Chelsea Page

[Chelsea Page]

Feel like I should clear up my post above since I think it was misinterpreted a bit.

It was meant to be a bit of humor, not some kind of serious post. Tone is hard to measure across written word, I guess that’s why smileys were invented. 😆

[Chelsea Page]

Hi Clay,

The filters on my 3M are purple (2091 type) and I use the respirator for other stuff like wood sanding and rough metal grinding, so at the moment the evidence is tainted and somewhat difficult to see.

However the evidence was graphic in my handkerchief after doing several knives around Christmas time one evening. I too thought that most of the metal dust would be too heavy to float and be breathed, but it appears not to be so. And it’s not like I’m swiping the stones with wild abandon – I think my technique is normal, at least after viewing tons of WEPS videos!

Rgds,

I think of occams razor in times like this..

Is it more likely that the heavy metal dust particles floated into your nose,

or it is more likely that the metal dust on your fingers got into your nose by you touching your face? Humans touch their faces on average 2.5-4.5k times a day, and we are not conscious of it most of the time.

[Chelsea Page]

Good questions. The stones aren’t hitting all the way to the heel of the blade because of the choil; this is really common with Spyderco knives. At the moment, the only solutions are to either trim the plastic from one side of your stone handles or use the thicker waterstones. Another possible option is to remove the stones from their handles, add a spacer piece and then mount the stones to the spacer for extra height.

For the tip, I’d recommend mounting the knife more centered in the clamp with the tip closer to the vise. You can use this guide: Finding the Sweet Spot to help find the right position. It also helps not to over-rotate the stones on the rod as you approach the tip. If you imagine keeping the stone in the same plane throughout the stroke and adding just a tiny bit of pressure with your thumbs, you’ll be able to get the tip needle sharp.

Good call Clay. I had to do this on some of my stones… I took them to my belt sander and removed the plastic shoulders… helped immensely! What I do on my Para 2 is this….

• I don’t use any double sided tape or anything to help clamp it in
• I actually clamp it in all the way at the base of the blade (on the flat part near the heel… Where you can see the “s30v” and where it was made, etc.
• I then tilt the tip downward towards the base and do this while I have my stone on the rod propped up against the edge. I do this so that way I can see exactly the point at which the tip is perpendicular to the stone itself. In theory this will maintain a consistent angle all the way through the edge because the stone will always be perpendicular to the edge (since the joint at the base of the rod arm is fixed).

I’ll try to take some photos soon of this… what progression and how many passes did you do roughly on each?[/quote]

Could you please illustrate this technique with photgraphs? It would help me tremendously!

[Chelsea Page]

Clay, how on earth can it take you that short of time to reprofile blades with the 100 grit stones?

It takes me up to 15 minutes per side to reprofile a blade using the 100 grit stones, and that’s on steels like S30V…. They just don’t cut fast enough for me to be done that fast, given that I am reducing the edge angle by 5 degrees or so.

I haven’t even tried the 15 degree settings for fear of it taking an hour per side with the 100 grit stones.

[Chelsea Page]

No matter how hard I try, I can never get a blade dead center according to the angle cube. I’m always at least 3/4 of a degree off, most of the time more.

So I ask, how much is too much? How much is acceptable?

Thanks guys.

Is the variance always on the same side?[/quote]

Unless I force it to be otherwise, yes. Always on the left side even with non FFG blades. I just figured it was something I was doing wrong.

[Chelsea Page]

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

[Chelsea Page]

Just for the record, the left side of the blade always seems to have a slightly lower angle than the right. It’s been that way on every single knife I’ve done, despite me making sure it’s within 1 degree of being centered using an angle cube.

So to be clear, if you set both sides to 20 degrees and place the angle cube on the stone after zeroing it on the base, 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]

I haven’t measured the angles on the stones yet. I honestly don’t think it’s the system, I think the way I hold the knife while tightening the clamp makes it cant to the left ever so slighty. I’ve measured it on the handle, and I’m always off about .5 degrees.

I’ll try and make a YT vid to explain what I’m talking about, but I truly do think it’s something that I’m doing.

By the way, I got my new angle arms in, and on the third knife I did I got a hair whittling edge. I LOVE it! So much less hectic than the EP. Oh yeah, somehow with the new arms my rounding of the tip issue is gone as well. My tips are like little needle points now.

[Chelsea Page]

Just for the record, the left side of the blade always seems to have a slightly lower angle than the right. It’s been that way on every single knife I’ve done, despite me making sure it’s within 1 degree of being centered using an angle cube.

[Chelsea Page]

Couldn’t you just use the knife handle as a flat to measure with the cube?

[Chelsea Page]

The Chosera’s aren’t really an option for me right now. I have them in bench stones and for the EP, but right now I can’t afford them for the WE yet.

I may try to trim the plastic off the platerns soon. Has anyone here done that?

Thanks for all of the suggestions. 🙂

[Chelsea Page]

Just realized I posted this in the wrong section. Forgive me, I need to learn my way around this forum. 🙂

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