Workers Of Wood

Tired of fighting for sharp edges on my knives, I, back around 2018, bought an Edge Pro knife [EP] sharpener.

The EP made a night and day difference in my knife (pocket, kitchen, hunting,) edges.

When free hand sharpening, all it takes is, getting near where you need to be, then tipping the blade a degree or two off your target and you are back three steps, because you altered the degree of approach. The EP helped me get past that problem.

About a year in to using the EP, I was talking with my wife and the conversation turned to that something we thought something seemed off with the potatoes. The reasoning was, the knives all but fell through them.

Both of us had been raised with the standard "rock back and forth with all your weight on it to cut it" kitchen knives. Yeah, sharpening skills were iffy in our house. And tossing our knives in the drawer with all the rest of the iron utensils didn’t seem to improve things.

In the end, we figured out the EP sharpened knives actually performed better than the dull, nicked edged knives we’d pulled out of a drawer in past times.

Now we won't settle for less than sharp, even with the cheap knives we yet have on the knife rack.


Enjoying better edges on knives can bring the same problem woodworkers, metalworkers and others come up against: "If that new tool made my work so much easier or quicker, what else am I missing?" It did, and I asked myself this question, as I fell down the tool rabbit hole.

To the aforementioned end, I have, for some time been enamored with the Wicked Edge [WE] sharpeners. This in spite of its many drawbacks research revealed. Things like:

(1) Having to buy extra, very expensive parts to sharpen knives at the sharper angles at which the Edge Pro wouldn't flinch.

(2) There the near or over $100.00 cost of each stone set.

(3) The up to $1,00.00 to $1,500.00 for the factory units.

(4) The complaints on that one side of the blade clamp is stationary, so clamping changes, if only minutely, the angle of sharpening between the two sides.



What I do like about the WE is, not having to flip the knife, not having to switch hands, having all settings stay stable, and the good looks of a FAIRLY well crafted tool.


Mindful of the CON’s of the WE, I am experimenting with building my own sharpener, but with significantly different approaches to solve some or all of its problems.

The biggest change is, clamping the handle, instead of the blade, so the problem of the sharpening stone hitting the blade clamp doesn't even make it out the gate, when the angle of grinding is steep.


To the end of building my sharpening system, I am fortunate in that I have a lot of materials in store in my shop. Things like one inch thick composite, like would be found on a science lab table, T-track for jigs, jig knobs, 10-24 or 1/4-20 bolts for jigs, pieces of aluminum of varying thicknesses, metal rods salvaged from printers, and a lot of Plexi and other plastics, and a lot of various types of wood. All things that lend themselves to the building of my sharpening system.

The wood, composite scraps, or laminated plastics can be used to make my own sharpening stone mounts.

Once the center holes are drilled to allow blanks to slide up and down the sharpener rods, they can be tailored in thickness, according to the thickness of the stones, leather or other material mounted on them.


The heavy composite makes a very stable base. Granite from a fabrication shop’s scrap pile could be used too, but would be more complicated to attach parts to.


Plastics salvaged from LED monitors and grabbed from yard sales work well for a base for the knife handle clamp. They do need to be bent, which may be done with a standard Nichrome plastic heater, or heating the plastic in a stove.

I used two pieces (1/4" thickness), one just a bit narrower than the other, so I could raise and lower the clamp base.


T-track is commonly used for jigs in woodworking and is ideal for allowing the sharpening rods to be adjusted for the angle needed to sharpen a knife.


Scrap aluminum from a salvage yard cut to accommodate the sharpening rods and a T-bolt to lock it to a given position on the T-track is a must, but the heavy composite or laminated plastic might do well for the task too.
It’s or a suitable replacement is a must for the support rod too.


Two 1/4" rods threaded to fit the swivel s were compliments of printers torn apart for their rods and tubes.

A 1/4"-20 tap made quick work of setting the rods up to screw into the purchased swivels.


Somewhere along the line, I acquired several brass rods. Stainless or steel would work as well for the blade support.

Later, I may 3-D some cylinders that will slide down over the blade support rod. They would have different sized notches for blades of different thicknesses.

The notched blade support would be especially important for knives with flexible blades, like fillet knives.


What I didn’t have for this project was, the 1/4-20 swivels for the sharpening rods and a self centering vice for the blade clamp. An on-line order took care of that.


