing extensive QA/QC both at the molders and then here at our warehouse which involved multiple reaming operations. Now we are just checking most handles and having to do very little reaming. The latest round of improvements involve new inserts for the mold that will open the bore a tiny bit more and hopefully will eliminate the need for any additional secondary operations. The new inserts should be operational within the next two weeks.

-Clay

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sksharp, tcmeyer, Marc H

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