When you strop it should be so light you are barely touching the edge. Make sure the strop is always moving away and go slow.use only a small thin film of paste

Any chance these will hit the webstore soon? I spend all day on the phone, and I really hate making calls after work...

Ouch! I have a scar on my forearm a couple inches above my wrist, so people think I am a cutter LOL.

Just like reloading, make sure your kids and signifcant others leave you alone when sharpening. My wife walked in and said hey honey, I turned and a few minutes later I realized my pants were covered in blood. It was a cheapie 420ss Gerber, and it opened me up deep and I didnt even feel it. Hair splitting sharp.

Looks cool. Not sure if and when I would need that low of an angle, but it is nice to have the option.

I also have a good opportunity to get into hair dresser's scissors. I would love to see an attachment in the near future that can handle them.

I think the magic of the WEPS or any guided system is consistency. Set it up the same way, every time, and use the same technique, same pressure, same method, and you will get crazy sharp tools. You might be a little off on true angle, but without a CNC jig grinder, you will not achieve perfection, and even with CNC equipment, you are still fighting physics, and the fact that nothing is perfect, even perfection.

A couple more points.

1. The height of the blade changes the length of the adjacent side of the triangle (Pythagorean triangle), therefore it changes the angle depending on blade height.

2. The size of the holes that mount the square bar with the angle marks will change the angle some. The holes have to be big enough in clearance to accept the cap screws that go through it to the bottom of the vise jaw. This slop in the hole will change the angle, so I make sure when screwing the angle marked bar into the vise, that I center the rod on the screw hole pattern before I tighten them.

There is really no way to make a guided system 100% perfect. On the WEPS you have a set of variables, and on other systems you have their set of variables. That is why we use the angle cube, turn the guide rods around to the non dimpled side, and measure each side individually. If you see some gross difference like, 3 degrees or something, I would send the unit back for a warranty issue, but Clay has a tolerance he puts his units through in QC before shipment, and I can't see anyone rejecting a unit because of 1 degree of difference.I remember seeing a picture of Wicked Edge putting a Bar in the vise like a knife would be mounted and checking the angle marks for accuracy. During this process there is probably a limit where Clay would have the units rejected.

no problem at all. It is good to ask questions here before you drive yourself mad on any topic, whether you avoid a return package or avoid wasting hours solving a clamping issue, it is worth it.

The bottom screw doesnt go into the opposite jaw of the vise, it presses on it. What you are seeing is the bottom screw wearing the black off, and then wearing the aluminum away. It uses pushing force to push the bottom away, so the top gets extreme leverage for clamping power.
I was thinking about machining a blind counterbore, and pressing a stainless steel insert into it someday.

Knives look good! great work!

www.youtube.com/user/clayallison1969
There are quite a few videos on Clay's channel.

dgriff wrote:


I have been using the double sided tape trick for the last month or so, and luckily I havent had too much of an issue with any knife being centered. THe worse one was 1 degree off on the angle cube.

So I have been pretty lucky in getting FFG blades straight in the vise, confirmed by the angle cube, but has anyone has issues with the knife leaning left or right, and how did you adjust the knife to be more vertical? Shims? Something else?

Just snug the top clamp and tighten the bottom until its firmly in place. The trick with ffg is to have a rather thick shim to take up the taper especially on the thick knives like the izula.

Also the bottom screw just pushes the bottom the clamp like a lever. No hole

Just take more material off the other side. It is most likely more pressure on the paddle with your dominant hand.

On your Veho Microscopes, where are your hardstops? Mine are at 360 when rotating the knob cw looking into the light and 60 when turning ccw when looking into the light. seems funky to me. Also when i measure distance, its not even close. .010" when it should be .125"

Again, sorry if it came off insulting. I respectfully disagree with the way you define common sense. Common sense is something that is not learned, but it is internal and natural. It is something that is known without any knowledge or skill on a topic. Having a skill level so high, to the degree of unlearning (which is a different topic), and doing a task is not common sense. It is skill. No one could expect someone to operate a piece of equipment, be it a helicopter, or a sharpening system like a professional, or at all for that matter, without some learning. I am not sure what aspects of flight involve common sense, because I am not a pilot, but I am sure there are aspects that good pilots will tell you that you cannot learn in school. Learning any skill takes a few things like good training, natural talent, effort, motivation, and time. To each individual, the ratio needed of these things is different, but one skill that gets overlooked is common sense.

I am an obsessed home cook that learned to cook from my father, who owned restaurants. I am by no means a chef, but a better cook than 80% of the people I meet, and know more about food than most people. I do not define common sense as learning how to properly cook a steak, and doing it. I define common sense as - if you can smell smoke, see the pan turning black, and the fire alarm going off, why do some contestants on cooking shows not turn the pan down until the pan catches fire? No common sense. My nephew is 10 years old, and has no father in his life, yet when I teach him to do home projects, like tiling, he looks at me and says, "uncle, should we tape off the board on the bottom of the stairs so the grout doesn't ruin the woodwork?" He never did wood working, so he wasn't trying to preserve his own work, and he is just starting to learn how to fix things from me. This is a kid who has more common sense than I do, because I would have gotten grout all over the stairs.

Just because of one screw up, doesn't mean one can't improve. My main point is that anyone who has used a knife knows what the bevel looks like. It is not so small you can't see it, but it is also not 1" wide, unless you are using a high end sushi knife. It is simply a case of having tunnel vision, and not watching closely what you are doing. I am not saying he can't learn, but getting to the many levels of sharpening could be a problem for someone without the attention to notice such a mistake is what is alarming. Me telling you to sharpen his knives was just banter. Of course he can learn.

As far as fixing the knife, you could widen the angle, and knock down the overall height of the knife, spine to edge, or belt sand the edge off, until the bevel gets smaller and start over. Another option is match the other side, consider it a visual grind, and put a new wider bevel at the top.

I don't mean to be rude, so please do not take it as such, but there is something in life called common sense. It drives me mad that McDonald's has to state on the outside of their cups that the coffee is hot, or that Wicked Edge has to state that sharpening a knife is an inherently dangerous act and should be practiced with care. DUH! These things are common sense, and it used to be if you were silly enough to not take a hot cup of coffee seriously, and you get burned, tough S**T.

On the same wavelength, I question anyone doing any task that can be deemed that of a skilled craftsman, where observation, curiosity, process, knowledge, and meticulous attention to detail being necessary, who would be so one track minded on drawing a burr that they grind 1" bevels, the equivalent bevel of a sashimi knife. I think he would be better served by you sharpening his knives, and buy him a crop stick rig to hone on.

There is a reason I don't try and decorate my house. Because it would be a disaster. Maybe he should stay away from knives!

To buy a full complement of Choseras, it would cost more than the system, and I cannot justify it right now. If you had the Pro pack and were going to buy one set of Choseras at a time, which ones would buy and in what order, coming off the 800/1000 diamonds and 1200/1600 ceramics if you were looking for great polishes?

You are a mad scientist!!!!

Nice shop by the way.