That is very nice, and I like the way it's organized to maintain its compactness! Well done!

Hey, Rick

Can you show us some pics of what you made? Would love to see it as a custom build.

Thanks,

I smell law suit all over this plastic puppy! LOL

Wow, Clay, that's impressive......30 lbs huh? That's a lot of stuff, but then again it's for your business. I'd be curious to see your lighter example for sure....and hopefully with no wheels.

I vote no wheels, since it shouldn't weigh more than ~25 lbs fully accessorize. Otherwise I question why carry the damn thing to a travel site if it's over that amount in the first place. I've traveled with mine on road trips and it works just fine being carried in a canvas tool bag, but my next travel plans call for a trip overseas and that's where a lockable pelican case would really work for me in that instance.

Hi, Mark

Just confirming what everyone has already said about the Chosera stones. They work great and you'll find that the progression needed to get that mirror finish will vary to your desire for perfection.

As for my progression with the Chosera's they go like this: 2K -> 5K

2K will polish, but 5K is when the mirror takes affect to my liking. It also creates a very biting edge and you can always finish at this point.

But for my liking I have some Shapton stones in this progression: 8K -> 12K

I use the Shaptons to really finish off the edges to a highly reflective finish and the edge is even sharper still. You'll be mesmerized once you get to this point and that's when the addiction/obsession comes in, well at least for me anyway.

As for your original question about the angle cube, you'll find once you've gained experience and given the thickness of the stones you'll have a standard number of clicks (setting) to compensate for that thickness that it will become rout. So as you gain experience you'll use the angle cube only on the initial angle checks. Subsequent checks are always recommended, but I find it slows me down, so I usually check the polish on the blade surface and adjust my angles accordingly. Just do a lot of sharpening with your stones and you'll get what I'm saying about the surface polish feedback.

Good luck and have fun with it!

Welcome to the forum, Brian

Polished edges will be your next obsession, just a warning, and you'll have fun learning about how to get to them too.

That's some cool graphics!

The owner must be a collector of sorts or he never plans to use his Strider for other than light duty. To each their own.

Welcome to the forum, OG

Good thing Clay cleared up where to place those washers. You're one step closer to give the WEPS a go and don't get frustrated with your first sharpening experience. As you spend more time on this forum you'll discover that we've all learned to make our (less than adequately) sharp knives dull before we learned to get them razor sharp. It just takes a few practice sessions to perfect you're technique then you'll be really surprised what you can do with it.

Oh and BTW, welcome to your new addiction!

Phil,

Love your work on this thread and really want to see the pics you've posted, but for some reason it's not showing up properly. It's coming out pixelated..... let me try downloading one more time and see what comes up.

----------------

Yep, first picture in thread #7033 is still coming out pixelated.

But love the handles on your Mule knife....very nice, and I like the results with the Chosera stone finish.

Wow, hard lesson learned!

LMAO on the followup question though.

Chris,

Thanks for the clarification and really appreciate the work up on the upgrade. That would be a real fun DIY project once I've purchased the PPII upgrade kit.

Chris,

That's a great looking setup,and very clever execution, and I want to try it out myself. I take it to make it work I will still need a PPII setup, right? Then I can get the rods, pivot arms, and the new angle notch rods as part of the kit, right? So the heavy duty rods, rubber boot covers, grommets would just be the add-ons..... I like it!

Interesting, no negative karma points, and since I'm such a newbie in the forum....I have no idea it's overall impact to my reputation yet. But I like it so far.....and time will tell.

Billabong wrote:


+1, same for me on what I'd love to see come out next too!

For me it would be the former, since transitioning from one abrasive type to another I would want to know how far off I was. When I first started using the wet stones it becomes apparent upon transition that if I did not check the angle, then only the lower portion of the blade's edge would polish up leaving the edge itself with fine scratches. That was the first time I noticed the angle change.

Besides, I'm a set it and forget it kind of guy, and if I'm doing a lot of knives, I will not be taking the time to set angles at every paddle change...not practical. And as Curtis mentioned there's enough "give" in the system for you to get your desired results.

But to each his own madness, I always say.......

Very cool, Jörgen

I need to start practicing the photo attachment process more, since it does provide greater content impact as your exampled here.

Great work!

Hi, Scott

Interesting you should bring this up, since I've noted the same change in offsets (+/- 0.20 degrees or greater) as well. And as I've gotten more practice with my WE System I've noticed the difference in actually 2 instances (who knows, some may experience even more and they can share that with us). 1) The change in angle after I've re-profiled or completed the initial abrasion process, and 2) when I transition from diamond plates to wet stones. Just as a reference I have the Gen II PPI system, and being that it has a little play in the arms I expected that it would be vary by quite a bit.

As I first started using my WE System I did not recheck every angle when I put a paddle grit through a progression, but now that I've gained more experience, I've learned to recheck my angles out of curiosity and it does drift a little.

As for the 1st) instance, I attribute the difference to the grinding/shaving affect of the steel in my re-profiling effort. I suppose I need to improve my technique at removing as little metal as possible as suggested by other more experienced members.

As for the 2nd) instance, I attribute the difference to the height variability (thickness) of my wet stones as compared to the low profile of my diamond plate paddles. It does change the angle reading and I'll usually readjust accordingly to get back onto the desired angle finish.

....because in post #6234 of this thread, I do use it as my natural progression that I go through (sometimes with stropping, most times without), so I didn't see the need to re-do that task again. Besides, I do state in my conclusion that I do have the range of grit size from 2k - 12k, to complete the polishing task, but I would still be curious to find out how any blade would turn out with just exclusively Naniwa's and/or Shapton's. Regardless the expense to do that would require me to save up some....but at least I know my current grit range will be enough for my needs.