Patrick Martin

[Patrick Martin]

Hey Patrick,

I’d love to see a photo. It seems very odd that the metal plates would bend or warp on their own, it makes me think that they were warped to start with and that the adhesive was holding them in a straight position. If you want to keep the stones, you could remove them, lay them face down on a flat surface and tap them flat with a mallet and we could supply you with the proper VHB tape to re-affix them to the handles. Of course we’ll replace anything that is warped or otherwise not to spec but you’d have to break the new stones in. Please put up a picture of what you’re experiencing and also give us a call: 877-616-9911.

–Clay

Didn’t get a chance to call today, got hung up with the wife. I checked every one of my stones, and a few are very slightly wobbly, the only ones that are a concern are the 800 1000s. I’ll call tomorrow. With WE customer service, I know whatever the solution is we’ll figure it out. Best service I’ve ever had the pleasure dealing with.

[Patrick Martin]

Hey Patrick,

I’d love to see a photo. It seems very odd that the metal plates would bend or warp on their own, it makes me think that they were warped to start with and that the adhesive was holding them in a straight position. If you want to keep the stones, you could remove them, lay them face down on a flat surface and tap them flat with a mallet and we could supply you with the proper VHB tape to re-affix them to the handles. Of course we’ll replace anything that is warped or otherwise not to spec but you’d have to break the new stones in. Please put up a picture of what you’re experiencing and also give us a call: 877-616-9911.

–Clay

Well that was an adventure with my wife helping with the pics. Lol.

[Patrick Martin]

Hey Cakes.

1. I understand your progression. To be clear I don’t use 50 and 80 every time. Only if necessary. I only use 100/200 for re-profiles.
2. From here water stones are great. With a 400 or 600 and a 1000 water stone you can get a nice edge.
3. Your edge looks very nice. Good results
4. What type of screw driver is that? You have 2 in the photo that are black and blue.

+1, particularly on the 50/80 stones (only use them when really necessary) and the waterstones.

Do you use these screw drivers with the WEPS, Cakes? What for?[/quote]
No I use them for taking apart my knives. I believe this is what Geocyclist was asking about. When I made that list I was just listing the stones and strops I had, not any set order. If i am touching up an edge I’d probably start lowest 400 or 600. So someone earlier was saying that they switch up the ceramics order? Anyone care to elaborate?

[Patrick Martin]

Hey Cakes.

1. I understand your progression. To be clear I don’t use 50 and 80 every time. Only if necessary. I only use 100/200 for re-profiles.
2. From here water stones are great. With a 400 or 600 and a 1000 water stone you can get a nice edge.
3. Your edge looks very nice. Good results
4. What type of screw driver is that? You have 2 in the photo that are black and blue.

Got these at lowes. Kobalt micro driver set. I bought 2. They have Phillips 000 to 0, and torx 4 to 15. Not bad.

[Patrick Martin]

So that will be in total
50 diamond
80 diamond
100 diamond
200 diamond
400 diamond
600 diamond
800 diamond
1000 diamond
1200 ceramic
1600 ceramic
1.4 ceramic
0.6 ceramic
14 leather strop
10 leather strop
5 leather strop
3.5 leather strop
1 leather strop
0.5 leather strop

Can’t wait to get it going. Out of curiosity, where can I go from here?

[Patrick Martin]

Ended up buying 1.4 .6 ceramics as well as 14 10 and 1 .5 strops. Polished to the max now. I’ll update when they get here.

[Patrick Martin]

If I can try and hijack my own thread back, I’m not looking for the progression as much as asking if the 1.4 0.6 ceramics are worth it to be blunt.

[Patrick Martin]

I am awaiting the results. I have been looking for one of these for a while. Does anyone have specific model numbers for the dino lite and veho? There are a few different models and I’d like to get one that works well. I’ve looked at the celestron alot because of the price and the stand. They’re a great telescope company as well.

[Patrick Martin]

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[Patrick Martin]

New vise is installed with 2 knives mirror polished! Working perfectly. Now I am taking great care to not over tighten. I will say this: I used to see if it was tight enough by trying to move the end of the handle up and down. I’ve learned that is not a reasonable test. Even if I can move the end of the handle up and down, the stones won’t. I’m not saying it’s loose, but the leverage the handle test uses is way more that the stones place on the blade. Just wanted to share me thoughts, hopefully some newbie like me will avoid the same mistake. Also, WE customer service is the best I have ever dealt with.

