Thanks CAW. I'll go get some of that tape today! One thing I did find out, and love, is that the diamond spray works WAY better than the pastes! It seems that the medium for the pastes causes the paste itself to rub off onto the knife, while the spray medium penetrates the strop and leaves the diamonds on the surface. Wow! What results from that stuff! Should I wipe off the black metal from the strop, or just leave it on there? ~F~

Hi all! I'm back. Thanks for all the hints, especially Jende! I printed off your links, and I'll read them later when I get a sec. To be honest, I've been going back and forth with returning the WEPS. I won't yet, but I'm noticing quite a few little things which are getting on my nerves. I have pretty much stopped the loosening of the arms by switching to the reverse side and tightening them on the side without the holes. They seem to stay put better there. I do have better ideas for them, though, which will keep them from moving at all. If I can get it to work, I'll share with y'all:whistle: . I am noticing, though, that most all of my blades are flat ground, and have been able to compensate for the angles blade by putting a piece of folded paper next to the blade on the side it slants to in order to keep it upright. For right now, I'm just eyeballing it! As I progress I'll do something to be more precise. Here's my next problem I've found. (why do I have so many problems?!) For medium sized blades, everything works pretty well, as long as it's not a flat ground blade. It seems that the WEPS was designed around that; having a blade with equally vertically perpendicular sides at some point on the blade to the base. (?) Since I am into survival, and wood carving, I now have both ends of the spectrum on blade sizes; 1#long x 1/4"high blades up to 7"long x 2"high blades. With the shorter ones, I have trouble mounting them so that the strops/stones don't hit the vise. I can't use the pins at this point. And on the longer blades there is too much movement at the tip to keep the angle even as I finish my stroke.
Maybe I'm making this harder than it has to be. I was completely stoked about this system, and I waited for over 4 months to come up with the money and then to wait 4 more months for the WEPS itself. I think I expected too much, especially since they are still working out some of the bugs. I think I'll keep plugging along for now and see what happens with y'all's help. (Yes, y'all's is a word! It's a mix of southern and Jersey accents!!)
Jende, I'll look over those charts you listed and see what I have and what I can do with it! Those last couple pics look awesome:woohoo: !! Such a straight even edge, it's unbelievable! Thanks again for all y'all's help! You guys are great! ~Frank~

Okay, so get an angle cube (whatever that is!)from Amazon, lift my arm when tightening my bolt, and check my distances again. Got it! On the other hand, I don't understand the hole side vs. the non hole side. I"m not sure what you were talking about there. I do want to know, though. Can you please explain more Jende? I'm one of those guys to whom good isn't ever good enough! Only Jesus is perfect, but I can always get a little closer to that in what I do! SO as I learn from you guys, I'll get a little more refined in my practices, bit by bit. So forgive me if I don't understand the abbreviations and lingo just yet. I'm just starting out, and still learning. I do agree with you, Leo, WE's customer service is one of the best I've ever worked with!! Thanks again!~F~

It is the newest model, as it came to me on the last shipment from Wicked Edge USA, @ two weeks ago.I have two flat ground RAT folders, one leatherman and a scandinavian knife. All had the same problem. I did do a RAT 5 at work that I haven't checked for this yet. I'll check it out later. I did notice that the vise acted like a wood working vise, in that it was tough to get it to apply equal pressure on the blades where it was touching. Perhaps I have to work on getting it more evenly gripped by the vise. Still, I wonder if it is centered properly. I don't see how that could be when the settings are different distances from each side of the vise. I'll try to post pictures of what I mean as soon as I can figure out how to do that. Thanks!~F~

Okay, so first of all, I noticed that when I set both arms to the same angled setting( say 15-18) that the edges are different on my knives. The left side edge, with the retaining screws toward me, is about half the thickness of the right side edge. Maybe 1mm vs. 2mm say. I also noticed that space from the vise to the 15 on the right side was closer than the 15 on the left side. Has anyone noticed this? It's driving me nuts having two different depths/angles on my edge!!! Also, my left side keeps on loosening as I sharpen. Any suggestions? Thanks! ~Frank~