Glad I found this thread! I must have missed it or forgot about it. Just purchased the only 6K that Les Voorhies ever made (word has it that he went through so many belts making the knife, he decided not to use it again!!). Knew that Stellite 6K was a challenge to sharpen .... this thread will certainly help if I find it needs sharpening. Should be here next week. Here's a pic (gee, feel like a proud dad showing off pics of a new child!!):

Welcome John .... you are sure to learn a lot here. I know I have in the year I've been using the WE. Understand your feelings about Philly! Went to college there way back in the late 60s - early 70s. Didn't much care for the city then. Now, I find myself doing 20 - life in Erie County .... pretty much for the same reason you find yourself in Philly .... only for me, it's my aging in-laws. Welcome and happy sharpening!

Dennis

What makes this even more funny (in a frightening way) is that "blue" LocTite is most often recommended for securing knife screws and such!!! Wouldn't want to use this particular "blue" LocTite!!!!

Thanks Phil. Actually, one of the reasons I decided on the WE in the first place was the ability to get great results without using water stones! Just don't want to mess with water in the location I have set up to sharpen. But, you don't have to convince me much on their ability to make an edge shine. I have viewed in awe at some of the pics and progression examples. For me, I don't need a super brilliant mirror shine. Edge bevel consistency and sharpness are the only two qualities that really matter. A reflective bevel is a side benefit for me. And .... though it might be blasphemy ... I don't even get hung up anymore about a few residual scratches in areas I have trouble working! Funny, the thing I appreciate most about the WE and sharpening is the fact that I find it so relaxing that it lowers my blood pressure significantly. And in this day and age, we all could probably handle a little more of that!

Been a while since I posted anything, but try to stop by daily to see what going on in the WE world. It's been one year since I started collecting knives ... primarily folders. Since then, have accumulated 88 and the number seems to keep growing. It is also close to a year that I have been using the WE. Recently, a bud from Blade Forums asked me how I liked my "Edge Pro." I guess he had a memory lapse ... something I am all too familiar with! Anyway, I proceeded to give him a detailed explanation why I chose the WE over the Edge Pro and why I consider it to be at the top of the heap in the area of guided sharpening systems. In particular, I told him about the custom Allen Elishewitz Jekyll I bought. I had a beautiful Chad Nichols African Savanna pattern Damascus blade. Problem was that the bevel was slightly off on one side. I wanted to fix this, but keep it looking original and take off as little steel as possible. The WE did an outstanding job. The blade is now razor-sharp with perfectly matched, polished bevels. I am hoping I added another soon to be satisfied user to the family. Moving along ... since acquiring the WE, have sharpened (and resharpened / touched up) 40 of my knives (some I keep untouched as collectables). I have gone through the learning process, settling on what works best for me; had a few dismal failures, but far more outstanding outcomes; have stabbed and sliced myself a couple times (not paying attention to that sharp blade mounted in the WE vise); and have marveled at the simplicity and capabilities of the WE. For an older gent like me .... who has to take a daily dose of NSAIDs to get his finger joints a movin' in the morning .... the WE makes knife sharpening a breeze. Still want to buy a few more items for the WE (some of the nano cloth and kangaroo strop material and the new ceramics) .... but so far, find myself spending most of my allocated hobby money on more knives!! Soon, I hope! Just want to wish everyone a great new year. Stay sharp and stay safe!

What's more important to you .... overall size, blade shape, blade steel, or opening system? I don't think you are going to find anything close to the Leek in terms of size and blade shape that also has an assisted opening system. Asking for suggestions is without first deciding on what's most important is probably going to give you a gazillion different opinions! For me, if I wanted to keep the size and shape close to the Leek .... I'd consider the Kershaw SpeedformII (which can be had for between 60 - 80), another Leek (House of Blades in TX has an exclusive Red Leek I just ordered that is nice looking), or a Spyderco Des Horn (a tad over $100, and more delicate tip). However, if I wanted a small EDC that wouldn't draw much attention, but had great blade steel and was built like a tank to perform both small and large tasks ... the Spyderco Techno would be at the top of the list (in the $175 range). When I go out, I normally have at least three knives on me. A Spyderco Ladybug on my keychain, a Spyderco Dragonfly or Squeak in my watch pocket, and something bigger in my right pocket .... that one varies with my mood. Always have the smaller ones .... for when I don't want draw attention.

