Final Lansky edge applied tonight at my preferred 25°. At the risk of telling folk stuff they have worked out for themselves, here are a few points I have found to be key to repeatable Lansky performance. First up, the wire arms that attach to the stones are only nominally straight and the 90° elbow may need checking for true. I always attach all wires to all stones and true the face of stones and wires against a flat bench. This way all stones will address workpiece at same pitch 
. The Lansky L-bracket workpiece vice is fairly sturdy, but can be bent out of whack. First stand it on a flat surface, workpiece jaws skyward, and check both legs are 90° to vertical . Once offered up to vice, internal radius of arms prevent snugging to vice's 
top surface. If allowed to free-float, the vigorous worker can deform the lower arm which supports the clamp. To prevent flexing, I insert a small supportive horizontal shim 
. The other discipline I repeat to myself is to apply downward pressure on the stone where it addresses the workpiece [I.e. not at end of stone]. My last big discovery was that to see whether the stones are addressing the edge accurately, multiple reference lights help to highlight score marks 
of last stroke. As ever, After progessing through the stones plus good stropping until no wire edge remains detectable via fingertips, the paper test: 
. Final job: hardwaxing the handle. 6 coats over 3 days should do it.
. The Lansky L-bracket workpiece vice is fairly sturdy, but can be bent out of whack. First stand it on a flat surface, workpiece jaws skyward, and check both legs are 90° to vertical . Once offered up to vice, internal radius of arms prevent snugging to vice's top surface. If allowed to free-float, the vigorous worker can deform the lower arm which supports the clamp. To prevent flexing, I insert a small supportive horizontal shim . The other discipline I repeat to myself is to apply downward pressure on the stone where it addresses the workpiece [I.e. not at end of stone]. My last big discovery was that to see whether the stones are addressing the edge accurately, multiple reference lights help to highlight score marks of last stroke. As ever, After progessing through the stones plus good stropping until no wire edge remains detectable via fingertips, the paper test: . Final job: hardwaxing the handle. 6 coats over 3 days should do it.
