Any thoughts on the new Wicked Edge GO?

[Surfingringo]

I guess I missed it at Blade show this year. Anyway, I'm considering getting a guided system for doing heavy reprofile work and ran across this system today. The preorder price looks pretty good at $150.

[Evil D]

Well, only thought are the same as any other WE sharpener, it's clamp based so I'll pass. The Edge Pro is far more versatile.

[Donut]

I've been using a $30 Edge Pro clone for a while. :p

Did they ever get rid of the inconsistent angle (thinner edge near the tip) problem?

[Bloke]

What D said! :)

With any of the clamp systems holding a FFG blade with a distal taper plumb in the clamp is a juggling act. As for clamping the blade in the same place twice, I reckon you'd have more chance of winning last months lottery. :rolleyes:

[farnorthdan]

Yep, prefer the Edge pro, lots of great options for the EP stone wise, I've not had good results with the clamped systems.

[Mako109]

I've been trying to decide between EP and WE myself and came across a few interesting videos by Clay Allison of WE. In the following two videos he demonstrates sharpening FFGs tapered like the PM2 and PM3. The first video demonstrates the use of the original clamp with a "tape trick"; the second video demonstrates the new Generation 3 clamp that's specifically designed to handle FFG blades.

Original clamp:
https://youtu.be/cGcMsgMYJuw

New Generation 3 clamp:
https://youtu.be/_Tv8iYWjO3c

Lastly, I see that WE offers an optional clamp extension that facilitates sharpening narrower blades and mitigates the issue of the stones hitting the clamp. How well does this work?

Many if not all of my favorite high end knives have flats that are suited to clamp systems, so I've been circling around WE, but even the lower end WE models (the new GO notwithstanding) are terribly expensive. And then there's the problem with my Spyderco FFGs...unless Clay Allison's tape trick really works. So looks like I need to revisit EP again. Thoughts?

[Evil D]

I don't care how well it clamps, it's the fact that it clamps at all. I can sharpen a flippin katana on my Edge Pro, you can't sharpen anything more than about 5 inches on a clamp based sharper without effecting the bevel angle at the far ends of the blade. That's a hassle. I can sharpen my 10 inch kitchen knives easily and get even consistent bevels every time.

[Ahoward2k]

Looks pretty neat. I just got the profile K02 from Russia, have done a 12" machete with only very minor changes in angle between the belly and the tip and heal of the blade. Customer was happy. Also considering getting a table attachment for the k02 so I can use it like an edge pro or clamp it, whichever I want at the time.

[RLDubbya]

I guess I missed it at Blade show this year. Anyway, I'm considering getting a guided system for doing heavy reprofile work and ran across this system today. The preorder price looks pretty good at $150.

I was talking with the guys at WE about this product. In essence, here's their plan: they believe there is no good sharpener in the sub-$200 market space. The GO is intended to fill that hole; it incorporates the latest tech (more on that in a bit), along with a limited number of diamond stones - essentially the stones which are required to sharpen a knife from the factory to a normal person's needs. It does not contain a selection of stones which will satisfy a collector's desires - for example, the stones stop at 600 grit; while this is perfectly fine for getting a knife edge that is shaving sharp, it is not capable of producing a high-polish mirror edge, let alone an edge that stands up to examination under a microscope.

The technology: the latest generation clamp is perfectly capable of, with one hand holding the knife in proper position, to use the other hand to throw the lever which rotates the cam and tightens the clamp on a distal tapered FFG grind. No problem with that at all; I do it all the time with the Gen III clamping system. You don't need, for normal size blades, any other adapters.

There is a set of jaws made for very thick blades, up to 1/4" thick. So far, I have had to use those exactly one time, on a Tatanka.

The only other knife problem, potentially, comes with very small knives and stone clearance. For example, while I can clamp in a Chubby just fine, the stones rub against the jaw of the vise when I get the edge angle low enough. In this case, we have two solutions at our disposal: either use WE's own "low angle adapter" or (what I chose) the Tormek Small Knife Adapter (for $32 at Amazon). Neither answer is 100% perfect; the Tormek holds the small knife quite fine, but there are no alignment marks, etc., for getting the same setup next time.

What I've taken to doing is keeping a camera handy, and just snapping a pic of the mounted blade so that I know where to put the knife in the Tormek clamp next time. The great thing about the Tormek is that it clamps via the handle, thereby making sure nothing touches the blade that could damage it (well, other than diamond stones.)

If you have any questions about a particular model, I'd be happy to demonstrate with that model. If I don't have that model Spydie - good chance - you can mail one to me, you can stop over for the weekend, whatever. We can figure it out. BTW: one thing about Clay Allison (owner of WE) is that he is honest to a fault. He doesn't stretch the truth for marketing claims, ever. Neither do his employees.

One last thing many don't know about Spydies and the WE until post-purchase: there is a brand of knives which WE units, all of them, have a problem sharpening because that brand does not use a sharpening choil (generally speaking). That brand is Spyderco. The problem comes about because with no sharpening choil, the WE handle on the "paddle" with the sharpening medium cannot reach the very rear of the edge. The person to first tell me about this was Clay - he wanted to make sure that I knew the weakness.

You can, if the section of untouched blade bugs you, fix this easily. Essentially what you have to do is trim off the piece of plastic which is just above the sharpening medium; it's easy to cut with box cutters. This piece of plastic lives only to serve as a finger guard so that if your hand slips, it won't slip completely off the paddle and onto a razor sharp blade. However, we are talking about trimming off approximately 1/2". You basically get a Spydie clamped properly, and then carefully watch where that plastic contacts the rear of the blade at the grind termination / plunge. Then trim that plastic off. Now that stone will work fine.

I have not bothered to do that, basically b/c of laziness. The Gen III commercial vise has two guide rods and is designed to sharpen both sides of the blade at the same time. That means all stones are pairs; all are double-sided. So there are 2 100-200 stones; 2 400-600; 2 800-1000; 2 1500; 2 ceramics; 8 diamond film; 12 diamond paste. I'm tired just from typing that.

To give you an idea of time involved: I can take a knife that has an edge in bad shape, reprofile it, establish my bevel, and sharpen it up to 1000 using diamond stones, and that will only take me 10 minutes.

Hope that helps. If you have any questions, please ask, I will do my best to answer.

EDIT: Sorry, forgot one thing. Wicked Edge has a decent forum and knowledgebase as well. You can, minimally, browse the forum and read what others say; but I am willing to bet that you can create an account and participate as well.