We’re getting close to being able to make the Advanced Alignment Guide (AAG). I’m hoping for feedback before we finalize the design. The basic concept is a clear plastic card with a printed grid featuring slots to slide over the Depth Key. The user would plug the Depth Key into the holes in the Vise as usual and then go about finding the sweet spot. Once the user has found the sweet spot, they would slide the AAG onto the pins along the outside of the Vise and then read the coordinate on the grid where the tip of their knife is e.g. A7, B4 etc… The card thickness is 30 mil (like a credit card) and flexible.
I’d like to hear back what people would like to see in terms of dimensions and design e.g. extending forward 4" from the front of the vise, extending upward 2" from the top of the vise and also 2" downward from the top of the vise with 1/4" grid spacing. Any feedback would be very helpful before we finalize and go to press.
That is the big question for me - how large to make it. I would say as large as possible as long as you can use it and adjust the knife or at least it won’t get in the way. I may or may not use it the first time I sharpen to set up the knife, but I would use it after finding the sweet spot to record the settings then use it next time to quickly set it up the same way.
You know you got it right if its made from plastic, cheaper to make than the metal ruler we have now and can replace the metal ruler with new WE’s and work the same or better for any type of knife.
I would ask for 1/4" tick marks, even if they are very small. On my metal ruler I put them in myself.
I can setup any knife pretty well without the gage, but where the gage really comes in handy is being able to quickly set up the same knife again for touch ups. To keep things simple I usually keep something parallel (flat edge or spine) to make repeat setups easy. I have some knifes I know I need to tilt to get a better sweet spot and haven’t done that yet. I will definitely use this for recording tilt setups.
I haven’t added the numbers and letters, but you can see how it would slide down onto the Depth Key. The horizontal bars above the pin slots would be for aligning a blade edge if you want to make it parallel to the top of the Vise. The grid squares are 1/4" x 1/4".
Being able to look at the sketch, I like it. I think this would help alot with a few knives that I tilt when it comes time for touch ups. The card being clear with the markings colored is a great thing. Count me in on this one. I think size wise what you have sketched is pretty much there, but thats just me.
Geocyclist; I did the same marking of the ruller that came with mine.
I’ve resharpened many knives with a “clamp n go” mentality, finding the sweet spot etc and starting at a somewhat lower grit(say 400/600) Ive been able to resharpen without the aid of the pins or scale ruler.
One area where I think this would be most indispensable is in regards to a mirror polished edge that has been taken down down thru the various stages and a large amount of time has been invested.
My experience with trying to redo a mirror edge without having a accurate recording system was sad and disheartening to say the least. I quickly realized I would have to basically start over from low grit because precise angle RE-matching wasnt possible. I believe this device or sharpening aid would allow for much less backtracking to get to final re-polish…in theory.
Edit: Another powerful area where this would be beneficial is in sharing the exact coordinates that were used to get a particular bevel shape. Someone asks how to sharpen a difficult knife, and a confident response can be given to place the tip at coordinates 5d etc…
Bill, you should realize the current ruler or the new plastic card are not so much about finding the sweet spot, but about repeatability. Whether or not you have found the sweet spot and are sharpening with it, the ruler and card make it possible to re-clamp your knife and resharpen your knife in exactly the same position as before. That makes resharpening a breeze with the WEPS.
That said, I like your method of finding the sweet spot. It probably works very well with the pocket knife on your photos. However, to complicate matters (they are never as simple as they seem at first sight ), there is no “the” sweet spot. I wrote a blog post on this: Angle changes on the Wicked Edge. When sharpening a knife, the angle along the dotted lines in the following figure remains constant:
These dotted lines are the horizontal line and the circle.
Assume you have a knife with a long straight edge and then a tip with an acute curve. Your method of finding the sweet spot will result in some angle changes along the straight edge. As an alternative you could choose clamp the knife horizontally and move the knife backward (to the right in the picture), so that there are only angle changes along the tip. Using this alternative method there are in the above example even no angle changes along the tip either.
So the question is: where and how much do you want to minimize angle changes.
Clay, I think it’s a very good idea! I like the layout you presented, but like Geo I’d like the card to be at least as long as the current ruler. This is because I (and many other users, I assume) mainly sharpen kitchen knives, which are often 210-240 mm, but can be up to 300 mm.
I would, like on the current ruler, also like a scales to be printed on the card, so you can easily record your settings.
One thing I run into with the current depth key and using the ruler is that the pins of the current depth key are not very long. Ideally I’d first like to clamp the knife (using the depth key) and only then put the ruler/plastic card on. However, because the depth key pins often don’t extend out of the clamp at the “other” side of the vise, I have to first put the ruler on the depth key, then insert the depth key with the ruler into the vise and then clamp the knife. Then I have to remove the ruler (and thus the depth key), because it gets in the way with sharpening. This makes clamping a bit more of a hassle. So I’d like longer pins on the depth key. Or if that’s not possible… I’d like the card not put on the pins on the depth key, but on the top of the vise (and I’m not exactly sure how that could be done).
Clay, I think it’s a very good idea. I like the layout you presented, but like Geo I’d like the card to be at least as long as the current ruler. This is because I (and many other users, I assume) often sharpen kitchen knives, which are usually 210-240 mm, but can be up to 300 mm.
I would, like on the current ruler, also like scales to be printed on the card (horizontal and vertical), so you can easily record your settings.
One thing I run into with the current depth key and using the ruler is that the pins of the current depth key are not very long. Ideally I’d first like to clamp the knife using the depth key and only then put the ruler/plastic card on. However, because the depth key pins often don’t extend out of the clamp at the other side of the vise, I have to first put the ruler on the depth key, then insert the depth key with the ruler into the vise and then clamp the knife. Then I have to remove the ruler (and thus the depth key), because it gets in the way with sharpening. This makes clamping a bit more of a hassle. So I’d like longer pins on the depth key. Or if that’s impractical… I’d like the card not put on the pins of the depth key, but on the top of the vise (and I’m not exactly sure how that could be done).
I’m not seeing yet how we can get it to the other side of the clamp without redesigning the Depth Keys to have longer pins, which would also mean redesigning the Base piece to accommodate the longer pins. Did you have a specific idea for how to do it?
Here are a couple more with lines engraved. In production, they’d be printed on the surface in a very visible color and the letters/numbers would be right at the starts of the lines, not in between them as shown in the drawings:
Would something as simple as inserting the depth key from the other side do what Mark is wanting it to do? Just a thought…never said it was a good one. LOL
Would something as simple as inserting the depth key from the other side do what Mark is wanting it to do? Just a thought….never said it was a good one. LOL [/quote]
The other side has a slot instead of just the two holes, so the depth key might sag a little bit.
With a simple grid I could quickly, easily, and very accurately replace the blade in the exact…same…spot when its time to resharpen. Seriously whats not to love?
And again I would like to mention the issue of mirror polishing. If you’ve ever had a mirror polished edge shift in the vice or get accidentally get reclamped in a slightly different location, the bevel is not gonna be the same and basically its back to square #1… Starting over and regrinding a .5u bevel with 200 grit stones is painful to do and I desperately wish I had taken a few seconds to accurately document the xy coords. Thats how I know this is a valuable tool…for me.
Bill, the one argument was given by Cliff (you are Cliff, aren’t you? or am I mixing up uncle and nephew?). The other argument is that there is no “the” sweet spot. You’ve got one definition, which works fine in many cases, but it really depends upon what you want to achieve.
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