I thought I’d post a follow-up to the issue I was having with getting uneven bevels. I watched one of Clay’s sharpening videos,the one were he sharpens a Benchmade 940 Osborne then push-cuts a telephone book with it. In the video, he talks about sometimes having to grind through to the other side of the bevel to get an even edge geometry.

I’ve been using the Sharpie trick and I took this to mean sometimes grinding away the ink on each side of an edge that has uneven geometry can result in one bevel being larger than the other. By getting to the apex on one side by grinding through to the other, in these situations, you should end up with a proper edge geometry.

I have a new Sebenza 25 I recently sharpened due to a mediocre factory edge. Trying to match the existing bevel, I ended up sharpening to 22°. It was sharp, but not slicing quite like I wanted and the bevels weren’t even, so I decided to reprofile to 17°, 34° inclusive. Using the Sharpie/loupe again, I paid close attention to how even the bevels were as I went along. While I didn’t have to grind all the way through from one side to the other, I did have to do more work on the one side opposite the side with the remaining ink. As a result, I was able to get some pretty even bevels and a nice sharp edge. I say pretty even because I’m still not completely satisfied, but they are as even as any other knife I’ve done so far.

I’ve had the WEPS not quite a month, and there certainly is a learning curve, especially for a sharpening neophyte like me. But I am getting more comfortable and I am enjoying the sharpening. It’s a very engrossing activity. If anyone has any comments or opinions on what I posted, I’d appreciate the feedback.

I've go about 10 Spydies and love them all, but far and away my favorite is the Paramilitary 2. I've usually got it with me as part of my EDC gear, along with a smaller pocket knife (or 2), and it continues to prove itself as an excellent all-around performer. My second favorite would have to be the Delica 4, but that's a tough choice. The Dragonfly, Endura 4 and Sage 1 are right in the running.

Thanks for that info, razoredgeknives. I'm at work right now, but I will watch the entire video later. I like the USB microscope or Radio Shack loupe idea. I have a nice 10X loupe, but it can be cumbersome to use when the knife is mounted in the machine.

I'm interested in learning more about which tool you used and the manner in which you ground off the sides of your stones. I like the idea of doing this, but since all my gear is new, I'm reticent to go ahead and make the move. Appreciate the info.

That is too cool.

ApexGS wrote:


That's some good info. I have quite a few smaller blades that I like to EDC, and the smaller ones have proven to be a challenge to sharpen. I think I've just been too stubborn in wanting to get a more acute angle than is feasible. I'll try a higher angle the next time.

Thanks Jose, I'll give that a shot. The Para 2 is one of my favorite knives and the S30V takes an amazing edge, it's just that last little bit that's bugging me.

This thread is apropos to my situation, which is not even a month of owning the pro pack 1. I've also experienced the excess paste on the strop thing, but I did not know to try scraping off the excess and letting them dry. My experience so far with the WE strops is less than impressive. I get much better results sharpening to 1000 grit then stropping with my portable Stropman strop. Pretty dramatic difference, actually.

Working with the WE strops often results in an edge that is less sharp than it was after the 1000 grit stones. I'm working with some very light pressure also. I'll try to incoporate the info in this thread and see if it helps.

As an aside, I've no interest at this point in obtaining mirror edges, just razor sharp ones. All of this has been a big learning experience, but I can pretty consistently get really sharp edges right now. I'm just not satisfied. I want edges where the bevels are perfectly even (an ongoing bugaboo of mine) and impressively sharp. It's funny though, I've been hounding the guys I work with to give me their knives so I can get more practice, and they always seem really happy with the edges even though I'm not completely satisfied. Go figure.

One thing I'm very happy about is having this website as a resource. All the experienced people here are really helpful.

Thanks for the info!

Say hey, Jose,

I'm not quite clear about what you're suggesting. Are you changing the angle of the entire knife in the clamp? Since the stone is hitting the forward-most part of the finger choil, it's not clear in my mind how that would work. If you could clarify, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks!

John

Thanks Kyle. I'm not quite ready to go the Chosera route, but I'll keep it in mind.

I do have the regular arms. Do the arms you have work the same, with the dimples, etc? The picture on the website show the bearings they use, and shows the allen wrench being used on the arm itself, but outside of that I'm not sure how they differ from the regular arms.

Hi Geocyclist,

It's funny you mentioned the deal about the left side of vice being fixed. I found a video on youtube today that explained that very thing, and it makes a lot more sense now. The video suggested compensating, depending on the knife, by moving the arm out a degree on the movable side, using the angle cube to confirm the settings, of course.

