I have basically the same setup as you. However, most of the knives that I sharpen are kitchen knives from friends or churches in the community. Needless to say many of these are no name knives made in China. I’ve handled 2X4 lumber that had a sharper edge than many of these knives. On the other hand, some are very good.

I do have the 50/80 stones but even using them on so many knives that are so dull is tedious. My breakthrough was getting a cheap 1x30 belt sander (about $30 at Harbor Freight on sale with a coupon) and some sanding belts specific to knife sharping (about another $30). This does a good job in a matter of minutes and can even repair broken tips and quickly take care of chips. Most of the time I can get very dull knives to cut phone book paper easily. Pretty close to what you would expect from a good factory edge. Not near as good as a hair whittling WEPS edge but useful enough for its purpose. A belt sander is just another tool to draw on to eliminate some of the heavy lifting.

Sometimes I use the knives as is from the belt sander, or more often then take them to the WEPS to get a great edge very quickly. The hard work has already been done. It gets you at a better starting point. Needless to say on some cheap knives, no matter what you use to sharpen them, there are limits on what can be done. A 2x4 is a 2x4. I found there is very little incremental benefit to further take knives like this to the WEPS.

Needless to say a belt sander works quickly and if not used carefully it’s a good way to ruin a knife. The advantage is speed and some additional flexibility, but with a little practice and the right belts the learning curve is pretty short and the risk small. And the cost is low.

Since I got the belt sander I don’t use the 50/80’s much anymore but I’m still glad to have them available. You can’t have too many tools. I have tried a major reprofile and repair with the 100 grit stones and it can easily become an exercise in frustration. And so can a lot of cheap dull knives. I think I’ve solved my heavy lifting problem which was my first priority. What it comes down to is what’s most important you which sounds like stones.

For me, now I can focus on other aspects of the hobby like getting that perfect mirror edge on my good personal knives. Now the priority is the new arms, Chosera stones and further refining my technique.

Did I really say I solved my heavy lifting problem? It may have only just started!

Interesting thought! However, even though I have the WE I still like to freehand.

I’ve had my WE for a just few months. I have used a GATCO system and have freehand sharpened. I’ve been able to achieve much better consistency with the WE than I could with these systems.

My goal in sharping is to get a durable workable edge on most of my knives. Sharping is also a relaxing hobby and for some knives you have to go the extra mile. I enjoy trying to get that visible mirrored edge.

I have the Pro Pack 1 and the 1200/1600 ceramic stones. I’m debating my next steps to go to the next level while keeping costs low (I still need money for more knives!). This setup gets me close but there is always better. The Chosera stones are out for now. I don’t doubt the superb results they can achieve, but the finer stones are pretty expensive. They will have to wait until my obsessive-compulsive disorder for sharping perfection progresses to the next level.

Some of the alternatives I’m considering are:

Option 1

Get a blank handle and use the 1 and .3 micron 3M lapping sheets.I often tape 2500 grit sandpaper (a pain!) to the ceramics after the 1600 stone. This seems to give a nice polish to the edge even though I understand the 1600 grit stone is actually a finer grit than the sandpaper (different grit scale). Maybe the 3M tape will give even a better result (I haven’t tried them) and they will have their own dedicated handle and are pre –pasted (no tape!).

I will continue using the 5 and 3.5 stropping pastes on leather since that is what I have now. I gather from some of the threads that unless you want to show your knife blades to friends using an electron microscope, there isn’t much practical visual difference between the results from the various grits of the pastes.

Option 2

Get the micro fine ceramics. I have the Spyderco ultrafine bench ceramic stone for freehand sharping. It is super smooth, flat and will probably last longer than I will. It produces a nice polished edge. I really like this stone.

I’ve read a lot in the forum about some issues with the Wicked Edge ceramics, specifically the need to lap them (especially the micro fine) and issues with chipping and pitting. Even the ceramics I have now have small pits and chips. This doesn’t seem to affect performance but it is surprising nevertheless considering my experience with the Spyderco ceramics. This is a more expensive solution (at least in the short term) than Option 1, but generally ceramics are convenient to use and last a very long time.

Option 3

Change to a different stropping medium. I have the standard leather strops but some of the pictures I’ve seen from Clay show something much more dramatic using kangaroo strops. This is interesting. Can this (or something other than the leather) be used with the stones I have or should these be an addition to Option 1 or 2? Also what stropping grit should I use? Paste or Spray? (I still haven’t figured out how much paste to put on a strop and the best way to apply it without wasting the paste).

Option 4

Something I haven’t thought of.

I’m really interested in the forums thoughts. I’m pretty new to the WE and I know l still have a lot to learn. But that’s part of the fun isn’t it ?