Wicked Edge or EdgePro??

[Surfingringo]

This topic has probably been done here before, but whatever, lets do it again. :) I am pretty happy with my diamond bench stones and sharpmaker, but every now and again i entertain the idea of getting one of these systems to do pretty edges and perfect reprofiling jobs. I would like to hear folks thoughts...especially those who are familiar with both systems. Pluses and minuses, cost, cost of stones, speed, results...whatever you'd like to share.

[Ankerson]

I like the Edge Pro personally. :cool:

Slight learning curve, but if you feehand now you shouldn't have any problems using it.

The OEM stones are OK to start with, but the after market stones are somewhat better and there is a large variety available at different price ranges.

Takes me like 5 mins from dull to screaming sharp with the Congress SIC stones I use.

[farnorthdan]

I have the Edge Pro and like it a lot, never used the Wicked edge but it looks nice too. I like how fast I can re-profile with the EP and it didn't take too long to figure things out. Also like the variety of stones available, the stock ones are OK but some of the other makers seem to cut a lot better. I just recently picked up their leveling kit, works great too and really freshens up the stones nicely. Honestly though, once I have my blades profiled the way I like I find myself using the sharpmaker the most.

[Liquid Cobra]

I agree with farnorthdan, once a knife is profiled the way I want it, I maintain it on the sharp maker. I didn't know about the aftermarket stones for the edge pro, I'll have to check that out.

I should also mention that after I achieved a mirror bevel on a few of my knives the novelty wore off. Now I just get them sharp and keep them that way.

[Evil D]

Edge Pro. Just say no to clamp based sharpeners.

[razorsharp]

Ill go against the tide and say that the wicked edge is the best sharpener I have ever had and I had a Shapton Glass EP kit.

Search reviews on each, they will all be glowing. I do lean towards the WEPS by a large margin. I got the Pro-Pack #2 and couldnt be happier. Weps reprofiles WAY faster, 100 grit stone on each side of the blade either scrubbing or doing individual passes, you will reprofile in about a minute., then its a matter of going through the stones till you have the desired mirror.

[Evil D]

Ill go against the tide and say that the wicked edge is the best sharpener I have ever had and I had a Shapton Glass EP kit.

Search reviews on each, they will all be glowing. I do lean towards the WEPS by a large margin. I got the Pro-Pack #2 and couldnt be happier. Weps reprofiles WAY faster, 100 grit stone on each side of the blade either scrubbing or doing individual passes, you will reprofile in about a minute., then its a matter of going through the stones till you have the desired mirror.

I sort of feel like the double side thing is a novelty. I can see how it could speed things up, but for me speed usually leads to a mistake. My problem is that it's a clamp sharpener, and in my eyes they will always be inferior. It may be the absolute best clamp sharpener made, but all the same issues that a Lansky has the WE will also have, aside from being angle to fine tune the angle. When sharpening longer blades like kitchen knives, you have to reposition. When sharpening swedged blades or dagger grinds or even some FFG blades, you always have to fight with the clamp to get the blade secure and not wobbly. Then the height of the blade means that the further away from the clamp the edge is, the lower than angle will be that the stone hits. This may be avoided by using an angle cube, but I don't HAVE to use the cube every time on the EP.

Of course, none of this means you can't make a knife sharp with one. I can put a stupid sharp edge on a blade with my Lansky. For me though, when I decided to pay big money for a sharpening kit, I wanted to get away from clamps. That's why I chose the EP. The fact that I can sharpen a sword on it relatively as easy as a folder is nice too.

[RanCoWeAla]

Wicked edge if you don't mind the price

[Ankerson]

Ill go against the tide and say that the wicked edge is the best sharpener I have ever had and I had a Shapton Glass EP kit.

Search reviews on each, they will all be glowing. I do lean towards the WEPS by a large margin. I got the Pro-Pack #2 and couldnt be happier. Weps reprofiles WAY faster, 100 grit stone on each side of the blade either scrubbing or doing individual passes, you will reprofile in about a minute., then its a matter of going through the stones till you have the desired mirror.

Was thinking about trying the Shapton Glass 320 and 500 grit for my EP to see how they compare to the Congress Moldmaster 320 and 400 grit that I use now.

I also have the 80 and 120 grit Moldmasters and they cut extremely fast.

