Welcome Wayne. I'll second Leo's sentiment. Retirement is great for allowing us to pursue our hobbies!

There is a lot of great info on this board as well as "how to" videos on YouTube. Well worth your time while you're waiting on delivery.

One thing I'll say that, while you'll read it (occasionally) and it makes sense.... give yourself time to adapt to your WEPS. It's a great system but it doesn't sharpen knives for you. You still have to develope your skills and techniques. That said, you can (pretty easily) get a great edge right out of the box, if you've done your homework. But the whole process just gets better (and faster, and easier) as you get more experience.

Enjoy!

Ken

What you say is very true Ken. The WEPS will guide you to an excellent edge but as your skill with it progresses you will find the edges improving and they will amaze you.
I found two of the most important things to watch for are...the proper raising of the initial burr and the proper touch with the diamond paddles after the coarse diamonds used to raise the burr.
The initial burr or lack of it, is perhaps the biggest cause of mediocre or even poor edges, if not developed properly. If the burr is not raised at all, a truly sharp edge will never happen. And if it is raised but not carefully along the whole length of the edge, the result will be mediocre. As for the touch with the paddles, little pressure is required. In fact too much pressure can be counter productive to sharpening. People kid me about this, but I like to say that one should brush the paddles over the blade like a soft summer breeze. Once the burr is up these soft strokes will quickly and smoothly develop the edge you desire.
My two cents worth.

Leo

Welcome Wayne! You definitely made a good choice with the WEPS. And with the forums: if you've got any questions, please don't hesitate to ask. And when in doubt: listen to Leo .

I was also thinking it would be nice if you could us some results of the combination of your two hobbies.

Just finished my Manix. CPM-M4



Man that sucker is sharp now!

Took it to the 5/3.5 strops. Not quite a mirror finish but very nice. I'm guessing it will get closer as the stones break in.

Cheers

Ken

Ken,

Great job! I'm sure the finish level shows the newness of your stones. The more they break in, the better the finish will get.

Thanks Clay. Took about an hour. Most of that time was on the 100 stones, getting the bevel to apex. Went very quickly from there.

Ken