Wicked Edge - Generation 3 Pro Sharpener - WE300 - 2016 Model

Update 2017-07-05 When it comes to sharpening and refining a blade and setting the angles correctly, correcting factory apex there is absolutely no substitute for this Wicked Edge.That being said I have used it a few times since to hone the blades I did with it. It works well for this.Set up is still time consuming for a task which can be done far simpler and swifter with other tools. Due to this it is easy to put off honing the blades which is not a good idea because eventually you will have to sharpen and loose all that time you could have enjoyed using a truly sharp blade.I have however found other tools that I find work just as well take less effort and can quickly touch up a blade and tend to use them more than the Wicked Edge.To be clear this is for touching up an already wicked edge sharpened blade. Not SHARPENING. I never let my knives get to the sharpening stage because that requires removing too much metal.I use the Spyderco Sharp Maker for touch up. or the Spyderco Golden stone it is really usefulIf it needs heavier touch up I use the Work Sharp WSGSS Guided Sharpening System Ceramic rod and excellent Strop but never the diamond plates.If I have a chip in the blade then It is time for the wicked edge, or if I want to get a blade show off sharp and polished like a mirror.I mention the other systems for people to be aware of their existence and proper place in the scheme of things keeping knives honed on a regular basis. They are useful and have their place. The Wicked edge does everything these other devices do but better and more precise. So it truly is a do it all machine.***There is one exception***Serrated Knives despite trends towards plain blades these days there is absolutely no way a plain edge is better with man made materials for that serrated wins every time but only if it is properly honed and maintained.Serrated Knives: Nothing beats the Spyderco Sharp Maker when it comes to serrated knives. Using it I can cut telephone book paper with a serrated knife this blows peoples minds. The Spyderco Golden Stone also works very well with serrated knives but is more of a convenience carry item.Plain blades work best with natures materials in my experience: Wood, Skinning, Prepping and Cooking Food.Serrated works best with man made materials in my experience: Cardboard, Plastics, Rope, and any tough fibrous material that a plain blade tends to slide off of. For example A plain blade and a serrated blade will each cut single walls of cardboard but we have all had times when a box is folded presenting two walls and that is where the serrated knife blows through and the plain edge struggles or stalls.Double walled cardboard or more also stall out a plain edge but the serrated will keep going.Both have their place in EDC (Every Day Carry) but as of late Serrated has been my go to for EDC. My biggest use of a pocket knife is breaking down cardboard for recycling.Lately I have been enjoying the heck out of my Spyderco Para3 Pocket knife at 3 inches it is less attention grabbing than the Paramilitary 2 but keeps the same great blade shape and in fully serrated blade style is a card board rendering machine.My daily use fixed blade believe it or not in the kitchen of all places is a Chris Reeve Nyala plain edge, heck of a great knife.Update 2017-01-19 Blades sharpened with this in August 2016 are keeping an edge like nothing I have ever seen.This is expensive and I have some troubled feelings when I think about how much I do not use it.Then I realize that a huge part of the value is getting the blade sharp once and not having to fool with it all the time. I can say with confidence it really is all about re-profiling the knife from factory and then just working the grits from coarse to fine.Wow what a product.Product: Product Gets 5 Stars. Getting that out of the way up front hope this review helps others so they do not wind up with the issues I am having.Wicked Edge Pro 3 Sharpener is a completed product not a cobbled together mess of parts like the Generation 2 unit which I returned.I have not really had time to use this yet but from what little I have I am very pleased with this unit. Setting up a knife take seconds and is not a time consuming chore as it was with the earlier generations. Angles printed on the base get you close but are no where near accurate in degrees, use an angle cube if you are wise.Amazon: Amazon gets 1 Star I am very, Very, Very unhappy with Amazon though and will warn everyone reading this if you have to return one of these units like I had to, do not believe the rep, if they tell you 3 to 5 business days for a refund.That is a lie.I am now being told 2 weeks. And yes this was a Unit shipped from Amazon.The reason this is important is because if you do as I did and forgive Amazon for sending a used and damaged unit like the first one I received from them and then purchase another one just figuring it was a mistake you will wind up with 2 bills on your credit card statement. actually 3 bills now. These things are not exactly inexpensive at over $800.00. Be careful where you are at in your billing cycle.When I first received this unit I saw the bent rod immediately and having returned a Wicked Edge pro 2 model for poor quality control where the micro adjustment was impossible in one of the guide arms due to poor threading in the Aluminum housing I decided to call Wicked Edge the company and have a discussion over quality control in their products.I called and was greeted by a very nice person. We discussed my issues with the second generation unit and my disappointment with receiving yet another flawed product. The Wicked Edge rep immediately offered to send me a replacement rod which I was happy with. While we were talking I noticed the unit looked a little rough and then saw the chip knocked out of the heavy Aluminum base.This unit is very solid and it would take effort to do this, we put two and two together and realized this was a previously returned unit Amazon had sent me.This is where Wicked Edge could have pointed the finger at Amazon and said take it up with them but they did not. Instead Wicked Edge took full ownership of the issue and offered to send me a shipping label to send this damaged unit to them and they would send me a brand new one from there headquarters. In fact they offered to send the replacement first before receiving the one I had.You have no idea how good this made me feel about an American Company standing up and taking ownership for their product even when they were not at fault. This made me feel allot better over spending well over $800.00 for this unit and extra stones.I decided to believe Amazon and what I was promised concerning a 3 to 5 Business day refund. Now I have three huge charges thanks to Amazon on my credit card that I am now told will take 2 weeks to resolve and this hits right in my credit card billing cycle. Amazon has stated they can not do anything about it.The third and final (GOD I HOPE FINAL UNIT as I have not had time to really work with this one yet) Arrived and is very nice.I can not advise buying this unit here but feel confident buying one from Wicked Edge directly is the best way to go and if this final one has to go back that is just what I am going to do.