Jerry Stephenson

[Jerry Stephenson]

Delrin is relatively soft and would load up with metal filings and diamond debris. I think it may be hard to beat good old fashioned steel in this application.

[Jerry Stephenson]

You can use a steady rest to support the rod but the setup time means it better be something you really want to machine. –Jerry

[Jerry Stephenson]

Very nice ball joint adaptation.

As for the larger diameter rods, I did a quick search for metric and decimal sizes in the .255″ range and found nothing. The .250 seems to work pretty well. If you can find the stock I can make arms out of it.

Taking 5/16 and turning it down to .255 would be a lot of work and difficult because the rod isn’t that stiff over the full length.

–Jerry

[Jerry Stephenson]

I have one of these. I hardly ever carry it because it isn’t legal to carry in CA. Interesting that you don’t care for the 154CM steel that benchmade is so fond of. I haven’t done nearly as much sharpening as you but I tend to agree with you. Certainly it is adequate for an EDC knife, and I find it pretty tough so it stays pretty sharp for a long time, but I like some of the other steels better. I’ve had really good luck with some of the sandvick steels on Kershaws. And I like the D2 steel althogh I sometimes wonder if it is likely to break under heavy load (brittle).

You probably know that if you send the knives into Benchmade they will repair them free of charge and probably replace more parts than just the springs.

For a really cool auto knife, try the Benchmade 9051. I have one of those also (that I can’t carry).

–Jerry

[Jerry Stephenson]

I have now used my replaced arms (see post previous page) for several months with great success. The improvements I made are:

1. Diameter better matches the holes through the stones.
2. Thickness of flat section matches the inside dimension of the u-joint.
3. Hole in flat exactly matches the pin.
4. My arms are perhaps 1/2″ longer. No big deal. One member requested them 2″ longer.

I have recieved some private messages and made sets for other members. If you are interested, drop me a note.

–Jerry

[Jerry Stephenson]

I just do the sweeping stroke toward me. Not a problem once you get used to it. But I often work on the knife in two halves anyway working each end twoard the middle.

[Jerry Stephenson]

PS I reused the pins. No need for machine screws. –Jerry

[Jerry Stephenson]

I have a milling machine so I made new arms out of 1/4″ drill rod. Fits much more snugly into the stones which are about .255 ID. The arms that came with the machine are .235 or so. I machined the width of the bottom tongue to fit very snugly into the u-joint and eliminated just about all the movement. Took me about an hour using a collet block to get the faces parallel.

–Jerry

[Jerry Stephenson]

I’ve been sharpening knives for 40 years, razor sharp, with various stones and accessories and never cut myself appreciably. This morning I cut myself in almost the same place you did reaching around the knife to move the arm as I was about to take it out of the vice. Not nearly as deep but not good.

I think the problem is in the knife pointing away from you at the low angle to your eyesight makes it error likely to work around because of depth perception.

I sharpened 2 more knives today with the knife pointing toward me and I like that better. Don’t anticipate any more cuts. Also makes it easier for me to work the tip.

–Jerry

[Jerry Stephenson]

Clay,
Yes, lots of diamonds coming off of it at first and it is smoothing down. I guess it may need more time. I got a bit bettter edge on a practice kitchen knife this evening. I am impressed with the diamond stones, very good quality with lots of diamonds. One reason my old DMT set gets knives so sharp is the stones are worn out. But it takes forever. I am really looking forward to the time savings with Wicked Edge.

I just sent an email with my shipping address and I’ll take a pair of the 800/1000 stones. I’ll call tomorrow with payment info so you can ship them all together or you can call me, I’ll be up early.

thanks,
Jerry

[Jerry Stephenson]

I’ve recieved my basic set and bought a wooden cutting block 12x12x2″ and mounted it. couldn’t wait for a granite block. Looks great.

Unless I’m doing it wrong, the 600 grit just isn’t fine enough for me. Seems to me with the basic kit with 600 grit, the “caution, your knives will get dangerously sharp” warning isn’t needed. My dad would say “you can ride to town on that knife”. The hair on my arms just laughs as I try to shave off a few. So I can’t really do any more sharpening until I can get the 800/1000 which seems to be sold out everywhere.

Otherwise, I like the design. I will be calling clay on monday to ask if he is having a manufacturing problem with some of his jaws. My jaws don’t have the upper holes lined up at all. I had to file the hole bigger to use it at all. It is still not smoothe and my guess is clay will send me new jaws.

I also plan to shim the u-joint connection at the bottom of the rods to reduce the angular movement allowed and keep the rods at a fixed angle.

I haven’t had much chance to play with clamping yet but I think I’ll be able to do lots of creative clamping and sharpen about anything.

–Jerry

[Jerry Stephenson]

Good job by wicked edge for replacing the jaws.

Remember that the bottom screw is basicly a lever using about a 3 to 1 mechanical advantage to tighten the vice. The top screw I tighten about as tight as I can with the tool provided. The bottom screw I just tighten until I see the gap widen a bit at the bottom which tells me I have strained the jaws a bit and have a nice clamping load on the blade. Don’t overtighten the lower screw. –Jerry

[Jerry Stephenson]

Just bought the basic system from a knifemaker/dealer that I bought a knife from on the benchmade forum. Can’t wait for it to arrive.

I have some ideas about clamping. I’m an engineer and a hobby machinist. Clamping is one of the keys to successful machining. I’ll post any ideas I come up with and may even come up with some simple clamping devices/products.

–Jerry

[Jerry Stephenson]

Thanks guys. You’ve given me a good idea. Oring material is available in many diameters and durometers. it is designed to compress but stay firm. You can order any diameter you want from mcmaster.com. a couple of 1/4″ wide pieces of doublestick tape would hold the straight pieces of oring material at the top of the jaws to clamp the blade while the bottom of the jaws makes a line clamp on the spine.

I’ll get busy and post my results. I need to get one of these ordered. Maybe I’ll call the proprieters here once the sun comes up and see if they can put me a package together.

As a newbie, I’m having trouble changing my profile and adding an avatar photo. Are there restrictions on new members?

thanks,
Jerry

[Jerry Stephenson]

Leo,
Thanks for the warm welcome. Especially after reading your reply I’m looking to buy as complete a set as I can. There is a guy on ebay who offers 100 thru 4 finenesses of diamonds but he only offers the paperstone base and I thought I’d like to upgrade to one of the stones.

Still haven’t heard form anyone on clamping….is that the great challenge?

–Jerry

[Author]

Posts