SOMETHING MORE THAN MERE WICKEDNESS THIS WAY MAY COME

KNIFE SHARPENING:


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.