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Hello from Pennsylvania
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TOPIC: Hello from Pennsylvania

Re: Hello from Pennsylvania 4 months ago #8654

  • DennisHibar
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Welcome John .... you are sure to learn a lot here. I know I have in the year I've been using the WE. Understand your feelings about Philly! Went to college there way back in the late 60s - early 70s. Didn't much care for the city then. Now, I find myself doing 20 - life in Erie County .... pretty much for the same reason you find yourself in Philly .... only for me, it's my aging in-laws. Welcome and happy sharpening!

Dennis
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My knives (updated 5/15/2013)
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Dennis in PA
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Re: Hello from Pennsylvania 4 months ago #8664

  • ApexGS
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What I tend to do when going from the 1000 grit stones (mine are lightly worn in by now) to the strops is simply use the strops as a clean-up pass with 5 to 10 strokes on each grit. It won't shine the blade up all that much at all, but it will give a little extra razor sharpness to the edge.

For mirror(ish) polish I did the cheapo method and got super fine sandpaper from 1000 to 3000 grit inclusive and tape strips to the 1000# diamond stone. There's some discussion on using paper strips like this around the forums. It works surprisingly well on a budget but is nowhere near as good as using stones, so most of the folks here wouldn't recommend it. I'm decently happy with it at the moment, since it'll be a while before I save up for the stones that would give the same results
Your friendly neighborhood gunsmith!
- Tom
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Re: Hello from Pennsylvania 4 months ago #8666

  • Geocyclist
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I can't count how many rookie mistakes I made. And all most all of them I had either read about here or watched in you tube videos of Clay sharpening on the WE. While the WE is simple to use, there are a lot of fine points to master and keep in mind to achieve perfection or near perfection. For a while I made a to do list to remind myself to clean the blade after each stone and to check my angle etc.

Everything I studied ahead of time pretty much went out the window on my first knife, I was so to start using the stones. The biggest lesson I learned, and didn't read anywhere ahead of time is to invest the time needed in the beginning to make sure the knife is set correctly in the vice, check, double check the angles, test with sharpie, verify again with sharpie, then go at it. Sharpie again as needed to check the spots that need extra work. Then re-check again after 100. If you start good you can finish great. If you start out bad you won't finish any better (without starting over).
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Re: Hello from Pennsylvania 2 months ago #10024

Geocyclist wrote:
Welcome to the forum.

About China and the US. I work in manufacturing and see both great stuff and crap come from both China and the US. I like to buy from the US. But I don't blindly buy US just because of the tag. When money allows I buy the best where ever it comes from and take care of it. IMHO WEPS is the best.

With respect to WE or anything being a good product I believe it is not just quality, but also design and customer service. In these areas you won't be disappointed. More important than all this is passion. I see a passion for this product in WE. Not that they just see this as product to produce. In the end passion drives everything that is important.

DO NOT be disappointed with your first or 5th knife. A.) It takes 5 - 10 or so knives to break in the diamond stones. The first knife will probably not blow your mind. B.) Your technique will improve. It took me to about my 7th knife to finally say I had a Wicked sharp edge, with mirror polish, even bevels, etc.. My first two knives I was worried I had wasted my money. By knife #5 I wasn't worried any more about if I had wasted my money on the WE. Your first two knives or so should be ones you don't care much about or worry about messing up.


Thanks Geocyclist I just got my we today and sharpened 2 beater knives and got them reasonably sharp but no where near hair whittleing, which is what I'm after. I was thinking to myself that man my sharpmaker does a better a job than this and this cost me 10 times what that did. Can't wait for that wow moment!
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Re: Hello from Pennsylvania 2 months ago #10031

  • wickededge
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RobertGarrity wrote:

Thanks Geocyclist I just got my we today and sharpened 2 beater knives and got them reasonably sharp but no where near hair whittleing, which is what I'm after. I was thinking to myself that man my sharpmaker does a better a job than this and this cost me 10 times what that did. Can't wait for that wow moment!


Geocyclist is exactly right. You'll be seeing regular improvement with your edge as your stones break in and your technique builds. I hope you'll continue to post your results.
--Clay Allison
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Re: Hello from Pennsylvania 2 months ago #10032

Hi Robert,

One thing that helped me a lot in getting those shaving edges that you are looking for is you tube. Clay has made a lot of videos and as idiot proof as the wicked edge is I still found myself making mistakes. I took the time and watched a dozen of Clays videos and it made a world of difference. I went from good results to shaving on my next knife.

Cory
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Re: Hello from Pennsylvania 2 months ago #10033

wickededge wrote:
RobertGarrity wrote:

Thanks Geocyclist I just got my we today and sharpened 2 beater knives and got them reasonably sharp but no where near hair whittleing, which is what I'm after. I was thinking to myself that man my sharpmaker does a better a job than this and this cost me 10 times what that did. Can't wait for that wow moment!


Geocyclist is exactly right. You'll be seeing regular improvement with your edge as your stones break in and your technique builds. I hope you'll continue to post your results.


Thanks Clay on my third knife today got to just barely hair whittleing so its progressing. The edge looks so sweet never got one looking so nice before. Will upload a pic.
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Re: Hello from Pennsylvania 2 months ago #10034

We'll I am still waiting for the paper to just split in half in fear as it moves closer to the edge.
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Re: Hello from Pennsylvania 2 months ago #10035

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Re: Hello from Pennsylvania 2 months ago #10036

  • wickededge
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Looks great Robert!
--Clay Allison
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