I’m a new user and I’ve sharpened about a dozen knives on my Wicked Edge. Today I noticed my vice appears to be bent!!! The top screw in my vice is now making contact with the stone as I try to sharpen a thin paring knife and there is a noticalbe gap between the blade of the knife and the jaw of the vice. I have only hand tightened the vice with the key provided, I’ve never used tools to tighten it. I have also noticed some marring where the vice clamps on the blade with some of the knives I’ve sharpened so I have been tightening the vice as hard as I can twist it to prevent the blade from moving and getting scratched by the vice.
Does anyone have an experience with this or an idea what I should do? My vice is pretty useless right now and I’d really like to continue using it since it works very well on the knives I’ve sharpened so far. I don’t feel like trashing over $300 after sharpening a dozen knives and waiting 4 months for my WE to arrive. Please help. Thanks.
Give Clay a call at the Wicked Edge and see what help he can render. Was it bent when it arrived? Was the item dropped while mounted? Give him all the information he needs to make an informed decision and I believe he will help you.
I think it bent when i was tightening the key. I never noticed it bent before and last night. I sharpened a fillet knife and noticed it then. I can’t believe I’m strong enough to clamp it down hard enough to bend it. It’s never been dropped and barely been used.
Could it be the vice is not bent but that the paring knife has a flat grind which does look like a gap along side the blade and clamp. Might just need to use double sided tape or something like thin leather to hold the flat ground blade in the clamp.
Mine bent like that as well simply from tightening the bottom screw. Don’t think is was as much as yours and I was able to close it enough to continue using it. I will be contacting Clay about it as well. For this much money it’s a serious design defect.
Yep, that’s bent, alright.
I immediately checked my 1-month old WE and it looks to be ok; removing the bottom screw and tightening the top show a very small gap and jaws appear parallel.
I shall be cautious in the future but may I suggest that when you guys get a replacement that you search for a medium that will allow a high-friction grip on the jaws and blade without super tightening the upper and over extending the lower screws.
That pic almost looks like the result of an over extending lower screw over time, and as the jaws bent, the gap got wider and the screw needed to be turned out even more, etc.
Too bad all the way around, though.
Many people recommend using double sided tape I have started doing so. However the fact that the jaws can be bent at all on this $350 marvel is obviously a design flaw and needs to be corrected.
I preface what I say below as my own opinion and I may have to stand corrected later.
I am certain that Clay will do what he can to replace the bent parts, but having said that the users should carefully check to see that they are following the directions for tightening/clamping the knife in the vise. The sequence as I understand it is, tighten the top screw snugly and then tighten the bottom screw very firmly. I believe when material like chamois, double-sided tape etc. are added to the mix, that the tightening instructions become even more important.
Anyone who watched the video by Chris will note how powerful the hold of this vise is when the knife is clamped in the jaws in the proper manner…he lifted the whole unit in the air by the clamped knife… In my opinion that tells me that this vise is capable of great power unlike any other I have run into over six decades. With such power, even with aircraft grade aluminum, there is the possibility of damage to either one of the vise sections if care is not carefully applied when tightening the screws.
There may have been some faulty units but IMHO I don’t see a design flaw here. In over a year, this is the first time I have heard of this kind of bending occurring. My bet is on a faulty unit.
Indeed this sharpener is a wondrous invention of good value to me.
I received a call back from WE last night and they are replacing my vice. I was told there we’re some hardening problems with the batch I received. I did follow the instructions tightening my vice and because of the video lifting the unit off the table by the knife I was tightening my vice as hard as I could on the bottom screw and not achieving a grip like that. I’m thinking that because the vice was bending, that’s why I wasn’t getting the correct grip. Also probably why my knives have scratching/marring marks where the jaws gripped the blade. Regardless I think the WE unit is effective and I’ve personally received very good customer service from them taking care of the issue. I’m not supper happy about my knives getting scratched by a defective vice though if that’s what happened but I guess it happens. At least they are sharp now and if they were new I’d be a lot more upset than I am.
[quote quote=“leomitch” post=1267]snip… The sequence as I understand it is, tighten the top screw snugly and then tighten the bottom screw very firmly. I believe when material like chamois, double-sided tape etc. are added to the mix, that the tightening instructions become even more important. … snip
Leo[/quote]
Leo, a question and maybe a point.
From some of the videos, a seem to recall the first thing is to adjust the base/bottom to the width of the blade, I go ballpark and not tight, just retract the screw, slide the right side till it touches the spine (knife height may make you retract the screw further to clear), keep it in place and turn the bottom till it just touches and moves it away a fraction.