SIDE NOTE: I've been distracted with scraping and sanding a sorely neglected house and railing wrapping three sides of it, in anticipation of painting them, and had to deal with a major breakdown of a critical pieces of equipment, so I haven't tended the last couple things to get this rocking and rolling. That is. mounting the Plexi to the composite base via a couple jig knobs, so it can move nearer and away from the blade support rod, and mounting the vice to the Plexi vice base.

My son has one. I've watched him use it but I haven't tried it. It does a good job. I'm still old school. I get out my diamond hones and eyeball it.

That's where I was for decades, but the Edge Pro showed me there was more. The right, and repeatable, edge changes the game. Now, even the wife calls out for sharpening runs to the shop.

I am carrying my SV 110 Spyderco Paramilitary now. Several weeks in, I just take it to the [two wheel - jeweler's rouge and chromium oxide] buffer and about four passes aside later and it's good for another several weeds.

ONE of the nice things about your diamond hones is, they don't have to be re-shaped and are quick, without eating half your knife.

Eons I went w/ this in a 10"... (tricked out)...
It's been in commercial shop service for well over 2 decades - no issues what so ever..
When stone wore down Tormek replaced it under warranty...
. .

I have to chuckle - many of us who have found many of them already, are always looking for the next latest, greatest thing. To that end, Tormex have been on my radar for a couple decades.

The comedy comes in at that I have things only a few have, like the four wheel grinder with CBN, diamond and a standard wheel I can vary in speed from zero to twenty-four hundred RPMs, the two wheel buffer, a Delta genuinely slow speed vertical-horizontal, water cooled sharpener, jigs and gauges to work with all the above, the Edge Pro and my version of the Wicked Edge, but I still lust for the Tormex.

I like KISS/MISS...
.

I like craigslist.

PS I like your grinder set up. Clever and handy

I like small foot print..

My shop is 1,800 square feet, so I like large and small footprints. Within reason. My carving machine is on a torsion box and flips up to save room, for example.

I've got a water stone, haven't used it since I can't remember when. I keep it in a mason jar with the same water so that I don't get efflorescence build up but it doesn't stay flat and requires maintenance.

You can use a diamond stone to flatten the water stone but the diamond stone stays flat so why bother with the water stone? I've bought a bunch of cheap diamond stones off ebay and they work perfectly fine. 90 Grit to 3000 (my newest). About $8-12. Take up no room in a drawer. I do less buffing with felt wheels since I got the 3000. A couple strokes with a 1000 and then some with the 3000 and I have a pretty sharp edge.

I have a 180g white Norton wheel on my grinder and the adjustable LV grinder jig for it but they rarely get used either. Has to be a bad nick to make it worthwhile. Sometimes to restore the right bevel on something I bought and am restoring. It turns too fast too so you have to be careful and use a light touch to keep from burning edges. Plus I can never get a square edge on plane irons no matter how careful I am or how hard I try. So I made a home made honing jig for that that works really well with the thin diamond hones. >$10 to build.

I've lusted after the Tormek too but the $800 price tag is a put off. I love the slow speed and and water cooled aspects. But I don't have those issues honing by hand either.

Kelly for lathe tools , including gouges, I've also been sharpening them by hand with the diamond hones for a while too. Usually a 600 g maybe followed up with a 1000. I hold the tool in front of my face and run the stone around it. I get a much sharper edge than I did with the 180 Norton and take off less metal. It only takes a couple of minutes and I can sit and rest my knees while I'm doing it.

My Edge Pro knife sharpener came with good quality wet stones, and I bought a bunch more.

The problem with them was/is, as was noted, they do re-shape, and get thinner. Accordingly, you have to compensate for that. Doing so is just a matter of adding a drill bit stop to the vertical shaft, setting the jig for the job, then use the first stone to space between the bottom of the rod holder and the bit stop. Then, each time you grab a new stone, you rest it on the bit stop and re-set the rod holder.

Now, I hardly use the wet stones because diamond ones are cheap and plentiful. They even fit the Edge Pro right out of the box.

My Wicked Edge inspired sharpener will use these too. I'll laminate light and dark wood, then drill it to fit the rods, so it's easy to distinguish the two grit sides from each other. That will cut the $85.00 to $105.00 dollar price tag for stones down to around a few bucks.