Ok, I have used the WE for only 2 days. I do not have any kind of a permanent spot for it so I gather all this stuff up and lay it out on the kitchen table..using the plastic some of the stones came in..being very careful to not contaminate the leather strops..get the angle cube..lots of stuff.
I have a CNC router and today I decided I am going to make a little work center that holds the WE and keeps all the gadgets handy and ready to use. Something I can leave it on, set it up on a shelf so my 2 year old does not play with it..
Then when I grab it, off the shelf it is ready to go and the stuff stays safe.
The travel box is neat and I am sure I will have to pick that up before I travel for Christmas but for at home I want something that is more ready to rock when I grab it.
So please share your pictures of what you guys are doing for a work center or ready to use storage.
I will share my progress as I design and cut one out. I am getting the sense a lot of you sharpener folks are a little ocd like me.. so someone has to have something already. I have seen some cool designs people have made more for travel. What are some folks doing for home?
I think I was making it too hard. I ended up with 2 plastic boxes to hold everything. They stack right under the base nicely. Then when working I just open them both up and there are all the paddles in order right on each side.
I figure eventually I will add 2 more boxes the same size that will just hold strops. Then I can have 2 boxes fo stones and then 2 boxes of stops or ceramics when I get to that point. Kinda nice and easy.
I found some rubber washers at Ace hardware and they slide right over the arm knuckles nice and tight and do not get in the way of the ball joints. Try and keep the ball joints cleaner.
Mine is a stay-at-home setup, but I thought you might find this interesting:
It’s not up to date, but I still have and use the wooden tool tray. I love it because the stones are easy to grab.
I also have a rack of 12 glass blocks (6 pairs) with the blocks standing on 1/4" pins. The objective was to keep the blocks from touching each other. Works good. The pic shows my softwood beta test blocks, which have since been replaced with Garolite blocks.
I can still use the 2 seperate little containers and they fit the paddles in there perfect along with my angle cube and some eye loupes.
Then in the top main section each channel if you put in a divider will fit 2 sets of strops in baggies so they do not get contaminated. I just always put the lowest micron sized paddle ends together in the bag. That way I do not contaminate the strop pads within the baggies.
Then there was still room for other stuff. Now I can truly just grab one box and my Wicked Edge from the shelf where I store it and sit at the kitchen table and sharpen. Working really well so I thought I would share. I just do not have a dedicated spot for it so this is the way I found works for me.
