I have not been feeling up to snuff, so I have not gotten around yet to putting Will’s mods together on my WEPS yet, but here is a beginning.
Inside he had carefully packed each item and here they are on my desk
These are high quality parts carefully machined ready to go. Sorry if my pics are not the best. BTW they arrived a mere 4 days after being sent, which must be some kind of record for the USPS to Canada speed.
Here is a closer shot of the main device for holding an overly long knife steady while it is being sharpened. It is very adjustable for a variety of sizes and the notch that keeps the knife in place is deep and the column it is notched in is thick and solid for good rigidity.
That aside, the parts that really appeals to me and may to you too if you are aging ungracefully, :huh: are the large screws/adjusters that are used to set the angle. Over the years it has become harder and harder for me to tighten the angle adjusting screws that were original to the WEPS…time takes its toll with arthritis. Will’s mods are wonderfully easy to set…just tighten slightly so the screw kisses the angle bar and then flip done the large stainless steel handles and the angle is more rigidly set than I ever have gotten it. No wibbles or wobbles, just nice and tight.
My lung infection is almost over thankfully and then I will have the whole thing set up for a review. Patience please,old geezers move at a snail’s pace!
Back soon! Thanks to Will for his fine service!
Leo
P.S. Pardon the dust in my pictures…I need to vacuum!
It looks excellent it will save you a lot of time.
I wish you a speedy recovery I can imagine using the WE with the new gear will precede the vacuuming - probable best to do it after since it may cause a little dust in any case.
Thanks for the speedy recovery wishes Leo. I get these infections all the time…this is my third one this year. How tiresome! Thanks to Buddha for azithromycin.
Definitely will speed things up and improve things when sharpening long thin blades, like a filleting knife for example. And yes, I will leave the vacuuming until after I do some sharpening. Darlene has given up on my cleaning methods in my man cave. The only time I really notice is when I take a picture…my dang Pentax lenses are too sharp! :lol:
Hey thanks for the post. I am new here but have similar issues with arthritis and those mods look great. I also sharpen a lot of fillet knifes and that long knife brace is something I really need. I searched under Will Chan but did not find him, do you have contact info, if that is allowed on this forum?
Also, I really like your sharpener base. Is that marble or quartz?
[quote quote=“Ducs2r” post=16715]Hey thanks for the post. I am new here but have similar issues with arthritis and those mods look great. I also sharpen a lot of fillet knifes and that long knife brace is something I really need. I searched under Will Chan but did not find him, do you have contact info, if that is allowed on this forum?
Also, I really like your sharpener base. Is that marble or quartz?
Thanks,
Tim
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk[/quote]
The sharpener base is quartz and Will is a member here known as Voodoodaddy. You can PM him for more information.
I neglected to say when I was describing the main mod for holding the knife firmly while sharpening, that at the opposite end from the deeply notched rod that supports the knife, is a heavy duty screw…it fits into a hole that is tapped into the base of the riser that supports the vise. You can see that hole in the picture with all the parts displayed.
You will see how the whole thing connects when I go on into part b later today and part c of the review tomorrow…with any luck. :unsure:
It is the first time I have been aware of their forged steel chef knives their ordinary ones are very good for the price the steel is really good .
I can imagine the forged steel knives shift up a gear or two .
Maybe lacking in the grace of a french knife possible more German looking but it would be interesting to hear from someone that owns one of these.
The Percival knife is currently my favourite looking Chefs knife from France( otherwise I have to say Takeda is my favourite) ,their table knives are pretty awesome not to mention the folders with meteorite or Jade scales.
Leo, what a coincidence. Or perhaps not, being in Switzerland. I was walking in town and guess what I stumbled upon…
It isn’t the best picture I’ve ever made (ahum), but hopefully you can distinguish some of the knives. They are the “forged” Victorinox knives.
I held one in the hand and it felt pretty good. Also the bolster doesn’t get in the way when sharpening (though personally I’d like to see an even smaller bolster). The steel is X50CrMoV15, which is the standard for German kitchen knives. (This actually is the first time I’ve seen Victorinox disclose the steel they use. They still don’t tell you what the hardness is. :dry: ) All in all a step up from the standard Victorinox kitchen knives, I think.
What catches me is the marketing blurb of some of these manufacturers. Victorinox call these knives “forged”. Sure, what else? And according to Henckels/Zwilling their knives are “ice-hardened”. Sure, they need to be cooled after heating. (And I really really doubt whether they use ice to do so; I think oil is much more effective.)
Smart - I think I have heard of some other manufactures using ice tempering it may even be Percevel I have certainly heard of it and certainly some people temper using oil for cooling others air cooling and others water or ice.
A forged knife should be a totally different quality from either a pressed steel knife or one that is cut out of a sheet .
I have not checked out the prices of the Victorinox forged knives are they a reasonable price?
Leo, what is the difference between forging and pressing? (The connotation I have with forging is a man with a hammer, but doesn’t he do in essence the same as a pressing machine?) And the sheets Victorinox pocket knives are cut from, haven’t they been forged or pressed?
The knives were reasonably priced, a bit what you’d expect for an upgraded Victorinox. In the area of the better Zwillings and Wusthoffs. I don’t recall the prices exactly, but I think a 20 cm chef knife was about CHF 120 (EUR 100) and a paring knife about CHF 50 (EUR 41).
Off the cuff when something is forged it is hammered and put back in the furnace the hammering helps to purify the metal from iron to steel the repeated heating and hammering changes the structure unifying it and strengthening it to the shape it is hammered out to it increases strength and aligns the grains in the steel or iron effectively both strengthening and purifying it .
The Japanese katanas ore both hammered and folded this hammering removes a lot of the impurities .
This is why honyakis for instance are the most superior Japanese chefs knives they are one type of steel repeatedly hammered until the shape is achieved it creates both purity and strength.
Pressing is like cutting shapes out of pastry of a uniform thickness the forged article is hammered out from a thick billet until it has the required thickness and shape.
Cheaper production blades may be press cut from a sheet (like pastry) or cut from a sheet using saws then shaping the grind with belts or wheels .
The true forged blade may be hammered either by three or four people wielding hammers in a rhythm or by a power hammer.
So as said the result is that a true forged blade is vastly superior to any other even tapping the steel with a finger nail or light solid object will give an entirely different sound to a pressed or cut blade it is much denser.
This is what i understand as the difference I am certain there are more knowledgeable people who will clarify the difference even more clearly.
:silly: .