[Evil D]

Ill go against the tide and say that the wicked edge is the best sharpener I have ever had and I had a Shapton Glass EP kit.

Search reviews on each, they will all be glowing. I do lean towards the WEPS by a large margin. I got the Pro-Pack #2 and couldnt be happier. Weps reprofiles WAY faster, 100 grit stone on each side of the blade either scrubbing or doing individual passes, you will reprofile in about a minute., then its a matter of going through the stones till you have the desired mirror.

Was thinking about trying the Shapton Glass 320 and 500 grit for my EP to see how they compare to the Congress Moldmaster 320 and 400 grit that I use now.

I also have the 80 and 120 grit Moldmasters and they cut extremely fast.

I have the 220/320 Shaptons and they do cut fairly aggressively, though probably not as much as anything 80 grit. I feel like something that course would just leave you with crazy deep scratches you have to work extra hard to remove..?

[Ankerson]

Ill go against the tide and say that the wicked edge is the best sharpener I have ever had and I had a Shapton Glass EP kit.

Search reviews on each, they will all be glowing. I do lean towards the WEPS by a large margin. I got the Pro-Pack #2 and couldnt be happier. Weps reprofiles WAY faster, 100 grit stone on each side of the blade either scrubbing or doing individual passes, you will reprofile in about a minute., then its a matter of going through the stones till you have the desired mirror.

Was thinking about trying the Shapton Glass 320 and 500 grit for my EP to see how they compare to the Congress Moldmaster 320 and 400 grit that I use now.

I also have the 80 and 120 grit Moldmasters and they cut extremely fast.

I have the 220/320 Shaptons and they do cut fairly aggressively, though probably not as much as anything 80 grit. I feel like something that course would just leave you with crazy deep scratches you have to work extra hard to remove..?

How fast do they wear?

What about the 320, how is the finish?

[Evil D]

Ill go against the tide and say that the wicked edge is the best sharpener I have ever had and I had a Shapton Glass EP kit.

Search reviews on each, they will all be glowing. I do lean towards the WEPS by a large margin. I got the Pro-Pack #2 and couldnt be happier. Weps reprofiles WAY faster, 100 grit stone on each side of the blade either scrubbing or doing individual passes, you will reprofile in about a minute., then its a matter of going through the stones till you have the desired mirror.

Was thinking about trying the Shapton Glass 320 and 500 grit for my EP to see how they compare to the Congress Moldmaster 320 and 400 grit that I use now.

I also have the 80 and 120 grit Moldmasters and they cut extremely fast.

I have the 220/320 Shaptons and they do cut fairly aggressively, though probably not as much as anything 80 grit. I feel like something that course would just leave you with crazy deep scratches you have to work extra hard to remove..?

How fast do they wear?

What about the 320, how is the finish?

You probably do more sharpening than I do, but they seem to wear pretty slow to me, MUCH slower than the course Edge Pro stones do. I lap mine just about after every reprofiling too. I don't recall when I bought mine but it was at least 2 years ago maybe 3. This pic is my 220 in gray and my 16k on the right. The 16k hasn't seen very much use at all and has only been lapped a few times, so it's very close to factory thickness. If you do a lot of reprofiling, it may be a good option but I can't say if it'll be worth the price vs. another stone. You have to consider that if this stone is $35, is it worth the price of two or even 3 other stones that may wear faster?

As for the finish, I love them. Granted, I don't have much to compare them to, and honestly one of my favorite edges is off the 600 grit standard Edge Pro stone. They do seem to give a very smooth scratch pattern at least compared to other sharpening stones I've used such as my Lansky stones of comparable grits.

I'd say it has lost less than 1/64 of an inch of material in 2 years, but again you probably do far more reprofiling than I do. Still, I'd buy them again without hesitation. The only stones I've used that I like even close to as much aren't even stones...I really have a fondness for the Atoma diamond plates.

[Ankerson]

Was thinking about trying the Shapton Glass 320 and 500 grit for my EP to see how they compare to the Congress Moldmaster 320 and 400 grit that I use now.

I also have the 80 and 120 grit Moldmasters and they cut extremely fast.

I have the 220/320 Shaptons and they do cut fairly aggressively, though probably not as much as anything 80 grit. I feel like something that course would just leave you with crazy deep scratches you have to work extra hard to remove..?

How fast do they wear?

What about the 320, how is the finish?

