I’ve owned my WE for over two years, yet, this is my first post. I love my WE and it is the most precise piece of sharpening equipment I own.
However, there are two primary inconveniences the I find (again, this my opinion):
Finding the sweet-spot: Yes, I do use the Sharpie method.
When sharpening long knives (>8") I find that I need to take the knife out and reset it, in order to accomodate for the length.
So, I was wondering if I might spark any interest (or not) in the following:
At this time the base rod allows the arms to move horizontally. I, personally, feel that somehow allowing the arms to move in a vertical direction as well would be great. Allowing the arms to slide along the base rod in a vertical and horizontal direction, I believe, would eliminate the need to move the knife once it’s set, regardless of length or position; of course one could still use quality control methods via the angle cube and Sharpie.
I apologize for not posting a pic or outline (although, I do have one in mind).
Again, just trying to make an already great product better.
You shouldn’t have to reset an 8" knife. For example, this knife…
in this thread… that I used as an example on securing flexible knives, the blade is almost 11 in. long, and I was able to sharpen the entire edge without moving the knife.
Feel free to post your ideas on what you have in mind.
After playing around for a good while with my WE I wanted a few modifications. One was adding that second moving dimension to the blade.
The other was greatly reduce the play in the arms. I am still refining it but any suggestions would be welcome.
Maybe the modifying got out of hand…The WE certainly is a great system.
The other question is what shapton stone to use after the 1600 ceramic. I want to get away from tapes. They work great but are a hassle.
The diamond sandpapers in particular work wonders but they are just too expensive.
Oh and lastly, please use gloves. About 2 weeks ago I was sharpening my Sebenza, which of course was already plenty sharp… :S ., in a moment of
being clumsy my hand caught on the blade, a cut severe enough to require an emergency room visit and stitches,
I nearly cut the tendon that controls my thumb, the hand out of commission for 6 weeks. So, be careful.
Welcome to the forum! Great to see you enjoy your WEPS so much that you’ve already made some modifications.
That said, I cannot make out from the picture what exactly you’ve done. Could you elaborate a bit on this?
Personally I use the 5000 grit Shaptons after the 1200/1600 stones. However, most people would probably give you a different advice and say you should go back to 2000 grit or so. That’s certainly safer, but I find it a bit overkill.
Mark, it looks like the center vise slides forward and to the rear to be able to adjust it. What a brilliant idea! I have only ever thought about moving the arms themselves!
You are right. The vise is on a, of the shelf carriage that moves on a of the shelf rail. I use two nylon tipped bolts to keep the vise in place.
It works but the position of those bolts is not optimal so I need to think about that a little more. The carriage looks tilted in the picture, it isnt, just the way
the light falls.
I used ball joints and a larger diameter rod to eliminate slop in the arms. Essentially a home made version of the Pro Pack II upgrade arms but a little cheaper.
The horizontal bar is just aluminium extrusion you can buy, the rest of it I made from aluminium scrap. I might move the ball joints up a little higher. I still need to make a low angle adapter.
That looks great. I made something similar earlier this year using a picatinny rail. It was cool looking but wasn’t very useful haha. I like the rods and rail you made for them.
Thanks Arne, now I understand. It looks very good! But what do you use this second dimension for? Do you sharpen very long knives or is there another purpose?
It would be used for longer knives or doing serrations with a triangle or other shaped ceramics or stones. I am with Josh. I only thought of moving the arms rather than the vise. Nice idea! Thanks for sharing!
I have been reading a lot on the WE and other sharpening devices. I realize that the angle between blade & stone should not change
on the straight edge of the blade. However, When sharpening longer knives I did not like the long strokes needed and the more extreme angle to reach the whole knife. So the motivation was more convenience than anything else.
Still going down the rabbit hole of grit progression to get the shiny edge. Really just aesthetics, I know that a polished edge is not always
the best for every job.
Mark, it would also come in handy when you are doing a straight razor and want the pivot to be in the center of the blade (because you clamp on the tang basically). Or if you could figure out how to clamp on the handle of something you could get down to 2-3 dps
Arne, is that extruded aluminum that you used? Looking at your setup and i am very new to this but was thinking, what if you added lets say 2 north and south bars on your frame that would hold the arms and stones and have them able to slide to where you are able to do very long knives if needed.