[Patrick Martin]

Regarding the comment about material choice; something else to consider is that the vise jaws could be made of tool steel or something that absolutely would not bend _but_ then you’d mar the blade instead of the clamp. An ideal solution would be a harder/stiffer vice with softer pad inserts… Clay, I’ll chew on this and send you some thoughts for a prototype. =)

For the record, I’ve never had a problem with clamping force across many different blade shapes and profiles (e.g. FFG, 3/4-grind, etc), and I haven’t bent my stock jaws either.

Hey Brian, you need to come around more often! 😉

I had a custom vise made out of A2 tool steel and then hardened. I bent two stock jaws (and yes, WE’s customer service rocks. I currently have an un-used brand new stock vise as a back up, not that I will ever need it.) I did not feel as if I was over-tightening the stock vise either. The way I determine if it is “tight” is by grabbing the handle and using relatively light pressure to try and move it up and down. if it moves at all then it is not tight enough…. thus my custom vise 😉

It is a beast and I have yet to fear breaking it (and man have I TWEAKED on that thing). I normally use an ‘L’ shaped allen wrench so I can really clamp down. I do not have any issues of marring any of the blades that I sharpen. Of course, if I am sharpening high end customs I do tape the blade or use some sort of padding (just to be safe).[/quote]
Where did you get it and how much?

[Patrick Martin]

As you’ll see in the thread Mike suggested, this has happened to a few others before you.

I’m pretty sure that it’s caused by over-tightening. Occasionally you’ll find a blade which is really hard and isn’t held properly by the bite of the vise. Imagine trying to hold a piece of glass with a pliers. Too hard, too slippery. So the tendency is to over-tighten. The mechanical advantage provided by the clamping jack screw is really high – and capable of distorting the clamp jaws.

If you have a blade which doesn’t clamp securely with normal pressure (less than about one-half turn past contact on the jack screw) try putting tape on the blade to give the vise something to bite into, or add some form of liner to your jaws – like chamois. I prefer something thin to reduce the chance of angular mounting errors. I use a small patch of Scott Shop Towels.

Do you know the price to remedy this? Are they both bent or just the right usually?

[Patrick Martin]

I didn’t start to notice this until about a week or two ago, but I wasn’t looking for it in the beginning. I’m not saying it came like this, but I didn’t notice it until I started getting decent edges and trying to perfect them.

[Patrick Martin]

Looks like it’s bent.

Pertinent thread. https://www.wickededgeusa.com/forum/8-sharpener-and-accessory-maintenance/12837-bent-clamp#16222

Call WE and explain your problem with the vise.

Really. I really thought I made sure not to over tighten. I wanted to sharpen an esee 6 but couldn’t get it to not move with out more tightening, so I didn’t sharpen it.

[Patrick Martin]

I just bought my Wicked Edge sharpening system off of E-Bay…it has all the bells and whistles…the first two knives I sharpened were both from Boker and I was truly disappointed with the results…the knives were much sharper before I worked them…now you could run them over your throat and put pressure on them and not even scratch yourself. I have followed all the instructions…and watched all the U-Tube videos of how to use the system…copied the techniques and still no decent results..
I was hoping that someone in the forum could give me some pointers on what the heck I might be doing wrong…I have a Sharpmaker from Spyderco and I can use it for good results..so I have an idea on how to sharpen a knife…so I am puzzled as to what I could be doing that might be wrong on a system that on the surface looks so easy to use….help!

I had the same thing when I bought it. I didn’t really think it mattered about the stones breaking in, but it does. I also came from the sharpmaker. When I used it, I never raised a burr on it. Once. And I could get some pretty sharp edges on that thing. Then I went to wicked edge and I made it stupid dull. I bought a jewlers loupe and I saw I wasn’t getting to the edge. for me, getting the burr was the first problem I had to figure out. After getting the burr thing down, next was technique. I do one side at a time. I am not ambidextrous at all. What I do is I raise a burr on the right side, then left, then right, then left. That is with one grit. I only do the scrubbing motion, going up and down, with the 50s, 80s, and 100s. After that I only draw the stone upwards. I started with the regular arms. To get the angle right I had to push the top of the stone in, pull the bottom out while using it to take up the play. Recently got the pro pack 2 upgrade kit, and it really is night and day if you want to tweak out. That being said I did get very sharp edges with the original arms, but mirror edges with pp2 arms. But step one is breaking in stones. Hope some of this makes sense. I was super disappointed when I first got it. By a week larer, albeit heavy usage, I couldn’t of been happier. And then I upgraded the arms, got the 50/80 set, 1200/1600 ceramics and now it’s amazing. Let me know if I can help. Hope this helps someone lol.

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