Then I go about the business of tightening the top, then snug the bottom.
Hope I’m doing it right
On the double sided tape .. are you snicking it to the vice along with exposing the other sticky side to touch the blade?
I’m a bit mixed on that one and hate getting it off.
Thus I usually default to some chamois, especially for flat grinds.
[quote quote=“zig” post=1273][quote quote=“leomitch” post=1267]snip… The sequence as I understand it is, tighten the top screw snugly and then tighten the bottom screw very firmly. I believe when material like chamois, double-sided tape etc. are added to the mix, that the tightening instructions become even more important. … snip
Leo[/quote]
Leo, a question and maybe a point.
From some of the videos, a seem to recall the first thing is to adjust the base/bottom to the width of the blade, I go ballpark and not tight, just retract the screw, slide the right side till it touches the spine (knife height may make you retract the screw further to clear), keep it in place and turn the bottom till it just touches and moves it away a fraction.
Then I go about the business of tightening the top, then snug the bottom.
Hope I’m doing it right
On the double sided tape .. are you snicking it to the vice along with exposing the other sticky side to touch the blade?
I’m a bit mixed on that one and hate getting it off.
Thus I usually default to some chamois, especially for flat grinds.[/quote]
Hi Zig!
I am going to move this topic from the welcome area to the techniques spot that better fits the topic.
Sorry mate, as I understand what you wrote, you are correct…what I said in the last post only referred to the tightening of the screws, so I should have said,‘the last part of the clamping sequence is…’
For the last question…I hate double sided tape and never use it myself. I stick with chamois, which is superior in my estimation. Others like the gooey stuff! LOL!
Could you please post a picture of a blade properly seated using chamois? I’d like to see how much material you’re using and how you’re clamping it. I don’t’ like the idea of using double sided tape either, seems too messy.
Would love to if my camera wasn’t away on a trip with my son.Wouldn’t help much anyway because each knife is different. But no big trick, simply wrap a double thickness around the spine of the blade and a bit and the chamois will fill the voids around the blade geometry…adjustments will be necessary. Each blade shape will require a little experimentation with the wrapping, you must do this differently with each different shape that requires it. Happily for me I only have one knife that is shaped necessitating the chamois wrap…my Spyderco Street Beat by Fred Perrin from France.
I see what you mean now. I haven’t sharpened a knife yet that has a blade shape like that one. All my knives are square at the top of the blade so there is a pretty even grip from the vice on the blade all the way to the edge. Nice trick to know if the situation presents itself though. Thanks.
I’ve had the vise bend once already like the one posted on the first page of this thread within one month of ownership. It was replaced under warranty (yay!) but now the SECOND set is just barely beginning to bend just a couple weeks later. I’ve followed all of the clamping instructions to the letter including setting the width on the lower screw first etc. etc. and all of the knives I’ve put in it have parallel faces at the spine for the vise to grab onto perfectly (no flat ground blades). Once the slightest bend begins it’s all downhill from there presumably because the vise can no longer make very precise contact with the flats faces of the blade so it can rotate side-side a bit. I can do a full sharpening job on a knife, unclamp it, then immediately reclamp it, put some black sharpie on the edge and give a couple strokes with the 1000 grit diamonds. One side will rub the sharpie off at the shoulder, the other side right at the very tip. So now I have inconsistent clamping and bevel angles
I’m fairly certain I’m not over-tightening it either - I’m pretty delicate with it. I’ll snug the top until the knife is supported on its own, then snug the bottom screw a quarter turn at a time just until I can wiggle the handle of the knife and it doesn’t move. No more, no less. That seems more than reasonable to me.
Hard to know what to think about 2 bent vises in a row.
I understand your concern, but I can tell you that the great majority of the vises don’t have this problem. As stated in another post, Clay has discovered some vises with hardening concerns and is replacing them as they are discovered…the trick is to find all the faulty ones in the new batch because only some have the problem. It is dumb chance that you were the recipient of two in a row. Remember that even Mercedes Benz and Cadillac have recalls from time to time. I am sure your patience is much appreciated Gregary.
I am sure Clay will make good for this with you as he provides the best customer service I have encountered in these times. And I say that realizing that, at best, I am a crabby old curmudgeon who is hard to please. :lol: Understand that I am a customer like you who ended up doing this Global Moderator job because I am such a satisfied and loyal customer and was invited to do this by Clay. For me, and I don’t say this lightly, the WEPS is the real thing and Clay is the Man.