You probably do more sharpening than I do, but they seem to wear pretty slow to me, MUCH slower than the course Edge Pro stones do. I lap mine just about after every reprofiling too. I don't recall when I bought mine but it was at least 2 years ago maybe 3. This pic is my 220 in gray and my 16k on the right. The 16k hasn't seen very much use at all and has only been lapped a few times, so it's very close to factory thickness. If you do a lot of reprofiling, it may be a good option but I can't say if it'll be worth the price vs. another stone. You have to consider that if this stone is $35, is it worth the price of two or even 3 other stones that may wear faster?

As for the finish, I love them. Granted, I don't have much to compare them to, and honestly one of my favorite edges is off the 600 grit standard Edge Pro stone. They do seem to give a very smooth scratch pattern at least compared to other sharpening stones I've used such as my Lansky stones of comparable grits.

I'd say it has lost less than 1/64 of an inch of material in 2 years, but again you probably do far more reprofiling than I do. Still, I'd buy them again without hesitation. The only stones I've used that I like even close to as much aren't even stones...I really have a fondness for the Atoma diamond plates.

Sounds good, here are my Moldmasters etc:

400 grit mounted in the EP.

The 320 and 400 hardly wear at all, especially the 400 grit, almost no wear.

[Ankerson]

Was thinking about trying the Shapton Glass 320 and 500 grit for my EP to see how they compare to the Congress Moldmaster 320 and 400 grit that I use now.

I also have the 80 and 120 grit Moldmasters and they cut extremely fast.

I have the 220/320 Shaptons and they do cut fairly aggressively, though probably not as much as anything 80 grit. I feel like something that course would just leave you with crazy deep scratches you have to work extra hard to remove..?

How fast do they wear?

What about the 320, how is the finish?

You probably do more sharpening than I do, but they seem to wear pretty slow to me, MUCH slower than the course Edge Pro stones do. I lap mine just about after every reprofiling too. I don't recall when I bought mine but it was at least 2 years ago maybe 3. This pic is my 220 in gray and my 16k on the right. The 16k hasn't seen very much use at all and has only been lapped a few times, so it's very close to factory thickness. If you do a lot of reprofiling, it may be a good option but I can't say if it'll be worth the price vs. another stone. You have to consider that if this stone is $35, is it worth the price of two or even 3 other stones that may wear faster?

As for the finish, I love them. Granted, I don't have much to compare them to, and honestly one of my favorite edges is off the 600 grit standard Edge Pro stone. They do seem to give a very smooth scratch pattern at least compared to other sharpening stones I've used such as my Lansky stones of comparable grits.

I'd say it has lost less than 1/64 of an inch of material in 2 years, but again you probably do far more reprofiling than I do. Still, I'd buy them again without hesitation. The only stones I've used that I like even close to as much aren't even stones...I really have a fondness for the Atoma diamond plates.

Sounds good, here are my Moldmasters etc:

400 grit mounted in the EP.

The 320 and 400 hardly wear at all, especially the 400 grit, almost no wear.

[Evil D]

I want the 500 Shapton, I bet I'd love the edge it gives. I've also used my 320 Shapton and then lightly micro bevel with the EP tapes and that gives a real nice refined toothy edge.

[Ankerson]

I want the 500 Shapton, I bet I'd love the edge it gives. I've also used my 320 Shapton and then lightly micro bevel with the EP tapes and that gives a real nice refined toothy edge.

I think the 320 and 500 Shapton are going to be the ticket for me. :cool:

Looking at the micron levels, would be nice for my own personal blades and use the Moldmasters for the testing like I have been.

[kbuzbee]

Ill go against the tide and say that the wicked edge is the best sharpener I have ever had and I had a Shapton Glass EP kit.

I'm with you on this. I love the edges off the WEPS. Mostly I run through the 4 Atoma grits. Fast easy and clean.

Ken

[Henry - get both]

I have the WE Pro Pack 2 but I use the Edge Pro 100x more often. The set up takes too long with the WE and it wont let me set a 10 DPS edge. Full flat ground knives sit on the edge pro better than they clamp into the WE.

[Surfingringo]

What is the lowest edge angle you can set on each?

[Archimedes]

I will throw in another. Ken Onion Work Sharp. Perfect for big time stock removal and also good for a highly polished edge. Just takes a bit more skill and time to learn but once you do it works very well.