Help me sharpen two basic knives that i can't figure out

[Against_The_Wind]

Well that throws the theory from my previous post out of the window.

But yeah that can't be an accurate measurement, so it would definitely be helpful to figure out what's causing the issue with it.

I agree, I'm not touching my esee 6 until I figure it out, I'm going to wait till I get the new ws and see what that reads.

 

[Against_The_Wind]

I'm sure you did. I can tell from your posts.

Guy McVer, kudos for your patience and willingness to deal with the situation.
I'm sorry but I give up.

Really appreciate you assuming what I have and haven't watched, considering I watched videos on the worksharp till the point of ad nauseum, before I spent my hard earned money on it.

Nothing in those videos got into anything extremely in depth or very technical.

Your a real sweetheart.

 

[Papilio]

Yes, Papilio's picture was extremely helpful, thank you to him or her for that.

I realize that I should be able to visualize that without assistance, but it gets very confusing trying to extrapolate everything said on here into an accurate visual and have certainty I'm doing it correctly.

You are welcome. Take your time. It needs practice to get familiar with the terminology. And to understand what you have to do to get your knife sharp.
Looking at a knife, on top you have the spine. Then the blade tapers somewhere below the spine. That is the primary bevel. This little (unless it's a scandi grind) shiny "sliver" at the very end of the blade is the secondary bevel. You sharpen only the secondary bevel (or the cutting edge when microbevelling). Sharpening is all about angle (control). You need to find the correct angle. And keep this angle consistent. As I posted before: The sharpening angle needs to match the blade geometry.
I think that Spyderco's Sharpmaker is a great device for maintaining ones knives. The ceramic rods work fine for light touch-ups as well as honing a knife. But: As the Sharpmaker offers only two angles - i.e. 30° and 40° blade angle or 15° or 20° sharpening angle - the knife has to match these angles to work. There are tricks to achive different Sharpmaker angles (YouTube will help), but that is too complicated at the moment.

As you say you have some technical skills: Why don'to you take a piece of cardboard and a protractor and cut a DIY 20° angle out of the cardboard. That is the angle you need for reprofiling when you want your Sharpmaker to work. Maybe you are able to use that cardboard cutting to check the Work Sharps angle. Because I agree with G Guy McVer and T TheOne45 : The angle you think you get from the Work Sharp can't be correct.

 

[Against_The_Wind]

You are welcome. Take your time. It needs practice to get familiar with the terminology. And to understand what you have to do to get your knife sharp.
Looking at a knife, on top you have the spine. Then the blade tapers somewhere below the spine. That is the primary bevel. This little (unless it's a scandi grind) shiny "sliver" at the very end of the blade is the secondary bevel. You sharpen only the secondary bevel (or the cutting edge when microbevelling). Sharpening is all about angle (control). You need to find the correct angle. And keep this angle consistent. As I posted before: The sharpening angle needs to match the blade geometry.
I think that Spyderco's Sharpmaker is a great device for maintaining ones knives. The ceramic rods work fine for light touch-ups as well as honing a knife. But: As the Sharpmaker offers only two angles - i.e. 30° and 40° blade angle or 15° or 20° sharpening angle - the knife has to match these angles to work. There are tricks to achive different Sharpmaker angles (YouTube will help), but that is too complicated at the moment.

As you say you have some technical skills: Why don'to you take a piece of cardboard and a protractor and cut a DIY 20° angle out of the cardboard. That is the angle you need for reprofiling when you want your Sharpmaker to work. Maybe you are able to use that cardboard cutting to check the Work Sharps angle. Because I agree with G Guy McVer and T TheOne45 : The angle you think you get from the Work Sharp can't be cocorrect.

I totally see now how the angles on my esee 6 aren't possible, but I'm also not sure how the ws is conveying a larger angle setting to properly hit the bevel.

Nonetheless, excellent ideas, appreciate your help.

 

[Papilio]

I am not familiar with the Work Sharp so I can't offer any help regarding the WS.