I received my replacement L brackets with the 10-32 screws (thanks Clay). When replacing the old with the new, I did notice some quite visible deformation of the micro-adjustment threads on the ball arm. Rather than try to make an insert like Mark suggested, just went and changed out the clamping screw with 10-32 x 5/8 nylon socket cap screws. I got a pack of 40 for $5.49 at Grainger. Unfortunately, shipping was more than the pack of screws .... but it saved me the time and expense of driving 40 miles to my nearest large hardware store!!! They seem to work fine, so far, and will hopefully minimize further damage to the threads on the ball arm. And, with 38 left ... shouldn't have plenty of replacements for wear or breakage!

Thanks Clay, Bob and Mark. I bought the upgraded arms/riser kit a while ago. Like you all have pointed out, it isn't really necessary to get a great edge. In my case ... two factors drove me to upgrade. My hands don't work as well as they did in my younger years and it was becoming increasingly more frustrating to get the kind of precise angle I wanted. I stopped using the angle detent dimples shortly after I got my WE, preferring, instead, to use an angle cube and adjust the arms accordingly. I found this a better option considering that rarely would a knife mount exactly in the correct position to give me a 100% equal bevel on each side using the designated dimple positions. Even with the modified arms (using the screw rather than the pin), there would be enough movement in the arms that as I was adjusting the angle with the angle cube, the position would change slightly by the time I moved to tighten the arm! This required many readjustment cycles. I guess if I weren't so obsessed with precision ..... it wouldn't much matter, as the results would have still been very good! The new upgraded arms with riser make things so much easier in terms or achieving the precision I want in the least amount of time. Since my belly was stuffed today .... and I wanted to relax, I decided to take on a project with one of my newest knives, an Allen Elishewitz Jekyll. Beautiful knife with an eye catching two-tone Damascus blade. The blade had a triple grind ( a sort of swedge at the top of the rounded tip, a hollow grind in the center of the blade, and a flat grind down to the edge bevel). While the knife was sharp, the edge bevel was VERY uneven. The lock bar side had a 20 degree bevel. The thumb stud side, however, had to be somewhere around 40 degrees! I wish I took before close ups, but I didn't. Here are some before pics I had which do show what I am talking about. The first shows the lock bar side with the bevel angle I wanted to retain.



This was what the thumb stud side looked like:



All I wanted to do was refine the lock bar side bevel (hone and polish) and get the thumb stud bevel to match the lock bar bevel. I also wanted to remove as little steel as possible on either side. It wasn't as easy as just setting the right arm to 20 degrees. It seems the problem was with that flat grind doming down from the middle hollow grind. In order to get the bevel to match the other side, I had to adjust the arm to 15 degrees. It took about 45 minutes to progress through the diamond stones, ceramics and strops, but in the end, the bevels now match perfectly, the knife is incredibly sharp and the knife looks great. Here are after pics:

Lock bar side with original, but refined, edge bevel:



And the reprofiled thumb stud edge bevel:



While I know I could have done the same thing with the original modified arms, I believe the new arms/riser upgrade let me do it with far less frustration. If you are interested in seeing the entire knife, here's a pic:



Now, I think it's time for a nap! Happy Thanksgiving to everyone .... that goes to all of our good friends in other parts of the world as well!!

PhilipPasteur wrote:


Phil ..
Didn't have to resort to filing off the tips of the screws on my old arms ... as the headcap screws were not pointed and would not slip into the dimples. With the new arms and the smaller screws that apparently are used with mine ... the screws ends are not pointed, but small enough to actually fit into the dimples. Eventually, they wiggle free. That's why I want to replace them with ones I can torque down a little more. I don't want to resort to disassembling the unit again to reverse the base rod around, since when I attached the riser to the base and vise jaw ... I REALLY had to torque it down tightly to get it to seat without jiggling around (and I hate doing that with aluminum parts!!!).

Thanks Clay. They are definitely not 10-32, so must be 8-32. Why the change (or, more specifically ... why were some made with the original size screws and some with smaller ones)?

Still visit the forum daily, but haven't found a need to post anything lately. Do have a question, though. I thought of calling to get the answer, but figured it might be better to post here, so that if anyone else is curious, the answer would be easier to find. What is the screw size for the primary angle setting screw on the new arms/riser? It is much smaller than the screw on the original arms. On the original set-up I replaced them with 10-32 headcap machine screws. This gave me a more snug adjustment than with the original ones. I've been using the new arms/riser for a little while now (and have grown to really like them) and find that occasionally they become loose while sharpening and, if I don't notice it right away, it creates edge imperfections that I have to go back and correct. Anyway, I would like to replace these screws with headcaps as well, but don't want to do the trial and error thing! Gosh .... I knew I should have taken machine shop as an elective while back in high school! Instead, I took home economics ..... because that's where the gals were!!!!

