Kevin

[Kevin]

I preface this comment disclosing my newbie status with wicked edge but in my opinion if you sharpen knives with a bent vice be prepared to reprofile when your new vice arrives. It seems to me like the blade angle is following the bend angle of the vice causing a change in the edge angle of the sharpened blade. I’ve pretty much redone everything at this point and thankfully my new vice seems to be holding up so far. I’ve done about 15 knives and after tonight I now can shave with my steak knives if i want to. They are scary sharp. Wow.

[Kevin]

Ok, I guess I should have read this thread last night before using my strops for the first time. The syringe clearly says single use so that’s what i did, I loaded the blank leather strops with all the paste. Oh well.

[Kevin]

I am a new customer. I don’t’ know Clay and he could be a saint for all I know. I do know that out of the few responses to my thread at least one customer has had 2 bent vices. That is a major problem in my opinion. Why are they still being sold and shipped?

I posted a simple question a while ago on here about using my new vice correctly and it went unanswered. Fine. I’m using the new one just like the old one. If I bend it, oh well I guess I’ll be getting another new one again. Instead of instruction I read a post more or less asking not post problems with the sharpener.

The more I read this thread the more aggravated I get. I didn’t know my vice was bending and it damaged my very expensive Shun kitchen knives. Should I be complaining more about the scratches my bent vice put in them. No. Or the fact that I have to resharpen every knife that was touched by the bent vice because that angles are wrong. No. I haven’t heard from Clay. If there ware 12 bad vices maybe he should make it a point to have conversations with the people effected so we don’t get on his forum and speculate.

[Kevin]

I believe that this forum and forums like it should be used to discuss concerns and best product practices. They are a tool for consumers to help each other and help manufacturers gain, retain or lose customers based on how they react to issues.

I for one do not agree with how the bent vice situation is being handled. This has been my first experience with WE. I think the customer support regarding the hardening issue has been excellent, however if it were my decision to make I would definitely not be sending out any vice jaws with potential problems once they were discovered. It is horrible to think that someone paying top dollar, $350 or more for a knife sharpener, would receive two bad vice jaw sets in a row. That is absolutely inexcusable to me and I don’t think frustrated would correctly describe me demeanor if that happened to me.

Why hasn’t the issue even been acknowledged publicly by WE? Why hasn’t there been a recall? Why isn’t’ whoever did the hardening being held responsible? If a third party didn’t harden the vice jaws correctly they should be paying for a full recall and taking the blame for all problem vices. If hey followed WE engineering instructions than WE should man up and take responsibility and recall all the potential problems.

These vices took months to ship. I’m sorry but with that kind of lead time you better get it right or do something about the problem if you don’t. Answering the phone and sending out a potentially defective replacement quickly doesn’t cut it for me at all.

Could I really place an order right now and receive an improperly hardened vice? That’s absolutely ridiculous to think that could occur and if I were deciding weather to spend $350 on this system and I happened to see this thread I would have second thoughts for sure. I’d be glad to know about the potential problem before deciding to place my order.

[Kevin]

I got my new vice set about a week after reporting the problem. I’m very nervous about tightening the new vice. I tried taking the bottom screw to about the thickness of the blade and clamping the upper screw snug then going back to the bottom. There was still some movement when i pulled on the handle of the knife to see if it was tight so I’m wondering should I keep tightening the bottom screw. I think that’s how I bent the vice last time. I twisted about a half turn and it was pretty snug but the blade definitely still moved a little. I sharpened one knife last night this way and when I was finished I unlocked the bottom screw and the knife blade basically just slide out the top without having to loosen the top screw at all. Is this normal or am I doing something wrong? I don’t want to mess up another vice by over tightening it.

[Kevin]

Perfect. Thank you.

[Kevin]

I see what you mean now. I haven’t sharpened a knife yet that has a blade shape like that one. All my knives are square at the top of the blade so there is a pretty even grip from the vice on the blade all the way to the edge. Nice trick to know if the situation presents itself though. Thanks.

[Kevin]

Could you please post a picture of a blade properly seated using chamois? I’d like to see how much material you’re using and how you’re clamping it. I don’t’ like the idea of using double sided tape either, seems too messy.

[Kevin]

I received a call back from WE last night and they are replacing my vice. I was told there we’re some hardening problems with the batch I received. I did follow the instructions tightening my vice and because of the video lifting the unit off the table by the knife I was tightening my vice as hard as I could on the bottom screw and not achieving a grip like that. I’m thinking that because the vice was bending, that’s why I wasn’t getting the correct grip. Also probably why my knives have scratching/marring marks where the jaws gripped the blade. Regardless I think the WE unit is effective and I’ve personally received very good customer service from them taking care of the issue. I’m not supper happy about my knives getting scratched by a defective vice though if that’s what happened but I guess it happens. At least they are sharp now and if they were new I’d be a lot more upset than I am.

[Kevin]

Bent Vice Pictures

Attachments:

• IMG_0509.jpg
• IMG_0510.jpg

[Kevin]

It’s bent. The vice won’t close with nothing in it. There is a 1/16″ gap at least at the top when the vice is clamped with nothing in it.

[Kevin]

I think it bent when i was tightening the key. I never noticed it bent before and last night. I sharpened a fillet knife and noticed it then. I can’t believe I’m strong enough to clamp it down hard enough to bend it. It’s never been dropped and barely been used.

[Author]

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