Well just received my new Wicked Edge on Friday…loving it so far! Today I unboxed the strops and noticed one of them has a pretty good bulge on the leather on one side. See attached image.
I understand its leather and will vary as I can see some slight unevenness in the other strops, but it this much bulge ok? or should I contact WE customer service?
If it were me (an incorrigible DIY guy) I’d put the thing in a vise and give it a modest amount of crank to see if the bulge anchors itself properly. Steel platens are usually anchored with three small patches of 3M VHB tape, with spaces in between. I would have assumed that they mounted leather with a continuous strip of tape. The bulge suggests that the leather strip wasn’t stretched out tightly before setting it onto the tape substrate.
I have replaced the leather in mine and have found that they are attached with hot glue which peels off. When reapplying you must do it relatively fast with consistent hard pressure otherwise the hot glue hardens into clumps. If that happens just peel the leather off again, clean it up and try again. I think that might be the cause of the lump.
@Beorn - that’s definitely a defect in our assembly process and we’d be happy to fix it for you. As Readheads says, it’s just attached with hot glue, so if you’re inclined, you can peel it off, scrape out the glue and re-glue it. Again, as Readheads says, you need to work fairly quickly while the glue is hot. If you don’t feel up for it or don’t have a glue gun, just give us a shout and we’ll get it squared away asap.
Kyle has already taken care of me in emails I actually ended up pressing the leather bulge back down, I got most of it down my just pushing it against a hard surface and then I clamped it between two pieces of MDF in my vice and it leveled out fine. I haven’t actually used it yet but it should be ok.
I also had another problem with one of my ceramic stones but Kyle is taking care of me on that one too.