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Update 08/06/2016Finally had time to work with the replacement unit. Re-profiled and sharpened two knives 1 Spyderco S30V Paramilitary 2 and the other an S30V Spyderco Yojimbo 2.They both came out really nice gave both a 30 degree inclusive back bevel followed up by a 40 Degree inclusive micro bevel. Or 15 degrees per side and 20 degrees per side for the micro bevel. Absolutly no difficulty sharpening a fully flat ground blade with the new jaws.I am finding that after the 100 Grit stones re-profile the back bevel then verify a good Bur the rest goes fast. After re profiling I find 10 strokes forward from heel to tip one side at a time followed by 10 strokes per side from tip to heel is a good set then I just give each side 30 stokes forward and move on to the next grit.In the beginning it is very good to use a Sharpie to make sure the reprofiling is perfect from the 100 grit stones after that the rest is easy.Started with 100 Grit and just dabbed each diamond stone with a little water to keep the dust down and took it easy with the extra sharp new diamonds. Worked all the way through the included stones up to 1000 grit then used the 1200 & 1600 Grit stones an add on item then went to the final stones 1.4 micron and .6 micron but 1600 grit will give a nice beginning polish.Back tracked a bit using the 5 and 3.5 Micron Diamond paste with Balsa Strops and finished with 1 micron an . 5 micron diamond paste on Balsa strops. Both of these are add on items.Oh and yes I did use an angel cube to get the angles perfect that too is an add on item but indispensable. The pelican case this unit comes in is incredible it's excellent quality and looks durable beyond any punishment I could conceive putting it through.Here are some great tips and tricks I have learned.#1. if you are sharpening a folding knife, take a rubber type glove and wrap the opening around where the blade connects to the handle then tape around that then you can not get diamond dust and steel in the pivot.#2. If you care about dust and are sharpening indoors keep a bowel with water in it and a sponge use the sponge to wipe the blade and make the stones a little damp this will keep your work area clean and your wife happy.#3. Take the tips of an old rubber type glove cut them out with a pair of scissors and slide them over the rod covering the ball joints and tape them on to keep material out of the ball joints.#4. Take small bits of nylon or plastic just very little pieces and insert them into the holes where the thumb screw tensions for the micro adjustment go. For some reason Wicked Edge mistakenly thinks it is a good idea to tighten a steel screw against the threads of the micro adjustment screw and I am certain over time the factory set up will damage those threads. I returned a Wicked Edge Pro 2 because it came from the factory with damaged threads in the micro adjustment which is a complete NO / GO. The micro tensioners are extremely important .#5. When using the 1200 and 1600 grit stones do not imerse in water but you can dampen the blade while using them to cut down on the dust and remove the grit before moving on to the more refined applications.#6. When using the strops with Diamond paste be sure to have rubbing alcohol and paper towels ready when you first load the strops there will be excess compound left on the blade just wipe it off with a paper towel and follow up with a paper towel and alchohol to remove any remaining compound to avoid cross contamination of grits.#7. Do not be cheap get and use the angle cube without it you are not going to get good results.Final thoughts for now.... After finishing these two knives I love how wicked sharp they are this device really does work. The hard part is re-profiling the knife which should be done because manufacturers do ship out knives with flaws my Spyderco Paramilitary 2 had different back bevels on each side and the WEP 3 evened everything out nicely.It took the knives and put them through the tests cutting up old cardboard etc.. it took allot of cutting to even get them a little dull. It was not easy as each was holding an edge better than from the factory.To touch up all you have to do if you set the micro bevel at 20 Degrees per side if put the knife in the clamp run the sharpie marker ont he blade then verify a strict 20 degree angle with the angle cube. I used the .6 micron stones to make sure the marker was coming off correctly then used the 800 Grit and worked my way forward to the .6 micron stones again.What I discovered was there was no need to go so low to the 800 grit. On the second knife I started out with the 1200 grit stones and worked my way through the 1600 the 1.4 and finally the .6 micron stones so only 4 grits and gave the blade 30 strokes per grit wiping the blade off in between and it was back to wicked sharp.Hope this helps know this is long but no one else has bothered to comment so thought it might be helpful to others considering buying this, it is well worth the money. Update December 10th 2016. It has been sometime now and I am pleased to report that this is still a five star item. Something I would like to share that I have noticed is that after reprofiling many knives using the sharpener, they all maintain a very Sharp edge for a very long time. If a blade becomes dull due to heavy use all it takes is a quick stropping to make it razor sharp again.

