I am going to bring this post forward again since I am sure there are many new members of the forum who haven't seen it and so have no chance to do a write up.
Give us a sketch biography so we can better get to know you.
Join in!

Cheers
Leo

OK I'll Bite...
My name is Aaron. I live down in Jacksonville, FL. I am just shy of 30, and have been married for about 2.5 years. I grew up an avid off shore fisherman and actually had a chance to go pro on the Southern Kingfish Association tournament trail, but turned it down (thankfully). My real passion has been developing over the last 8 years or so, Hunting. I have always been extremely passionate about guns and the outdoors, and finally started getting out into the woods. Now i go as often as i can and have even gotten my wife interested into it. I used to shoot competition revolvers with the local Sheriff's Department and have shot in skeet competitions as well.
I think my love of knives came from my Great Grandfather, who always had a SHARP knife on him, and was always giving me one of his knives. it's unfortunate he died before i ever thought to ask him to teach me how to get my knives that sharp. I struggle to sharpen knives free hand, and have tried just about every gimmick out there to sharpen my hunting and fishing knives. i haven't ordered my WEPS yet, mostly due to the backlog and the lack of funds. But i suspect i will order the pro pack right around the first of the year (when hopefully there is no backlog! I'm not very patient.) I love benchmade knives as well as the classic Buck 110 folding hunter. I have a box full of knives, but those seem to be the knives i always gravitate to.

Glad to have another Benchmade fan onboard..

Batter up!
Hello all!
I'll try to be short .. like Leo, 5'6" but thick, fighting weight was around 220, never thought I was short until those tall guys tagged me with that reach. Now, I'm just thick
Anyways, done more than I can remember, and like Leo, SCUBA was one of them, including teaching and UW Photography, managed a shop, traveled a lot, worked in the restaurant and club biz in every position except owner. Always had 2-3 jobs, and tried everything I was interested in, and seems I'm still doing that.

Again like Leo, got into weight training at an early age, by my early 20's started studying various forms of martial arts, with boxing, muay thai and jiu-jitsu as my base.

Then it happened, got into kali/escrima and Russian systema and just dug into knife and stick fighting. This brought on the addiction of buying/collecting knives, then the addiction of getting them sharp.

Fast forward 20+ years, wear and tear of the mats has made me glad knives and other hand held toys got into my life.
Now work for myself in a mainly decorative finishing business, www.classicwallworks.com , still dabble in things my body still lets me do, still keep my hand in computers, webdesign, graphics, and now, branching out starting a small sharpening business on the side and exploring sharpening anything I can get my hands on.
Addicted to surf fishing and trying to figure out a way to live closer to the water.
Main EDCs revolve around Spydercos, Benchmades, Kershaw etc.
For Saltwater, the H1 steel is amazing and easily gets scary sharp on the WEPS.

Wow Zig! Well done mate! Sounds like you and I both tried to reach 6 feet in height by the same methods.When I was younger one of my friends noted that even though I was short, I walked like a tall man. A very well written bio and full of coincidences criss-crossing between the two of us. Although I am 76 and I suspect you are a bit younger.
Good to have you here Zig.

Best regards:)
Leo

Thanks Leo. Nice to be here.
You had it harder ... I had a Bladder vest
47, but joints and back are in their late 60's!
Just have to think before I leap now.
The suspension is shot.

ROTFLMAO! My suspension is gone too, but as well my carburetor sucks and my filter system has sediment big time! All in all I am an old jalopy! LOL!

Cheers my friend
Leo

Hey all, my name is Patrick. Originally from St. Louis, MO, now my family and I reside in the Bay Area. I'm in my thirties, and am currently a pastor for youth at my church. Been at this job for around eight years now.

My brother got me into knives this past winter when he got me a Spyderco Tenacious as a gift and since then I've had this terrible sickness for knives. Since March I have started collecting and it has grown uncontrollably. I'm not a hard user, but I like the idea of having sharp knives at my disposal, so I started out with a Spyderco Tri-Angle Sharpmaker, but I never became all that proficient at sharpening with it and I was getting very annoyed that I couldn't sharpen my knives well to shaving sharp, so I ended up getting a used Wicked Edge system that came with 800/1000, 1200/1600, and I purchased some strops paddles as well. Now with this system, I feel very proficient and it's very gratifying. I love buy used blades and restoring them to a crazy sharp edge.

Clay's video on sharpening the Sebenza was spot on and I was able to sharpen and used Umnumzaan to a convexed razor sharp edge, and keeping the original lines of the bevel. This system is awesome.

Welcome aboard new members...

Hi all. I'm David, and greetings from the free State of Maine where my EDC is both a Springfield Commander and (usually) a Spyderco ATR folder. Expect some microphotographs after I get my WEPS! I got into sharpening because, well, a knife is supposed to be sharp. Gave up on traditional stones when I got my first crock sticks in the late 80's and got pretty good with them but never as uniform as I wanted, something I see the WEPS excelling at. Over the years, I collected too many knives (and firearms!). Had to give up the sidearm after joining the USAF (a flight doc) for a few years but got issued knives as it was part of the flying gear which kind of took the sting out it (free knives -- woo hoo). Believe it or not, the rational was to deflate the emergency rafts in case they inflated during flight (C-17s and C-5's). I did finagle a full auto Gerber when I was deployed. Anyway, I've been counting the days for far too long, about 17 days to go, until my WEPS should be here. Would it be unprofessional to take the delivery day as a sick day and sharpen all day long?