Trouble with Spyderco
- This topic has 16 replies, 9 voices, and was last updated 08/08/2019 at 7:01 pm by
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There are a few options. One is to go for a wider angle. I know that’s a compromise, but it will work and you don’t need anything extra.
If you want alternatives to the low angle adapter then check out this thread: Down & Dirty LAA Mod
Welcome to the Wicked Edge forum Malachy. This may not be the suggestion you want to hear….having just purchased your Wicked Edge and just begun using it, with a long time of sharpening knives before you, I suggest you purchase the pricey W.E. L.A.A. and another adapter by Tormek called the “Small Knife Adapter”. You will have a need for both of these adapters as you continue to sharpen knives into the future. Both are well made and worthwhile investments to help enhance the capabilities of your WEPS.
Marc
(MarcH's Rack-Its)Malachy, you can clamp a knife high up in the vise so just the tips of the vise jaws are clamping the knife spine. The knife does not need to be resting down on the pins of the depth key. As long as the knife is held tightly and securely this clamping position will work to allow you to sharpen it. Often by raising the knife’s position it’ll allow you to avoid the stone vise contact you had when the knife was lower in the jaws. You may be able to now use the angle setting you couldn’t use when the knife was lower. Sometimes this method will allow you to get by without the need for an adapter. I always try this method first before I use an adapter.
Marc
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You can see an example of how the Tormek adapter is used here.
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As silly as this might sound, I have had a lot of success using blue masking tape and a short piece of cable tie. I tape the piece of cable tie to the spine of the knife. This approach makes it much easier to position the knife above the depth key, given that you can rest the cable tie on the depth key while you clamp the knife in the vice.
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What would the Tormek Adapter be used for
The Tormek Small Knife Adapter allows you to clamp the knife by the handle, in stead of by the blade in a clamping position that is above or out in front of vise where the stones won’t collide with the vise or jaws. It’s just another handy adapter to use when the standard clamping method proves difficult to work with.
Marc
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Malachy, What DPS angle are you trying to sharpen? I have a PM2 and have settled on 18DPS with S110V. This blade steel seems to work best for me at that angle. Can you add a pic or two of your setup? Ed K.
I’m sharpening at 15 degrees, I’ll try to add pictures when I get a chance to
The only Spyderco blades I’ve done are my Delica 4 and my Stretch. Both are in ZDP189, which is admittedly somewhat harder than S110V, so I don’t know how applicable my experience is, but for what it’s worth, I found that when sharpened to 17 dps, they had a tendency to chip. This greatly increased the effort to resharpen, not to mention the accelerated rate of steel consumption. I settled in at 19 or 20 dps and have had almost no chipping.
I don’t know how equivalent 15 dps on a Para 2 is to a Delica 4 at 17 dps, but you may find that 15 dps is lower than optimal anyway, with reduced edge retention and increased chipping.
You ought to be able to mount the Para 2 as high as you can in the Gen 3 vise and as far forward as you can without putting the upper/near pads in the thumb hole. Like the Delica, the blade is relatively straight from ricasso to tip, so there’s no “sweet spot” to speak of. This means you can raise the tip as high as high as you want in the vise without changing the angle. Hopefully, this will get you to the angle you want.
Anytime the blade is relatively straight, like a Santoku or a jerky knife, (or maybe a Para 2?) you have a lot more latitude in how to mount the blade in the vise. You can mount it at virtually any reasonable angle and any desired lateral position. For instance, if I wanted to mount my 7″ Wuesthoff Santoku pointing up at a 45 degree angle, any angle variation due to the slight blade curve will be minimal, and possibly too small to measure. Set the angle with the stone centered on the vise and that angle will be constant, or nearly constant for the entire length of the blade. You can measure the angle at the far ends of the blade, but you have to keep the measuring device perpendicular to the plane of the blade – not parallel to the stone. If you sight down the length of the blade, you’ll see that the angle between the stone and the edge stays constant, regardless of stone position.
Welcome to the Wicked Edge forum Malachy. This may not be the suggestion you want to hear….having just purchased your Wicked Edge and just begun using it, with a long time of sharpening knives before you, I suggest you purchase the pricey W.E. L.A.A. and another adapter by Tormek called the “Small Knife Adapter”. You will have a need for both of these adapters as you continue to sharpen knives into the future. Both are well made and worthwhile investments to help enhance the capabilities of your WEPS.
Bought the Tormek and have been fairly pleased but occasionally I get some twist in the knife because of the rubber band that’s used to cinch it down in the cradle. Need to figure out a way to keep it more stable.
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Welcome to the Wicked Edge forum Malachy. This may not be the suggestion you want to hear….having just purchased your Wicked Edge and just begun using it, with a long time of sharpening knives before you, I suggest you purchase the pricey W.E. L.A.A. and another adapter by Tormek called the “Small Knife Adapter”. You will have a need for both of these adapters as you continue to sharpen knives into the future. Both are well made and worthwhile investments to help enhance the capabilities of your WEPS.
Bought the Tormek and have been fairly pleased but occasionally I get some twist in the knife because of the rubber band that’s used to cinch it down in the cradle. Need to figure out a way to keep it more stable.
I use the Tormek rather frequently and run into the same problem every once in a while. My thought was to fashion some sort of wedge inserts on either side of the knife handle to “cradle” it and center it at the same time. So far this remained just a thought since my time is in very short supply. some day….
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