Delrin is relatively soft and would load up with metal filings and diamond debris. I think it may be hard to beat good old fashioned steel in this application.

You can use a steady rest to support the rod but the setup time means it better be something you really want to machine. --Jerry

Very nice ball joint adaptation.

As for the larger diameter rods, I did a quick search for metric and decimal sizes in the .255" range and found nothing. The .250 seems to work pretty well. If you can find the stock I can make arms out of it.

Taking 5/16 and turning it down to .255 would be a lot of work and difficult because the rod isn't that stiff over the full length.

--Jerry

I have now used my replaced arms (see post previous page) for several months with great success. The improvements I made are:

1. Diameter better matches the holes through the stones.
2. Thickness of flat section matches the inside dimension of the u-joint.
3. Hole in flat exactly matches the pin.
4. My arms are perhaps 1/2" longer. No big deal. One member requested them 2" longer.

I have recieved some private messages and made sets for other members. If you are interested, drop me a note.

--Jerry

I just do the sweeping stroke toward me. Not a problem once you get used to it. But I often work on the knife in two halves anyway working each end twoard the middle.

PS I reused the pins. No need for machine screws. --Jerry

I have a milling machine so I made new arms out of 1/4" drill rod. Fits much more snugly into the stones which are about .255 ID. The arms that came with the machine are .235 or so. I machined the width of the bottom tongue to fit very snugly into the u-joint and eliminated just about all the movement. Took me about an hour using a collet block to get the faces parallel.

--Jerry

I've been sharpening knives for 40 years, razor sharp, with various stones and accessories and never cut myself appreciably. This morning I cut myself in almost the same place you did reaching around the knife to move the arm as I was about to take it out of the vice. Not nearly as deep but not good.

I think the problem is in the knife pointing away from you at the low angle to your eyesight makes it error likely to work around because of depth perception.

I sharpened 2 more knives today with the knife pointing toward me and I like that better. Don't anticipate any more cuts. Also makes it easier for me to work the tip.

--Jerry

Clay,
Yes, lots of diamonds coming off of it at first and it is smoothing down. I guess it may need more time. I got a bit bettter edge on a practice kitchen knife this evening. I am impressed with the diamond stones, very good quality with lots of diamonds. One reason my old DMT set gets knives so sharp is the stones are worn out. But it takes forever. I am really looking forward to the time savings with Wicked Edge.

I just sent an email with my shipping address and I'll take a pair of the 800/1000 stones. I'll call tomorrow with payment info so you can ship them all together or you can call me, I'll be up early.

thanks,
Jerry

I've recieved my basic set and bought a wooden cutting block 12x12x2" and mounted it. couldn't wait for a granite block. Looks great.

Unless I'm doing it wrong, the 600 grit just isn't fine enough for me. Seems to me with the basic kit with 600 grit, the "caution, your knives will get dangerously sharp" warning isn't needed. My dad would say "you can ride to town on that knife". The hair on my arms just laughs as I try to shave off a few. So I can't really do any more sharpening until I can get the 800/1000 which seems to be sold out everywhere.

Otherwise, I like the design. I will be calling clay on monday to ask if he is having a manufacturing problem with some of his jaws. My jaws don't have the upper holes lined up at all. I had to file the hole bigger to use it at all. It is still not smoothe and my guess is clay will send me new jaws.

I also plan to shim the u-joint connection at the bottom of the rods to reduce the angular movement allowed and keep the rods at a fixed angle.

I haven't had much chance to play with clamping yet but I think I'll be able to do lots of creative clamping and sharpen about anything.

--Jerry

Good job by wicked edge for replacing the jaws.

Remember that the bottom screw is basicly a lever using about a 3 to 1 mechanical advantage to tighten the vice. The top screw I tighten about as tight as I can with the tool provided. The bottom screw I just tighten until I see the gap widen a bit at the bottom which tells me I have strained the jaws a bit and have a nice clamping load on the blade. Don't overtighten the lower screw. --Jerry

Just bought the basic system from a knifemaker/dealer that I bought a knife from on the benchmade forum. Can't wait for it to arrive.

I have some ideas about clamping. I'm an engineer and a hobby machinist. Clamping is one of the keys to successful machining. I'll post any ideas I come up with and may even come up with some simple clamping devices/products.

--Jerry

Thanks guys. You've given me a good idea. Oring material is available in many diameters and durometers. it is designed to compress but stay firm. You can order any diameter you want from mcmaster.com. a couple of 1/4" wide pieces of doublestick tape would hold the straight pieces of oring material at the top of the jaws to clamp the blade while the bottom of the jaws makes a line clamp on the spine.

I'll get busy and post my results. I need to get one of these ordered. Maybe I'll call the proprieters here once the sun comes up and see if they can put me a package together.

As a newbie, I'm having trouble changing my profile and adding an avatar photo. Are there restrictions on new members?

thanks,
Jerry

Leo,
Thanks for the warm welcome. Especially after reading your reply I'm looking to buy as complete a set as I can. There is a guy on ebay who offers 100 thru 4 finenesses of diamonds but he only offers the paperstone base and I thought I'd like to upgrade to one of the stones.

Still haven't heard form anyone on clamping....is that the great challenge?

--Jerry

Hello,
I'm new here. Haven't bought the wicked edge yet but am about to. Just looking for the best "pro pack" deal to get something to take me from the reprofiled edge to the mirror. I currently keep most of my knives sharp enough to shave your arm using a combination of a DMT system and a lansky. I grew up in Missouri where my dad had much more time than money and we sharpened our knives by hand on Arkansas stones and indeed it sometimes took hours and days to get a new knife sharpened. Of course you might only buy a new knife once every 10 years. But now I have a collection and I'm an engineer and I appreciate precion, repeatability, and a mirror finish. So after quite a bit of internet research, I'm sold on the Wicked Edge.

Here is my main concern. How do I clamp knives that don't have a parallel area to clamp to? Here are a few examples from my collection:

1. Double edged knives such as the Benchmade infidel.
2. Tapered spine knives such as the benchmade 470.
3. Flat ground knives such as the Benchmade/Paul 230.
4. Hollow ground knives such as the CRKT Kommer 30-30. Hollow ground to top edge.
5. Clamping the sharpened side of a knife to put an edge on the spine: example a Besh wedge. Probably different than the infidel since the infidel can be clamped in the middle. The besh wedge is a large blade that will have to be clamped on the taper.

looking through other knives in my collection, I see the Benchmade 9500 Mini auto stryker has a tapered spine but had a flat section that the clamp is probably deep enough to grab so that shouldn't be a problem. One of my favorite dress knives, the Paul/Benchmade 245 with cocobolo scales, has a very small flat section that was big enough to clamp the Lansky clamp onto so I assume it will be ok for the WE.

Otherwise, I'm probably going to be able to figure out the rest of the questions I have like "do I really need every one of those steps between 600 and the finest diamond or just 2 or 3 of them?" and do I need the extra course stone for reprofiling heavy knives like the besh wedge? I'm kindof an obsessive technogeek so I'll probably end up with all of them.

Thanks in advance for your help. --Jerry