sksharp

These are difficult discussions simply because of each individual definition of what a sharp knife is and means to each of us. I think that if you are sharpening for practical use and ease of maintenance the WE saves an incredible amount of time, at least that has been my experience. Most, not all but most, of the hand sharpened knives that I…[Read more]

Welcome Gary!!!

Hello Mickey, the advanced alignment guide makes repeating clamp placement very easy and repeatable. If your unit hasn’t shipped yet you could get them to ship it with the unit and if not I’m sure they’ll send one to you.

I use a stiff nylon toothbrush with water and a couple drops of dawn dish soap mixed in. I’ve only cleaned them 2 or 3 times in almost a year now. I do wipe mine off like MarcH described above with a clean rag after every use.

I use a 130 pre 2017 model without issue for the most part. Having said that I would buy from WE and get the updated model with the warranty. You may save a few bucks buying the seconds but if you can afford it, the 2017 model is the route I would go.

Nice knife Tom!  D2 steel seems to be very popular with a lot of knife makers.

Personally I’ve used the Go the way it came with just the 200/600 stone. I have added my 5/3.5 leather strop to it and I have to say I’ve been impressed with the results. Very easy to match existing angles on knifes with this machine. Stones are breaking in nicely and are producing very good results, a great working edge without stropping. You can…[Read more]

Welcome Sir and congrats on your WE GO! It is a great product.

Hey Josh, I like S30V for any knife personally but if your buddy is forging his own you want to go with what he recommends. If they are making a  knife from blanks he should be able to due what you want.  Most high carbon steel works very nice for hunters and have for a long time. I would ask your buddy.

I believe I referred to it at the beginning as a micro convex if I’m not mistaken. A strop will not create a pronounced convex bevel like on a slack belt sander, thus my term of micro convex.

A strop rounds the bevel starting at the shoulder of the bevel (point of greatest pressure) and diminishes from that point all the way to the cutting edge…[Read more]

Your welcome Organic, that’s kind of my point with the strops. I’ll bet I use a little more pressure when I call it heavy pressure.  I have actually lifted the side of my WE130, with a marble base, while stropping so that will let you know how much pressure I call heavy. The lighter the pressure the less you back off your sharpened angle. K…[Read more]

I hear you Organic, for me the pressure on the strop has to match not only how much you back off the angle but the material of the strop and the surface area of the contact point as well. When you back off the sharpened angle 2 deg. like is recommended when you start with the WE you need a lot of pressure on the strop to reach the cutting edge.…[Read more]

Welcome Sir, most of the guys with some experience sharpening seem to really fall in love with the WE. I think you will love your choice. Please share your experiences as you go, we all learn from each other.

That’s a good video Organic, I have watched several videos by C.C.C. and they’ve been informative.

The one thing I would like to add to the information is the effect of the shoulder of the bevel and the effect it has on the cutting action of an edge. Since we back off the angle so as not to roll the cutting edge during stropping the highest…[Read more]

It’s just how it’s worded and applied to the specific arena of sharpening but asymmetric means to me that the knife was intentionally sharpened with different bevel angles or the center is moved off center with the same angle by working one side more than the other, like a 70/30 or 90/10 sharpened knife. When you say uneven grind that means to me…[Read more]

Even if you pack your system up after every use a devise that holds your stones securely and accessible are invaluable in extending the life of your stones, strops and platens. The Rack-It helps prevent cross contamination and damage. I highly recommend the Rack-It! I own 4 of them so I can separate my mediums and I have limited space so smaller…[Read more]

Just looking at the pics. the tip is not an issue, that is an easy fix. You can reprofile that with the WE but I hope you have 50/80 grit stones. I’ve done some scandi grind knives that I’ve had to remove metal from a 7/16″ wide bevel. You need aggressive stones to take that much metal off in a reasonable time period, not to mention the wear on…[Read more]

MarcH, I think that’s the best explanation (with examples) of how one man determines the best position for any one knife! The application of your information suggests to me that you are not only considering an even bevel but retaining the bevel the way it was originally sharpened even if the angle may change down the length of the edge. With some…[Read more]

No disagreement Marc, the 130 is absolutely easier to use on most knives. It’s just I’ve found that the lower height of the clamp resulting in a tighter arc makes it better for small knives and knives that have a pronounced belly near the tip, such as what most refer to as butchers knife for example.

If I could only have one sharpener though, and…[Read more]