Wicked Edge - Generation 3 Pro Sharpener - WE300 Have spent many many years pursuing the 'art' of sharpening knives and having ruined countless blades with nearly every conceivable sharpening option possible, including 'free hand' with diamond, Arkansas, and Japanese stones, various sharpening rods made of sundry materials, several other 'guided' options (including one from Russia which is decent), powered belts and wheels, all manner of strops with all manner of pastes, and even pull through sharpeners (ugh).Bottom line is, while no system is in fact 'perfect', the WE 300 is hands down as close as I've seen. If you are a knife collector and often feel frustrated by the time and effort needed to create a near perfect edge (especially when sharpening some of the newer 'super steel' blades) I am convinced you can't find a better sharpener.I've also had good luck with the previous version of the Wicked Edge but the WE 300 achieves the same (or better) results in a fraction of the time because you can easily set the angle for both side in less than 5 minutes, which simply is not possible with the WE 1xx, or 2xx models.Pricey for sure, this sharpener is overkill if you only sharpen now and then and just need something to make and keep a decent working edge. OTOH, if you like to keep your knives razor sharp with minimal effort while removing the least amount steel, this is a great investment.I would highly recommend adding an AccuRemote Digital Electronic Magnetic Angle Gage Level and the ceramic 1200 / 1600 stones to your purchase, I've never felt the need to finish with a strop since adding the ceramic stones..

I'll admit that I have a problem when it comes to knives and sharpeners. I can't get enough of them! It's a very expensive addiction. I've been going back and forth about getting a Wicked Edge for years and finally decided to pick this gen 3 up. This is by far the best sharpening system I've ever used/owned. I had a few worksharps, currently have a sharpmaker and a Edgepro with chosera stones....and these are great and all....but they don't compare with the edge consistency that the Wicked Edge gives me. I purchased ultra fine stones and strops direct from Wicked Edge and the results are ridiculous! I can't say enough about this machine. -Pictured is my Reate Torrents and this machine sharpened the M390 with ease

There is a learning curve, however it is more about getting the right position on the knife before you start. Excellent sharpener.

Never have had a knife this sharp ever.

works great can get my knives razor sharp

Hands down the best knife sharpener!