Since I just recently signed up to this forum and received my WE unit just days ago it is time to introduce myself. I am Tom, knifenut since I joined the military some 20 years ago. Now working as a LEO for a large city in the Netherlands. I love all the different kinds of steel available. Especially Spyderco’s mule project is my favorite. Just recently I tried making my own knives out of O1 steel. I am a user, not a collector, let me be clear about that :dry: My main activity however in the knifeworld is leather. I build all kind of leather sheaths and pouches, but also belts, wallets and other leather handmade stuff.
I have been sharpening my knives for almost 20 years, started years ago with the Sharpmakerset of Spyderco. That set is still good IMHO. I added material over the years like diamond plates, waterstones, leather stroppingblocks and -wheels and more. Now I wanted something more sophisticated and after some research I chose the WE.
I made myself a nice oak base, gave it a coat with Danish oil and also created a leather ‘hoodie’ to fixate the arms when the system is stored. The arms are fixed under a strap with a buttonsnap. The ‘hoodie’ also protects the aluminum vise.Enjoy the pictures. Well, here I am; time to start sharpening, right? :woohoo:
Excellent work! Your photography is great and the whole project is a work of art. It is so nice you could set it up in your living room both as a fine tool and an art piece.
Welcome to the forum. We have a moderator Mark who is also from the Netherlands. Good to have you aboard.
Good leatherwork!
Someone said grit was a problem on the arm joints I was thinking that if you find the grit a problem you could make some gaiters to prevent the grit becoming problematic providing you have some thin black leather.
Thanks guys for the warm welcome and compliments. Leather gaiters for the joints. Possible, I have had my first sharpening experiences with the system and will learn myself to blow the joints out with compressed air after use to remove gritparticles.
I am very happy with the apparatus and the setup. I chose the starterkit with only 100/200 and 400/600 stones but that’s ok. I already orderded additional stones (800/1000 and 1200/1600) and with those I already are as far as Spyderco UF stones in microns.
Additionally I would like the 1,4/0,6 stone-set some blank blocks and compounds. I made myself my own comparison grittable comparing all interesting stones and now know (in headlines)how to build up my set.
I will finish the setup with stropping blocks, sprays and componds. Any experiences already with nano-clothblocks?
Possible, I have had my first sharpening experiences with the system and will learn myself to blow the joints out with compressed air after use to remove gritparticles.