I've been working on keeping pressure equal with both arms and seem to be getting better. At first my left arm felt really clumsy, but it's more coordinated after 10 knives or so. I had considered turning the machine around, but having the blade tip facing me was a little unnerving. lol

Do you use the dimpled, preset side of the rail to set the arms, or turn the arms around and use the flat side and the angle cube?

Hi Ken,

Yes, "improving" eyesight is yet another benefit of getting a little older. Doing it by feel sounds great. I've given up for now trying to work the stones like Clay does.

Bill, I also zero the cube out on the base before every sharpening session. It usually stays at zero from the previous time out, but sometimes it does require zeroing. One thing I have noticed is that once I get the stones set with the cube, they are rarely at the same point on the rail. It's one reason I started turning the arms around and relying solely on the cube to set the angles. It's a very handly little tool and I can see using for other tasks as well.

Hey Geocyclist,

On a few knives the bevels were uneven to begin with, but they wouldn't even out like I expected them to. On knives that did have even bevels to begin with, the right side bevel would always end up larger. You can see from my post above that I think I've sorted it out. I think the biggest thing is that I need to pay more attention to all the things going on, and not relying so much on the machine to just clamp the blade in perfectly plumb every time. I've been so focused on the blade edge and reaching the apex that I got a little case of tunnel vision. Hopefully things will improve from here on out.

Thanks for the reply,

~John

Hey all,

Thanks for all the replies! To answer a few of the above questions, I am right handed and I have used some material to fill the gaps, especially on knives like the Spyderco FFG's. I have some thin neoprene with an adhesive backing that works quite well for that purpose. Also, my clamps do not appear to be bent in any way.

I think I've come to a couple of conclusions since my original post; I've been relying too much on the clamp to get the blade perfectly plumb. I was also having difficulty discerning that by looking over the blade where it was clamped in. It all seemed to blend together and my 51 year old eyes were having some trouble. What I started doing yesterday was to eyeball the blade ahead of the clamp and that made a big difference. It was much easier to see and I think there was some play side to side, which would cause the uneven bevels. I also think I was applying to much pressure with my right hand, so I'm focusing on that as well.

I've done two more knives since yesterday, and both have been much better. Not perfect, but better. Now that I know what to look for, it should get easier moving forward.

Thanks again!

~John

Hey all,

After using my WE for a few weeks, I'm able to get some pretty nice edges on most of my knives. My issue is that no matter what I do, the bevel on the right side of the knife, as I sit facing the machine, is always thicker that the one on the left. This applies to every knife I've tried so far; Spyderco, Kershaw, GEC, etc.

My thought is that the knife is not set perfectly perpendicular in the clamp, but I've checked that several times, and as far as I can tell the knives are properly clamped. They are certainly firmly clamped. I also use the angle cube to set the stones as accurately as possible. I've found that that can be trickier than it seems, but I get it eventually. Is it possible the machine is somehow assembled wrong? It came from the company assembled save for the board. It seems fine but maybe I'm missing something.

This is driving me nuts. I'm getting better at putting the edges I want on my knives (room for improvement though), but any help resolving this problem would be greatly appreciated.

John

Thanks for the replies guys. It's not a big deal, not big enough to grind the blocks down.

Wow, 21 views and not one of you has experienced this?

Hey all,

I've had my WE a couple of weeks now, during which time I've been going through the usual learning curve. My first success was with my S30V Paramilitary 2, which I was able to get a real nice edge on. My issue is the heel of the blade. While I was able to sharpen the rest of the blade like I wanted, the stones don't reach into that little nook formed by the finger choil, so now there's a little notch there. How do the rest of you handle this or is it just the function of the sharpener on this kind of blade?

edhead35 wrote:

The bolded text answers one of my big questions after having my WEPS about 5 days and sharpening 2 knives so far. Namely, that I figured out to turn the arms around to the non-dimpled side, because the dimples just weren't producing matching angles on each side. You confirmed that I'm on the right track.

I believe my reply also answers the OP's query about the angle cube. Let's just say that I'm glad I bought it, so I can at least try to get the angles as close as possible.

I ordered my WE on Jan 17 and was billed for the full amount on 1/18. I just received the device on Thursday. When I ordered the website was showing a 3 week back order. What happened in between was a few email exchanges and the order being pushed back a couple of times. I do not like the policy of billing right away either; they should bill upon shipping, imo. But WE did say I could arrange that method if I placed my order over the phone.

Truth be told, it didn't bug me that much. I knew it was going to be a while so I was prepared for that. My take is that this is a pretty small company, so expecting the speed and efficiency of a bigger company is probably unreasonable, especially wit demand increasing for the product.

Nobody likes to wait, but adjusting one's expectations is the best policy here. My emails were answered and overall I have no complaints. Now I just have to learn how to use it!