I had the same issue with mine

used a caliper for verifying it

I will not get into how disappointed I had been with the system for the first week of trying to work out why every thing was blunt when I got onto the slicing table

I also noticed different stone kits had different thickness's that changed the angles a bit

so I had no choice but to re burr for every grit I changed over to

until I made a micro angle adjustment that I use to recalibrate each stone with

much like what you have finally came up with along with your new ball joint design

mods

1st being gluing down the main jaw
( seriously aluminum is no good for screwing things into its just to soft )

2nd adding spring to the angle adjustment screws
( kept coming loose after about 20 pass's )

3rd making longer thicker rods with ball joints and having protective boot
( to much play in the rods and jig was useless for larger knifes ie. machetes )

4th making new jaws
(same height just not aluminum so they are stronger and thinner allowing lower angles)
/
new base as the angles where not asymmetrical aluminum might have stretched or drilled in wrong spots?

5th finalizing making micro adjustment as the different stones were throwing angle off
( our ball joint system sits on a rack and pinion system that is adjusted by a worm gear )

6th making another knife holder steadying pole with clamp and height adjustment

the original pole was higher then the level of the knife keys and gap was to shallow for any of my knifes to even for their tip to go into

its hard getting dad to build something that you want until you waste a heap of money on something that needs improving ... he likes his KISS theory to much


so far with all the modifications we have almost rebuilt the entire jig in fact the only part that is still being used is the angle bar because math hurts my head to much

all in all love the WEPS more then my edge pro even tho its been completely remade apart from the stones

ChristopherStaples wrote:


Wow,,,, woud love to see some pics if you could post some!

cbw

JeffSimmons wrote:


If I measured/calculated right, this should only be about 1/3 deg. difference, not the 1+ deg. difference you said you're getting.

One other thing you could try, is to mount a knife, measure the angle, then turn the WE around and remount the knife,,, see if the error "switches sides", or stays the same. This will help show if the error is in the WE or not. I'd try this with a knife with flat sides, so you're less likely to introduce a mounting error.

cbw

Confirmed your math. I did the trig with measurements that included a knife mounted where the bevel was 4.25 inches from the base of clamps.

Tan = Opp/Adj where the measurements on the left side were 4.25\2.09 and the measurements on the right side were 4.25/2.06

Left = 2.0334
Right = 2.0631

Calculated inverse tangent to get the missing angle (at the bevel) and got:

Left = 63.82
Right = 64.14

This is about 1/3 of a degree difference. Not sure where the other 2/3 +/- of a degree is coming from. Wherever it is, it's consistent...

Maybe I am just consistently doing the wrong thing!

Interesting, you guys have another player here working on a SC vise.

JeffSimmons wrote:


well, that is nice math but... can you measure the angles and tell us what they really are on this blade? a goniometer measurement would be best, but you can estimate with an angle cube and the WE rods themselves (no paddles installed), or a careful use of a straight edge, this would be helpful

.. this is perhaps not an angle issue or an issue with the WE, but is a good example of blade asymmetry as a result of sharpening technique. See Ken S excellent vid that discusses this in detail :

The key concept of this video is that one can adjust blade asymmetry simply by adjusting how much you grind on either side of the knife and it is completely unnecessary to change angles when adjusting asymmetry. Stated another way, you can have extreme blade asymmetry while at the same time having exact and identical angles everywhere and on both sides of a blade.

OK, this popped into my head driving. So haven't thought it out too far but.....

If its technique, spin the WEPS around and mount the knife from the back, so right is left and left is right and sharpen a knife. YOu know, mounted like normal just the WEPS backwards.

If its your left hand technique or whatever, should show it no?

Like I said, just popped into my head, but then again, my head is firmly up my rear in most cases so take this idea with a grain of salt

Well, Dan did make the point that grinding on one side more that the other can make for a larger bevel even with both sides at the same angle. So you can match bevel widths by grinding for a longer time on the side that is shortest.

---
Ken