Roikyou
@roikyou
active 6 years, 8 months agoForum Replies Created
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Couple things. Don’t use the symmetry side to side as an indicator of the knife’s positioning. Not unless you have verfied that the vice, arms, gross and micro-adjustments, side to side when set identically, with the adjustment screw threads backed all-the-way in, give you equal angle readings when measuring a clamped flat, straight piece of metal like a machinist ruler with a zeroed calibrated digital angle cube. I have tried this, others have tried this and I’ve found it to vary some from side to side. The difference was a couple 10th of a degree, not that much, but still there was a variance. Also, knives are hand ground and hand finished. They are not true and symmetrical side to side, either. Some I’ve found are very close. Others are way off side to side. As a regular part of my sharpening process, I clamp then visually inspect all knives under lighted magnification before sharpening. Seldom do I find a knife right out-of-the-box with even appearing bevels, side to side. I do lay my machinist ruler against the side of a clamped knife, when possible and check the angles of the flat sides with the zeroed angle cube, side to side when I believe a knife may be misshaped, missground or cockeyed in the clamp. Unless you’ve taken steps to identify what your working with, both tool and knife, I wouldn’t and couldn’t make any assumptions or draw any conclusions about the source of the variance. There are too many variables. Lastly, for me, I don’t care what the “L” bracket settings read side to side, and where the micro-adjustment screws are positioned, as long as it visually appears mounted straight and vertical and the bevel angles measured with the zeroed angle cube are the same +or- 0.02º or so. Afterall what maters is how it looks to the naked eye and how it cuts. I given this some further thought. If you’re still convinced the knife clamps at a cant, I’d reverse and reclamp the knife with the knife point towards you, this time. If it’s a knife issue the cant should reverse with the knife. If it’s a vice issue the reversed knife should still lean left as your initial complaint. You may also want to swap the vice jaws side for side. Just push the pins out and exchange their position and remount. It be interesting to see if that has any influence. I realized they’re a machined part but there is a possibility of a fault in the quality control when machining.
I agree, I think the finishing grind is rarely even which I think your right, could be the reason one side could take more adjustment than the other. Here’s my over thinking, if that is true, than what you really need is both arms and micro adjustment as close to even as possible to help even out the finishing hand grind, even out the bevels. If that is true, than having the ability to adjust each arm could be difficult or even detrimental, cause you’d have to either eye ball it, get it as close to what you think is right. I guess if you really wanted to be absolute, you could set both arms with some kind of flat metal like you mentioned. Decide what degree your going to set, use a guide to set the arms exactly the same. When you get a knife, using a sharpy, do the normal test, you could see how much each bevel on each side is off, then re-profile to even out the bevels. Sounds like a lot of work to be really detailed about it but I kind of over think things like that.
Here’s where I sit, just to try to get an edge on this knife, try to mount it and set the angle.
You can see to set to 16 degrees, one side has to be almost to the end of the micro adjustment and the other has room, it’s a pretty big gap, if you were doing this in person, you’d understand. My thought, with the knife being 90 degrees, if one side needs more adjustment than the other, there’s a cant and you’ll end up with uneven bevels. So, I’m catching the resolution is to add a degree or two and buy add on’s if your knife is too small. Sorry, having a hard time swallowing it.
Which thinking about that big 3.7 inch thick knife, that could be a good training knife.
I did use my kitchen knife to start which I could take that for another round. Funny thing is, all my knives are difficult except for the kitchen knife. I have the benchmade 808 and 818, mini grip and full size grip sheepsfoot, then the leek which is worse. There is no easy, it goes from training wheels to ferrari.
Coming from the KME, where there are no gaps in the clamp jaws and it’s a full rubber insert, I guess it’s hard for me to go from, no offense, an easier clamping system to a finicky clamping system that might need add on’s. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t have dropped over a grand to make this work but I expected a lot. Here’s what I’m used to working with, same knife and actually the one I couldn’t get to work on the WE this morning, now a work in progress on the KME.
Almost as far as I can go. I do see the four teeth go the length of the jaw, gives me a little better idea of how to place the knife. No offense, but placing the knife on the guide pins is a bad recommendation. I think that would only fit certain knives. It’s almost an art on it’s own how to place the blade properly. I can see if this works where the AAG would help for future placement.
