To Wicked Edge or not?

M

maroast

Joined
May 13, 2008
Messages
61
So this is my modest, but slowly growing knife collection. I use all my knives, and always will. Not a safe queen kind of guy. I have a sharpmaker with diamond rods, and I get just OK results by most standards…but I like REALLY sharp knives (something I haven’t been able to achieve yet).

I’d like to think that I could easily keep my knives razor sharp with a WE…but $425 for the pro pack I is a chunk of change!!! Does my modest collection warrant such a sharpening system?!? I’m not hard up for cash, but $425 is a lot of money. I thought about getting into freehand sharpening, but I don’t really have to time/ interest to develop this skill to the level that I’d be satisfied with. Man, I hate dullish knives, but also not keen on the idea of spending +400 on a sharpener….guess I should just man-up and buy it….unless there are other viable options out there.




IMG_0009.JPG
 
I'm in the same boat. I know I'll eventually get one but right now I think it's just a matter of the whole polished edge addiction. Make a strop or buy one and some flitz, you might be surprised at the results. Nice collection by the way
 
The wicked edge is a nice set up that works great. You don't need the full pro pack, just get the basic set and some strops and you can get some really great edges.
However if you are anything like myself (and I don't think I am alone here) you will end of collecting different sharpening tools! I have DMT plates and norton water stones in addition to the wicked edge and another nice tool, the Ken Onion Work Sharp. With the WS you can get very sharp edges in a short amount of time. My only issue is that even though my knives are very sharp the bevels aren't always even after I am finished. It is around $150 or so, and can be used to reprofile and repair blades. If you just want to be able to keep your knives sharp, then pick up a sharpmaker for around $50.
 
I bought a WEPS Pro Pack 1 back in 2012. I rarely get it out anymore for a number of reasons. The arms have slop (play) in them so I have to put pressure on the paddles in a certain way or they are not at the correct angle. I tested this with an angle cube. The clamp doesn't work well on FFG knives or small knives. The 100 grit stones are slow when I need to do a serious reprofile (removing quite a bit of steel...as in dropping bevels from >40 inclusive to ~30 inclusive). The real kicker is despite having had a couple years to play with the system I still do not end up with super sharp knives at the end. I use an angle cube to check the angles and then fully apex the blade on both sides, using sharpie and checking for burrs. I run through the grits up to 1000. In the end I tend to have hazy mirror bevels with a blade that isn't sharp. They almost never cleanly slice phonebook paper or shave arm hair. I'll break out the Sharpmaker, do a few passes at 30 or 40 degrees (the appropriate one given the angle) and voila, super sharp blade that cleanly slices phonebook paper and shaves arm hair. I have no idea what it is about the WEPS but I have poor luck with it. I don't know if it's simply leftover burrs from inconsistent angles, slop/play in the arms, inconsistent pressure, or what. It's not as fool proof as people make it out to be. Lest anyone claim I haven't tried enough, I've watched all the videos I could find on youtube, went to the WEPS forums and read dozens of threads there, read threads on this forum, and I have used the system for hours. I don't know if my individual WEPS is a lemon or what.

I have much better luck reprofiling/shaping with a $20 Norton crystolon stone and finishing on a Sharpmaker. YMMV and all that.
 
Fanglekai said:
I bought a WEPS Pro Pack 1 back in 2012. I rarely get it out anymore for a number of reasons. The arms have slop (play) in them so I have to put pressure on the paddles in a certain way or they are not at the correct angle.
Click to expand...
- Is the slop in the joint or the actual paddle to arm fit?
 
I have the WE Pro Pack and I'm a big fan. I was never great at sharpening with other guided systems like Lansky or Gatco. With the WE, I'm able to sharpen at the angles that I want and in a consistent fashion. I've never regretted spending the money on the system.
 
tokerblue said:
- Is the slop in the joint or the actual paddle to arm fit?
Click to expand...

It has slop in a few areas. The rods seems like they're slightly too narrow for the hole in the paddle. The joints are difficult to screw securely into the horizontal rod with the angle markings. Often it takes a bit of wiggling to get them to screw down securely. Also the arms have horizontal slop where they connect to the joints. I don't know if I got a lemon or if the tolerances weren't that good in the 2012 models or what.
 
