Welcome, Dick!

EP and WEPS comparisons are welcome! This will be interesting point of view since most of the threads on this topic are in more "pro" (as in pro vs.con) Edge Pro forums.

Before you sharpen your wonderful new knives, I suggest you get over the short learning curve a little more by first getting all your older knives sharp. You will make mistakes along the way, and it is better to make them on lesser knives.

Welcome again!

Hi There Everyone -

Long time Wicked Edge user and former employee too. I have been following the forum since before leaving Wicked Edge in February this year, but between the Wicked Edge work and starting up a new business - it has been difficult to make time to post.

Now, our working shows are almost over for us - last one this weekend then we have a break until we head off to show at the USN Gathering in Aug/Sept after which things will get pretty busy again as far as traveling to sell at shows goes. (we’ll still be traveling to be at shows and look at stuff - Blade and PKA!) All in all that means that it looks like I'll be on the forums a bit more!

I'm really glad that Clay created this forum for Wicked Edge users to share and find information in one location. It is full of great tips, tricks and info and great to know what other users are up to, and learn for other people's experiences.

As for me and knives/sharpening...
I gave up on knives when I was a kid - early teens. I loved carving and whittling, but could never keep my knives sharp, and once they were dull if I ever got them sharp again it was purely accidental. No one around seemed to be able to teach me so I carried one around - swiss army usually as a kid and a multitool later for work - and mainly used all the other tools, not the cutting blade unless I absolutely needed it - and then carefully since it was usually dull. Off to the sharpener I would go at some point when I couldn't stand it any more....

At some point I found Lansky and could finally get knives sharp, but used it sparingly - meaning I didn't go off to the sharpener as often but waited 'til things got dull-dull-dull before breaking out the sharpener. One winter Clay got all the folks working with his guide company Gatco systems and that got me going more on sharpening as the time to sharpen was reduced with the larger stones and the clamp was better, and my results we better.

Then Clay came up with the Wicked Edge - WOW - unfortunately I couldn't afford it on my foreman's pay at the ranch - so Gatco and borrowed Wicked Edge time kept me going. After leaving the ranch, when I started sharpening at shows with Clay I realized how many people were in exactly the same spot I had been in – hell, people buy disposable knives because they can't get and keep their knives sharp. Helping people on the phones and teaching at the shows was very rewarding and I set out to help as many folks as possible get their knives sharp by teaching about guided angle systems - particularly the Wicked Edge since it is my favorite. So I went into business for myself selling Wicked Edge and then also a wide variety of guided angle systems and other sharpening supplies.

Most weekends will find me on the road at a knife or gun show sharpening, teaching and selling - and the weekdays find me in the office sharpening, emailing or talking with folks about sharpening and sharpening systems.

Since working on the Wicked Edge, sharpening has become a passion - and has reignited my interest in knives as well. Our most recent addition is the #5 Nirk by Brian Tighe – this is the first knife I own that I won’t be putting in my pocket, pack or on my hip though. It is stored away for the show this weekend but I'll post a pic soon

Look forward to conversing and learning with you!

Bob

Welcome Bob. Great to have such a knowledgeable person on board – and a passionate sharpener!

My experiences are quite similar to yours. At some point I really hated free-hand sharpening, simply because I was so bad at it. Enter the Wicked Edge, and now it is a hobby of mine. (Don’t do it professionally, but friends, neighbours and collegues know to find me.)

Sounds good, a lot on the road. But maybe that is because I live in one of the most densely populated countries of the world and I have just seen the movie On the road. Is it really the freedom or also a lot of chore and hard work?

Thanks for your contributions to the forum already! Looking forward to more conversations!

Mark.

Thanks Mark - great to be here.
Being on the road can be a bit of a chore and working shows, particularly sharpening, is a bit of work for sure (I prefer the work to the sitting that most vendors do though). Since for the previous 10 years or so I have only really traveled occasionally and mainly to see family, and my work didn't allow many chances to get away - I have been having a good time for the last year and a half seeing new and old places. And I'm making time whenever possible to see friends that I haven't seen in a very long time wherever I go. For me, the real benefit though is teaching people about sharpening, seeing the variety of knives I do, sharpening them - watching people WOW when they learn what sharp really is and talking with lots of people. It is a great time!
I'll have to check out On The Road - great book and the trailer for the film looks good.
I look forward to reading more of your blog posts of your knife experiences. Nice job on the Fallkniven A1 and great view too!
Bob

mark76 wrote:

I guess no one figured it out!

Peppersass is the name of one of the engines that hauls the Cog Railway train up the slopes of Mount Washington in New Hampshire, which is the highest mountain in the Northeastern United States (6,288 ft.)

It's a very steep and rugged mountain, so the Cog Railway is something of a marvel to behold as it labors its way up the track, using a special sprocket (cog) mechanism to keep the train from sliding backwards.

My avatar is a picture of the original Peppersass, the very first engine on the Cog Railway. I believe there have been several successors with the same name. Today's Peppersass may very well run on diesel fuel with pollution controls. For many years, the engines were fired with coal and spewed thick, black smoke all over one of the worlds most beautiful mountain vistas.

