Hi All,
Last night, while working on reprofiling an edge, I somehow managed to scrape/sand the lead edges at the top of the knife vise. After looking, I really don’t know how the stones came in contact with it, but it did.
While the damage is mostly cosmetic (I think)it about made me cry…I have to assume this is operator error.
But what did I do wrong?
The setup was stock WEPS 1, old arms, old base rod, no riser.
The blade is pretty deep (1.5"), so I had it set to the lower pin holes (depth).
I was trying to get as clsoe to 20 degrees angle as possible, and it looked like the system only contacted a few times/side but of course with the 100 grit diamond, so they did the most damage.
I’ll try to get a picture or two this evening.
I would venture a guess that half the WEPS owners have a scratched (or polished in my case) vise tip. It just happens when you set the angle too low on an already low-profile knife. You’re right in that the scratches are purely cosmetic, nothing is wrong with your system.
For future, if it bothers you, just put the blade in the top holes if you’re going for a sub-20 degree angle, and even above the top holes for very small blades, like multi-tool blades.
[quote quote=“MathewWhaley” post=6346]I would venture a guess that [strike]half[/strike] most of the WEPS owners have a scratched (or polished in my case) vise tip. [/quote] (I fixed your post Mathew).
Yup… just consider it “seasoned” or broken in. :woohoo:
(On another sharpener, I once sharpened half the unit away, before I realized I wasn’t hitting the knife).
I am curious as to why he did that in the way that he did. I have abraded my vice jaws many times..
If the knife was setup as Clay suggests.. balance heel to tip… and everything is adjusted properly, the sanding marks would typically be even accross the top of the jaws… I would think…mine have been!
The knife I was working on was an old Spydeco folder. Short but wide curved blade. I used the deeper notches and had it in the vise with the handle towards me.
Thinking about this…I may have been really sloppy at the beginning of my stroke and compensated for the play in the arms towards the tip.
I’ll experiment a bit with that knife and see if I can replicate the error.
To Philips question I had read that post by Clay with great interest. It was something I always wondered about when using my old Lansky, but never thought to actually use an angle gauge to research.
