They should be available on the site here very shortly! I ordered mine directly from Ken, though. Ordered the blank paddles from the WEPS guys, and had them sent straight to Ken to be fitted with the stones. He has the individual stones listed on his website over at CKTG, you can pick whatever pairing on a paddle set you like. I chose mine suitable to come off of the 1k diamonds and move up through 2k Shapton, with the intent of adding a 5K and 8K, then using the leather strops with the compounds to finish it up, and set up for even higher stropping if I should end up wanting to.

A drop of Microlon goes a long way in those joints. Ultimately we need to revisit the design to prevent the binding that occurs when the rod is laid down and rotated totally perpendicular to the Base Rod. I think the Collar needs a slightly different shape.

komitadjie wrote:

I'll add a drop of lubricant, I think. I have some very good high-pressure firearms grease that should smooth that up nicely. I don't have any issue with them having to be laid down a specific way, the only time it bugs me is when I'm trying to sharpen, and it feels like the knuckles are fighting me making a smooth sweep of the edge. I really need to make the motion very slowly while I look at the joint itself to see exactly what surfaces are interfering, I might take the joints apart and round the corners to smooth things out a bit if the grease doesn't do the trick. It's almost like there's just enough play in the joint that it's not rotating smoothly on the pivot rod, but is rotating on the rod and sliding on the opposing surface at the same time.

Doesn't seem to effect the sharpening accuracy at all, just feels kinda nasty.

Please keep me posted!

komitadjie wrote:



I was discussing this issue/problem with Bob at WE last week. I tend to think that part of the problem is that the length of the black articulation joint needs to be just a touch longer than the horizontal radius of the joint in the blue angle guage. The axil in the Blue angle guage is ofset into the verticle, the black articulators length is fine when it is in the upper region of the blue radius, but when you set the armatures/rods down to change stones or do something, make an adjustment ect., the armature binds, because the rods don't quite have enough clearance to move freely in the horizontal. If the rods formed a 90deg angle when laying down you would not see/feel as much binding. Of course that is my armchair engineering of the issue.

... of course some teflon "Super Lube" could fix the problem right up.

I love the WE. My left arm is now bald from the wrist to almost my elbow!

Just wondering if an aircraft quality Heim joint would work?
or am I just thinking out loud and need to shut up

All it took was a little oil! I was working down at the sporting goods store I work/play at on weekends, and I had brought the WEPS down to show it off a bit. I decided to just hit it with a little Kroil on the pivots to see what would happen, and low and behold the sticking feeling is COMPLETELY gone. Apparently, it was just the aluminium surfaces rubbing against each other, and a bit of oil smoothed things up nicely. I'll probably use a grease or a more surface-clinging oil in place of a penetrating oil the next time it starts to need it, but it's what I had handy and it solved the problem!

The Shaptons are performing very well, now that I have the final set of diamond plates to set up the scratch pattern for them properly, they're making one heck of an edge. In retrospect I might have made a better choice on this paddle set with a 2K/5K set, instead of a 1K/2K. The 1K sure smooths out the diamond scratches quickly, though. My next move will probably be to get some better magnification so I can actually inspect what it's doing in real time to make sure I'm cleaning up all the coarser grit marks before I move on. The edge is not a polished one off of the 2K, there's no mirror yet, but it's certainly sharp!

Good news all around, Komit!

I think you made the better choice in the long run for a 1K/2K coming straight off the WEPS 600. I did a microscope progression with the WEPS diamonds, then the WEPS ceramic 1200/1600 and jumped to the Chosera 5K, which I'm writing up on my blog (hopefully it will be ready in a couple of days..) Jumping straight from the 600 WEPS to the 2K Shapton can mask the deepest scratches of the 400, 200 and 100 WEPS diamonds if you used them, unless you spent more time making sure they were removed. When touching up in the future, you can then begin at the 2K.

Your next paddle can be a 5K/Balsa or leather strop

BTW, the 2K Shapton will only ever produce a hazy finish at best - never a mirror. You can, however, get a slight mirror off the 2K Chosera if you work the mud enough.

That's another difference that I've been noticing on the WEPS in particular (not so much on the full sized stones) - one of the advantages to the Choseras is that they do hold water, allowing them to stay wet longer during use, and using the mud as the stone dries is advantageous, whereas on the Shaptons the water does tend to drip off the stones quicker, and the resulting swarf on the stone hampers performance.

I also got my Diamond WEPS 800/1K- so I'll be getting to those soon.

I'm working them off of the WEPS 1K now that I have it handy, actually. It worked off of the 600, which kind of surprised me given the jump in grit size, especially with the larger grit particles being diamond.

I've noticed that with the hazy finish, Tom, but I wasn't really expecting a shine off of a 2K anyway. Once I get the 5K/8K some time this coming month, THEN I will start to see a shine. I've been just using a spray bottle like you'd use for window cleaner full of water with a few drops of Dawn to keep them wet, a squirt every little bit seems to clear the swarf and re-wet the stone nicely.

Now you have reminded me of a question I think of everytime I go the distance with my stones. Should I be wetting or oiling the WE Ceramic stones when using them?