I must say that I've never ridden the Cog Railway, nor have I driven up the Mount Washington Auto Road on the other side of the mountain. But I have climbed the darned thing about a dozen times over the past 40 years. It's a major 4-hour workout and you really feel it the next day!

Hi All,

I've made a couple random posts while waiting on my new to me WEPS to arrive. Well, it came today so thought I'd officially say hi.

History: I've been sharpening knives freehand for 40+ years and I do fine with it. They get sharp enough but never can quite keep that perfectly consistent angle so most edges are somewhat convex. Not a problem but, well, y'all know....

Anyway, for the last 10+ years mostly I've been finishing edges on a Sharpmaker. It's fast, easy and does a pretty good job on the edge but reprofiles are still a freehand experience, these days on DMTs.

But in the last year I've been following the threads on WEPS and EP and trying to figure out which, if either would fit my needs best. What I saw as competing criteria is the WEPS allows you to replicate the same angle, time after time where the EP supports somewhat lower angles, which I prefer. Ultimately I thought I'd prefer the WEPS.

So I wound up trading three knives I never used for a one week old WEPS 100-1600 system. The finest stones were still back ordered, so while I waited I read here and watched some videos so I kinda knew what to do by the time it arrived. Of course, until you try something, you just don't know what you don't know, eh?

So today, I unpacked it, set it up and put a Spyderco Salt in it. Went okay but I had some trouble clamping it. And the knife is kinda small so I wasn't getting much action on the stones. Decided maybe a better knife to start with would be my Fosters Bros 8" kitchen knife. I was right. Much easier knife to start with. Ran it through 100, 200, 400, 600, 800 & 1000. I thought it came out very well for my first go and I noticed my motion getting smoother as I went.

Next I ran my Manx 2 CPM-M4 through the same progression. For both knives I had the arms set as close to the vice as they'll go. This leaves the bevels unequal. Obviously it was much more pronounced on the thicker blade of the Manx (and I understand why), but I'll give that up for the thinner edge. And they both got nice and sharp. Looking forward to the new arms that allow for even thinner edges.

Just used the Foster to slice up a cabbage for dinner and did some paper tests with the Manix. Very nice. I'm going to wait for the finer stones to arrive but I'm guessing I'm going to want something even finer and a strop set in the not too distant future. Does it make sense to go from the 1600 stones to strops? Or should I do something in between?

Anyway, that's my story (so far) As I learn the ins and out of this thing I may have more questions but any pointers are of course welcome.

Ken

And Peppersass, I lived in Concord for several years on my slow journey back to Ohio. My folks rode the cog once when they came to visit. I never did, but I did drive the road up once. Quite a test for the brakes coming down. Still beats hiking it in my book, but glad you enjoy the workout...

Hi Ken
And here is an official welcome to the WEPS crew! It will be good to see how a sharpening veteren who has tried many methods, responds to the WEPS as he goe on. Welcome aboard mate!

Cheers
Leo

Welcome Ken and thanks for joining the forum and telling your story. I hope you get years and years of enjoyment from your Wicked Edge. I think I can comment on a couple of your observations:

1. The Spyderco knives are FFG and taper directly from the spine to the bevel with no parallel faces and so clamping them well means you need to know a little trick. Please check out this link: Clamping Fully Flat Ground Blades for the technique which will allow you to get a good, vertical clamp on the blades and give you even bevels (You would normally only need to do an offset on the right side for blades closer to 4mm thick and above. As long as you're <= 4mm, you should be within a few decimals of a degree for each side, the exact spot being at 3mm thick.)
2. Going from the 1600# Ceramic stones to the strops is a perfect jump, one that I do all the time. You'll see an immediate improvement in the edge as soon as you put the strops on.
3. If the system is only a week old, the diamond stones are definitely not broken in yet and your edges are not nearly as refined as they're going to get, so have confidence that they'll keep getting better and better, the more you use your system. For now, spend extra time with the ceramic stones to clean up the edge before stropping.
4. Always clean the blade well before using the ceramics and especially before using the strops. Also clean it well between each of the grits of strops.
5. Keep you strops clean by storing them in the bags they came in and be careful to always put like side to like side to avoid cross contamination.

I hope these tips are helpful. Good luck with your journey and feel free to reach out any time w/ questions.

--Clay

leomitch wrote:


Thanks Leo. It will be an interesting journey.

wickededge wrote:


The distall taper. Yes, I've read some about working with that. Thanks for the link!

wickededge wrote:


Cool. Definitely will get them

wickededge wrote:


Read that as well. Looking forward to hem breaking in.

wickededge wrote:


That makes sense!

wickededge wrote:


I was thinking small zip lock?

Cheers

Ken

Ken, a small ziplock would work great. I like to keep a pair in one bag. I always put the "Fine" side in, facing each other, then use a rubber band to keep them in place. That way, any paste that gets on the bag only has a chance of getting on the coarse side, which is where it belongs.