If your so into knives you should be able to sharpen them on a stone. To me this is what owning a knife is all about. The wicked edge is not worth it unless you want to reprofile a blade. If people spent half the time practicing sharpening on the basic stone then they do spending on this site, wicked edge would be laughed at for the amount of change it costs.
 
extrastout said:
If your so into knives you should be able to sharpen them on a stone. To me this is what owning a knife is all about. The wicked edge is not worth it unless you want to reprofile a blade. If people spent half the time practicing sharpening on the basic stone then they do spending on this site, wicked edge would be laughed at for the amount of change it costs.
Click to expand...

I have to agree. I wish I would have started out with a $20 Norton India or Crystolon stone and played around with that for a while on some cheap knives until I got the hang of it. Even highly regarded knifemakers like Phil Wilson have said they use Norton India and Crystolon stones.
 
I have the wicked edge. The new arms fix all slop. I had the same issue and the upgraded arms fixed all issues. My only suggestion, honestly, is if you're going to get it get the pro pack 2. You will end up buying all that it comes with (and then some) later. Just buy it off the start and you'll be better off. Also, their customer service is amazing. If you crank down on the vise (we're talking stupid hard) you can slightly bend the tips. I did it, it was obviously my fault, and they sent me a new vise setup and return postage. From email to new vise in hands 3 days. Not too bad I'd say.
 
Fanglekai said:
It has slop in a few areas. The rods seems like they're slightly too narrow for the hole in the paddle. The joints are difficult to screw securely into the horizontal rod with the angle markings. Often it takes a bit of wiggling to get them to screw down securely. Also the arms have horizontal slop where they connect to the joints. I don't know if I got a lemon or if the tolerances weren't that good in the 2012 models or what.
Click to expand...

There was a "recall" of the original arms a couple years ago, that addressed at least some of what you mentioned. You might want to contact WE directly and see if they can help with your issues.
 
cbwx34 said:
There was a "recall" of the original arms a couple years ago, that addressed at least some of what you mentioned. You might want to contact WE directly and see if they can help with your issues.
Click to expand...
My suggestion would be the same. If the arm joints have a lot of slop, contact WE. They'll send out new arms. If the actual rod has too much slop, you can try putting a straw over it.
 
Going up to 1000 grit without stropping or anything has rarely left me with good results. Going to at least 1000 and finishing with at least some finer grit stropping has made my edges far better. Highly polished and hair whittling sharp and I only spent 40 bucks on my sharpening system and another 30 bucks for three grit levels of diapaste.

Well, all that plus ensuring I'm fully apexing at each successive stone and ensuring I remove the burr. I believe that's why the sharpmaker does well for people. When they use a guided system they don't raise the angle by one or two degrees at the very end of their stone progression to fully remove the burr. For instance going from 200 to 1200 grit. Fully finishing at tje same angle for each stone. Once you're done with the 1200, raise the angle from whatever you had been at. Say you were at 15 degrees per side, raise it to 17 or 18 degrees. Do one or two VERY light passes more per side to fully remove the burr. With a crock stick setup it's a given that that'll happen because of the inherent inaccuracy of the human hand movement.

Then move on to strop on at least an old leather belt, in layman's terms, to remove the leftover metal filings and crap still clinging onto the very edge.
 
Last edited:
This:
uT0J0pc.jpg


and this:

MIMqsdJ.jpg


Because of this:

APBFaip.jpg


Plus this:

mJp3c3M.jpg


Costing me 70 bucks and some pieces of cardboard that new shirts are wrapped around.
 
cbwx34 said:
There was a "recall" of the original arms a couple years ago, that addressed at least some of what you mentioned. You might want to contact WE directly and see if they can help with your issues.
Click to expand...

I had no idea about a recall. I wish they would have sent me an email when that happened. I'll contact Clay and see what he says. Thanks for the heads up.
 
extrastout said:
If your so into knives you should be able to sharpen them on a stone. To me this is what owning a knife is all about. The wicked edge is not worth it unless you want to reprofile a blade. If people spent half the time practicing sharpening on the basic stone then they do spending on this site, wicked edge would be laughed at for the amount of change it costs.
Click to expand...


True, true. I feel that way about most of my other hobbies such as cars, motorcycles, bicycles, ext... I'm a do it yourselfer. I made a couple of nice strops recently (have to get some compound next I guess), and I've actually gotten some decent results using sandpaper on my blades (shave arm hair). I dont feel totaly lost to freehand sharpening, and I could make it work if I had to. But I'm really looking for a consistent, even, SHARP edge without a ton of time spent....not the hack job that I feel I'm doing now.

The pro pack 2 is sweet, but way more money than I can justify at this time. The pro pack 1 is the upper limit of what I'd spend (could upgrade in a year or two).


Bodog, thanks for the pics, I'll have to look into that system too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top