Welcome Marty. Love the tagline in your sig block. It used to be the unofficial motto used by many of us in the Army Security Agency way back when!

From what I've read, lots of different methods are used. I have been cleaning my diamond stones with water, a tooth brush and a small amount of cleanser. Have done this maybe 6 times, thus far. I pat them dry with a towel then let them air dry before putting them back in my storage trays. No sign of rust so far. For the ceramics, I had been doing the same, but am now following Clay's method of using a soft eraser.

mark76 wrote:


Thanks Mark .... That would have been my guess exactly. No matter how comfortable these type of gloves might be ... I could not imagine myself wearing them while using the WE to sharpen a knife. Reminds me of some of my early days in the military. There we were in Berlin ... in a secure facility ... yet once a quarter or so we had to practice doing our jobs (the majority of which involved using keyboards and dialing knobs) while wearing gear to protect against chemical or biological warfare. Now, can you use a keyboard wearing two different layers of gloves ... yes. Is if enjoyable and effective ... absolutely not!

Thanks again. Enjoyed your little test and the dash of humor it contained! Ref "my" situation! Just how bad was that slice exactly? Well, it's now almost 3 weeks since my moment of stupidity. Still have to wear some skin closures to keep the top layer of the cut from splitting open. It was just so deep and in a very hard to heal location (kind of have to move that thumb to do just about anything!). On the bright side ... it hasn't stopped me from sharpening! Re-profiled 2 knives since then as well as touching up a few others!

I am assuming you are talking about the screws .... right? If so, any 10-32 socket head cap screw will do. I got 1/2 inch screws, but you could get 1/4 inch to 1 inch and they would fit nicely. I got mine at Home Depot, but any hardware store should carry them. They are not expensive. Here's a LINK to an online source to show what they look like.

I forgot all about this post. Quite some time ago, I replaced the regular tapered end thumb screws with cap head screws. Didn't even have to reverse the base rod, as the new screws do not have a tapered end and are larger than the detent dimples. Infinite adjustments are possible. Now, I don not even worry about the degree markings on the rods ... just use my angle cube for everything (and, since I use a combination of diamond stones, ceramics, stock strops and various strops (leather and balsa) made by me, the angle cube is needed anyway to adjust for differences in overall thickness of the paddles/media.

That's interesting. Please follow-up at some point. I'd like to know if you like your results long term. It would seem that doing it that way would limit the type of strokes you do with the paddles (would be tougher to do forward sweeping strokes) and if you did do those forward sweeping movements, debris would be more likely to get into the handle/pivot area of the knife (if a folding knife) unless well-covered. Anyway, stitches came out yesterday. Wound not completely sealed yet (that's a darn difficult area not to move around during daily activity!). Regardless, all is fine .... full range of motion with the thumb and no telltale signs of any nerve damage. And, as I said before .... I've learned my lesson .... for sure, this time!!

I'm with you here Zig. As hard as I try, I have a hard time imagining using the WE while wearing gloves ... though, I would like to see some first hand reports. For me .... I can say with a good deal of conviction .... that I have learned my lesson. The minor nicks I received in the past were not enough to impact me like this last one. Now ... it is everything to the front of the unit and always double check where my hands are in relation to the mounted blade! I have even take cue from someone in an older thread, where a magazine or something like that was tented over a mounted blade if it was not actively being worked on. I just uses an envelope (the flap drapes nicely over the blade) to cover the blade if I take a break from sharpening.

BassLakeDan wrote:


Dan ...

Still feeling quite foolish here! Interesting ... the gloves are something that never would have crossed my mind. In theory, it sounds like a great idea. Never having used them, makes me wonder how they would actually be in practice. After your post, I looked around and found many types of these. Many were coated with some type of latex for grip. My first thoughts were that wearing any type of glove would make things a little more difficult (even if providing for cut protection). Guess I would need to see some first hand reports on this and then actually try a pair on to determine fit. For now, I am just trying to be "aware" of what I am doing at all times and NOT placing things I need on the back side of the WE!