No matter how hard I try, I can never get a blade dead center according to the angle cube. I'm always at least 3/4 of a degree off, most of the time more.

So I ask, how much is too much? How much is acceptable?

Thanks guys.

From what I've gathered while here .... it doesn't really matter (from an edge/sharpness perspective) .... that is .... unless the variance is SO great that it transforms the grind into something like a chisel grind. It would be a different story if you were also going for aesthetics. However, as one of the many accomplished sharpening gurus pointed out, evening the bevels could be achieved by working the more obtuse side more. So, great results can be had even if you can't get the blade positioned dead on in the vise. Obviously, it's all a much quicker process if you can get the knife positioned perfectly from the get-go. There have been more than a few times I have spent more time trying to position the knife dead on in the vise than it took to actually sharpen it!

CrimsonTideShooter wrote:


Is the variance always on the same side?

wickededge wrote:



Unless I force it to be otherwise, yes. Always on the left side even with non FFG blades. I just figured it was something I was doing wrong.

CrimsonTideShooter wrote:


Once I'm in the office tomorrow, I'll send you some things to check out - I'm thinking you're having a hardware issue.

I have the same problem the variance is always on the left side. If you have any tips please forward them to me.

Thank You

It is COMMON, almost the rule, that Japanese double beveled knives THEMSELVES are not symmetric, so you would expect to see this on a WEPS. In this instance it is NOT a problem with the WEPS but a characteristic of the knife itself. Most Japanese knives are biased towards the right.

The simplest approach is to create an edge that has a similar amount of asymmetry to the knife itself. And the simplest way to do this is to simply grind more on one side or the other to adjust asymmetry, rather than coming up with some complicated and unnecessary setting of two different angles on the two sides.

What is important is to be consistent - clamp it the same way each time.

I suspect that this asymmetry is not unique to Japanese knives alone.

---
Ken

I don't believe that I have ever seen the exact angle on each side but I always assumed it was error in the instrument I was using.

I originally used my iphone with an app that uses the built in accelerometer to measure the angle but I assumed it wasn't accurate so I bought a $40 angle cube at the hardware store and it was blatantly even more inaccurate so I returned it and just use the iphone again.

1 degree isn't so bad as long as I'm always clamping and sharpening with that same profile I figured... Is there a certain brand of angle cube that is deadly accurate and reliable to use?

You only know whether or not it is accurate if you have something to compare it to of which you know that it is accurate.

I haven't got an iphone, but here are a couple of review of the iphone app on a woodworkers forum. Most people find it to be adequately accurate. (Search on "accurate" on that page.)

Some people on this forum use an angle cube from Amazon and are quite content with it. I use a similar one. On "medium sized" knives it gives the same results as my WEPS rod angle guides, which gives me confidence that both the WEPS and the angle guide are accurate. (They could be both inaccurate in the same way, but that is a bit less likely.)

These angle cubes have, according to their manufacturers, an accuracy of 0.1 - 0.2 degrees. If you want to spend a bit more there are angle cubes with an accuracy of 0.05 degrees. And look here for a large selection of angle cubes. Good for your Dutch, too .