You may find it easier to see a red or blue ink sharpie marked bevel. (I usually recommend the black sharpie because many people already own that sort of marker.)
25º is reasonable for that knife’s edge. The tendency is for new users to want to reprofile their knives at lower angles. This is simply because with the Wicked Edge they can. We all seem to believe narrow angles are better! I did the same thing when I first started using my W.E. I also ruined a lot of knives. Realize it’s a trade off. Lower more acute bevels are probably thinner and therefore sharper. The edge is also thinner and therefore less durable and easier to wear and to fail. My opinion is if the knife maker had thought the narrower profile was better for this knife and the steel it’s made with, they would have profiled it that way, to start with. I like to believe the makers had lots of experience and practice while designing and making this knife. They learned the profile they’re applying is what’s best and practical for most user needs and experiences.
You are correct, like you said, that at a narrower guide rod setting the stones will contact the knife edge lower down the bevel. So to apex the edge you just have to remove all the steel all the way up to the knife edge. This is often easier said then done. Depending on how hard the steel is and how coarse the stone you’re using is, it may take a long time and be a lot of work. Then when you finally get it done and your knife is reprofiled at that lower angle you picked, you’ve removed and wasted a lot of good new, never used steel, that you can never put back. If I remember right a Sebenza is not cheap.
From my own learned experiences I now prefer to match factory bevels at first. This allows me to use the sharpened knife as it was made and intended to be used by the maker. Then later on after I have first hand user’s experience I may play with the bevel angles.
If you’re having trouble reaching the apex it’s usually because you haven’t matched the bevel angle correctly. I suggest you try a red or blue sharpie. With a very fine stone like your 1000 grit, set the guide rod angles wide. Try 26º to 27º to start. With this angle your stone should almost lay right over against the apex. With very very light strokes just remove the ink. Your not trying to remove any steel. You might try sliding the stone horizontally side to side across the edge instead of up and down like a sharpening stroke. You’d expect to see a thin shiny edge line right at the apex. Reapply the marker. Move the guide rod setting down by 0.25º to 0.50º and retry removing the ink. Repeat this incrementally as you begin to see the new naked steel mark you’re creating with the stone, as it removes the marker ink. You should be able to walk the stone down the bevel watching the position change as the bare steel becomes lower on the bevel and wider. Remember to reapply the marker each and every try.
When you begin to see a thin strip of marker left at the apex, above your shinny steel where you’re removing the marker, you know you have gone too low past the bevel angle. So you know to back up to a wider angle. Then repeat the process on the other side of the knife.
Realize when you find what you believe to be the matching guide rod setting to the bevel angles that the marker ink may not be removed equally well down the entire length of the knife’s bevel. You may need to adjust the knife’s position in the vise clamp. Possible you’ll need to move the knife backward or forward or maybe rotate the handle down, a little. ( I usually try to center a knife blade to the jaws.) Make these position adjustments minimally and incrementally, applying the marker again as you test for improvements. By doing this you’ll be finding the “sweet spot”. This is the best, most efficient clamping position to sharpen this particular knife. The knife may not be resting on both of the depth key pins when you find the sweet spot. Sometimes you may not be on either pin. You learn to work with what you get…As long as the knife clamps tightly and stable, that’s all you need to sharpen it well.
Realize, again, even this may not be absolutely perfect. The knife as it was made was sharpened with a different type on sharpener with different characteristics. New knives are often sharpened with a belt grinder, by hand. The edge may be very different from side to side. More then you’d expect to see. The first time you sharpen any knife with your Wicked Edge it will always do a minimal amount of edge profiling, usually seen towards the heel and the tip. This will make this knife match this knife sharpener. Each subsequent sharpening. if you position the knife the same and set the angles the same, the Wicked Edge will allow you to be dead-on the existing bevels you applied with this first time sharpening this knife with your Wicked Edge.
If your willing to make the investment and you have a compatible device, some of use a digital USB microscope to help us see our bevels easier. It’s a great helper.
Hope this gets you closer. There’s a lot to learn to use the W.E. well.