Where can you purchase these?

I've experienced the same problem. One thing I've done is to take my angle cube and zero it out on the WE base of the clamp and then attach it to the blade. I measure the right side of the blade and then the left side. I never have come out with the same measurement on each side. I'm not exactly sure why this would be and I haven't tried putting a chamois or something in the clamp yet but I will.

One question i have is are you stroking away or into the blade? I read where that can make a difference but don't know when to do what.

The blade is sharp but not hair shaving sharp. I don't feel any burr so I'm at a loss as to what/where to go next. If I go up in grits it seems like a waste of time if its not going to get any sharper???

Should the blade be hair shaving sharp after progressing from 100 through 1,000? Does the sharpness increase by going up in grit?

I have some carving knives that most carvers sharpen at 12/13 degrees. I'm encouraged to see these small knives, about the size of my carvers.

Being able to utilize stones from the EP greatly expands the usefullness of both machines. I think I may have a way to use the paddles on the EP to.

I did find by using my dial Calipers I could get the exact measurement of the Stone/Paddle and then use the Calipers to set the exact distance rather than trying to fit the Stone/Paddle between the Stop Collar and L Bracket. It was actually much faster and "right on" accurate.

Wow...that's what I wanted to do for the pics. Thank you for fixiing that so they're more visible.

This is somewhat the sequence of how I got this to work for me. 1st is the Velcro setup on Paddle & EP Shapton. 2nd is establishing the 20 degrees with Shapton (approx for pic). 3rd is setting the Shapton to the L Bracket & Stop Collar. 4th is setting WE Stone to L Bracket & Stop Collar. 5th is the WE Stone at its' 20 degree (approx for pic) setting. Final one is the Shapton mounted on the Paddle. Hope these help in explaining how I use the Stop Collar as a reference and how I use the Shapton stones mounted to blank Paddles. I will be experimenting with different mounting applications but this setup did work perfectly for me.

Mikedoh wrote:


I think Clay's idea using the metal and magnetic tape is a great idea too.

Check your local Craigslist under "Tools". Guys who have them have a "Love/Hate" relationship with them. They're very expensive but the Table Saw portion is not very big and lots of guys don't like to have to do the short setup from component to component. It only takes a couple of minutes to switch but they like to be able to just walk up to a machine, use it, and then walk over to another machine and use it without having to reset the machine. Example is from Lathe to Drill Press is simply tilting the table and raising the tubes to a verticle position. I have a Bansaw Attachment and a Strip Sander attachment that just lift off when not used. Very simple to attach and they're built like tanks. Take very little room and roll around if need be.

spokane.craigslist.org/tls/3665191346.html in Spokane. Most guys are very negotiable on these things.

Yes, it comes in very handy for many things. Best part is you can pick these up used with all the components for around $400-500.

The way I have it set up it's easy to switch stones just by pulling the stones off the paddles but I purchased extra paddles from Bob in case I really liked the setup (which I do). I measure using the face of the stone against the stop collar and the back of the plastic the stone is velcroed to against the L shaped mounting bracket.. At first I used the whole thickness of the paddle and that didn't work well.
I have a old Shopsmith that will work well to drill out the wood "paddle". Also thought about taking a piece of wood and screwing in a couple of metal loops to run the rod through to use as a paddle. Just would need to make sure the loop was tight to the rod.

The Shopsmith easily converts to a Lathe.

I'm going to try my hand at posting pics but what I'm using now is Velcro on the blank paddles I got from Bob at Oldawan Tools. I simply put the Velcro on the EP aluminum plate and the fuzzy portion of the Velcro on the WE Paddles and it works fine. Only thing I don't like is sometimes the Velcro on the paddles gets we but so far that hasn't been a problem. I'm going to try doubling us some tape to take the place of the Velcro and see how that works. If I wasn't going to use the EP stones on the EP I think I'd simply get a high quality double back tape and attach to the paddles that way. However, I want to use my Shaptons on both machines so I'll experiment with difffernt attachment techniques.
Before I got the paddles I was going to simply make a wooden "paddle" and bore a hole to accept the arm and attach the Shapton stone to that.

I'll see if I can use my cell phone camera to get some pics and descriptions mounted tonight. Since my only other camera is older than many members here the cell is my only option!!

I used the Stop Collar trick with the WE this weekend and had great results. Since I have the EP Pro and some Shapton Glass stones I decided to see if I could get some additional use out of the Shaptons and use the Stop Collar trick on the WE. Since my WE is mounted on a Bessey Vacuum Base I have ample room to fit the plastic base and Shapton between the Collar and the L shaped arm mount. Since the 4k Shapton was the final stone I would use I simply mounted the knife, got my 20 degree established, slid the collar to the point where the Shapton stone and plastic mounting plate were touching between the Stop Collar and L shaped arm mount, tightened the Stop Collar which established the "reference point". Started with the WE 100 so I simply loosened the L shaped arm mount and slid it over till the WE 100 and the plastic base plate were touching both the Stop Collar and L shaped arm mount, tightened the L shaped mount, checked my angle to make sure it was 20 degrees and started my sharpening. Followed this procedure using the WE 100 through 600, jumped to the 1,000 then 4,000 Shaptons (they're mounted on blank paddles with velcro)and ended up with a nice arm hair shaving blade. Using this technique made my process so much faster than trying to rely on the Cube after each stone change and having to "fiddle" with the L shaped mount till I got exactly 20 degrees. Since this was my first attempt and just to make sure I was always at 20 degrees I rechecked at each stone change to make sure it was working as I expeceted. It always was exactly at 20 degrees. Exact same process I use on the EP.

How do you guys clean/condition your stones once finished with a sharpening session?

"When you start doing multiple strokes per side, you immediately begin to form a burr
Is it better to do it that way or by alternating strokes per side? For some reason I tend to be not alternate the strokes but as I said before, I'm just beginning.

HHMMMM....I guess maybe since I'm new I don't have enough experience, but I'm not convinced that other than saving a little time, there's really any distint advantage in having two. Slurry will be developed whether you're using one or two so I don't see any advantage there. I think what makes it such a great sharpener is the stability and being able to sharpen two sides without having to move the knife. I do see one disadvantage for two, other than the expense, is that the two seperate stones are very unlikely to be at the same size (ie thickness) so the angle on one side with stone A may not be the same as the angle with stone B. Especially after a lot of use, stone A will wear more or less than stone B. Unless you take out your micrometer and make sure they're the same, you're going to be using a different angle for each side. I guess the only way to make sure is to use the angle cube to check your angle and forget relying on the angle marks on the arms.
This probably isn't a big deal and it really isn't going to alter how anyone uses the machine but in my research I often heard that one negative of the machine was that you had to purchase two stones so the initial outlay was expensive. Long term you'd have more stone life because you're using two and that would be a serious consideration for someone sharpening often.
One way or the other there's no doubt it's one of the very best sharpeners.