Nick Middleton

[Nick Middleton]

As far as “sharpness”: the 1-degree increments won’t matter. Sharpness is achieved by reaching the apex (at any angles) and meticulously going through the progress of grits.

The Micro-adjust feature helps more for matching existing-bevels without removing extra material.

A workaround I did when I had the original-arms was to replace the factory screws (that have the points to lock into the detents) with ones that were flat at the end of the threads.  I also mounted the bar the other-way-around to put the dimples out of sight.  This lets the flat-tip of the screw grab anywhere along the bar and not have to commit to a detent. I also use an Angle-Cube to confirm the angle to be recorded, or repeated at a later-sharpening.

With that combination, you can achieve excellent results. (I consider that the “minimum buy-in” to perfect-results)

Any upgrades to the arms or clamp beyond-that would be for the sake of sharpening-speed, OCD-grade bevels, or general enjoyment.

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sksharp, wickededge

[Nick Middleton]

If getting shorter screws is a problem, you could probably file-down the screws to remove the extra-length until they fit.

[Nick Middleton]

I would say this YouTube Video posted by Curry Custom Cutlery made me completely rethink where I mount my knives in the vice.

I was wasting a lot of time having to change my motion, or make extra strokes in sections to correct the bevel.  I didn’t realize I was compensating for not having the knife if the best location and not being able to get an even-bevel on horizontal swipes. I had to use extra vertical-stokes to grind the areas not getting the same attention! I was getting even heel & tip; but not heel, tip, & belly!  I made a cardboard template like his to help with determining the best spot on a knife that and it removes the guess-work. I didn’t not have a good grasp of the effect of edge-height and belly-curvature.

 

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jake556, Organic, sksharp, Mark76, Marc H, wickededge

[Nick Middleton]

I use the chisel-shape.  You want the tip wide-enough to easily center on the cutting-edge. Let the knife cut into the tip of the marker as you run it along the whole blade . It will develop a slot that makes it even easier to index in the future, and guarantee both sides of the edge get painted in 1-pass.

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Jonesthegas, dulledge

[Nick Middleton]

Hi Gang,

I purchased an older WE System and I could use some help.

It seems as if ALL my settings are funky.

The right arm will be at 17.5 or 18 degrees and in order to have an even bevel the left arm will be set at 15 degrees. What coo you think I could be doing wrong? Could it be the thickness of the knives that I’ve been sharpening?

I have a tons of different blades that I’ve been practicing on: All of our kitchen knives, my old Benchmades and Spyderco’s too… None of my good knives, just old beaters.

Believe it or not I’m very good at this, it just takes practice. I’m just thrown off by the inconsistency in the degrees on the arms- and one of the Benchmades that I was working on last night the left arm was set at 15 and the stones were eating in to the side of the centerpiece that holds the knife in place. The right arm was fine- set at 17.5 I think, but the left was at 15 and just hitting the corner of the jig…

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks Gang!

It sounds like the nature of the base model WE. The right arm will always be off by about the amount you mentioned. It gets magnified by thicker blades. What happens is the left clamp-jaw is fixed and the right clamp-jaw moves in proportion to blade thickness. Unfortunately, the markings on the right arm don’t move with it to compensate. Like mentioned before: get an angle cube and just ignore the markings.

[Nick Middleton]

Thanks Mark! I’ve been lurking for the last 6 weeks since I got my WEPS. This was the first topic I felt I had any thing to contribute.

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[Nick Middleton]

I found myself fighting the same issue.
I thought about the groove too, but I’m lazy and decided to take a different approach:
I reversed the bar so the dimples point to the back. Then I swapped out the thumbscrews for cap-head allen-screws that have the same threads and a head that fits the same key as the vice.
The new screws are flat at the ends so they grab the bar well. This allows me to hand-tighten them so I can slide the arms in and out and carefully make micro-adjustments then snug them with the key.
Now I have infinite adjustment and I can tighten it more than I could have by hand so it doesn’t come loose on me mid-sharpening anymore.
I do uses a my own allen wrench that has a 90 degree end so the base doesn’t block my access to the arms, although it is still possible.

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