I have been sharpening knives for well over 30 years. I have used ever type stone man made or natural and I will say that I can still get a knife "sharp" and continue doing so without the WEPS system. What I will say I'd that I have mor consistency with this system
Than anything else I have ever used, and I do not have any Pro Pack II stuff. I can do the "hair drop" test with several of my knives and am
Pleased with the results. That being said I have only had my WEPS Pro Pack I for a day or two over a month and my daughter is ordering me the upgrade because I sharpen for so many people and there would be a benefit to me on some of the sharpening I do. Do I need the upgrade? Nope but I see the benefit.

I had the issue with the sliders not ...well sliding on the base rod on my WEPS. I fixed it by oepning up the slider. Not a good idea. So I called and talked to Clay. He said he would get me the new longer base rod AND a new set of sliders (the ones that I screwed up).

He was worried that I would be down ... not able to sharpen. (Nice guy Clay). I told him that I would be just fine using my old rods (if neccessary, I can use the new ones that I butchered if I am careful) until I could get the new parts. This is the point of all of that I wrote above. I can get great edges, and have been for almost two years, with the original arms and joints. I don't think that anyone absolutely needs the ball joint arms to make the sytem work excellently, though they are really, really nice. More stones and strops would likely be a better investment.

Phil

Thanks for the advice, guys. Appreciate it very much and just want to let you know that I've been sharpening lot's of knives with the old arms and they've turned out quite nice (and yes, very sharp). And there is definite play in them. But as to the upgrade, I think I'll wait on them given the advice and get the leather stropes and stones first.

I asked Clay about that when I ordered the Pro Pack 2 by phone. He said the Pro Pack 2 comes with both arms. When I asked why not just send the new arms, he said that the old ones could achieve a bit tighter angle. Can't remember the difference in angles between the old and new arms. I will probably never use the old arms and in fact would probably prefer that they not be included to save me a few bucks, but currently that is not an option. I suppose in time when they sell their supply of old arms they will discontinue them and only offer the new arms (my guess).

I would be interested in knowing exactly what the difference in the results between the old and new arms if someone has that info, or maybe Clay could speak to this. There does seem to be a bit of confusion I think. I wanted all the stones included in the Pro Pack 2 and I believe there is a bundling discount that pretty much offsets the cost of the additional arms so it is probably not that big a deal that they send both, but I have to agree with others who felt it is a bit redundant.