Knife sharpener

Colby

WKR
Shoot2HuntU
Joined
Jun 25, 2013
Messages
321
Location
Sandy Oregon
My lansky broke last night so looking for something new. Considering another lansky although it is a kind of a pita on bigger kitchen knives. Also thinking about spyderco sharpmaker or the worksharp. Wondering what everybody else is using?
 
Worksharp for me. I suck at sharpening knives on stones, but anything that has come off my Worksharp is scary sharp!
 
I'm another fan of the Worksharp. I was never able to get knives as sharp with a Lansky as I can with the Worksharp.
 
I have a KME, which should be similar to your Lansky. They do a great job but are kind of a pain and take a while to get all set up, change stones, etc. After using a buddy's Worksharp I'm pretty sold on it and hope to get one soon.
 
This is funny because I just used the Worksharp on my S30V hunting knife this past week and when I was done, I was pretty disappointed that it wasn't as sharp as I expect it to be. It also took a ton of the blade down with it in just one sharpening with only two strokes per side, plus the stropping band. Just last night I redid it with the Lansky and it's like new again.....at least the sharpness is.

How'd your Lansky break?
 
One of the little ears that clamps down on the blade broke. It was worn down a bit from several yeas of use. I feel like I got good use out of the lansky I seem to remember paying 30 something dollars at bi mart maybe 5 years ago. I'm not dissatisfied with it at all more curious if there is a better mousetrap available.
 
I really like the Lansky as stated by others I too can get knives scary sharp! I highly recommend getting the c-clamp attachment so you can clamp it to a table or counter. It really makes it a lot easier to sharpen anything.

KME builds an awesome sharpener and if I would have found it first, I might have purchased one of those. They look exceptional. Sure with a system like KME or Lansky it takes longer to get the initial edge on a knife, especially one that has been sharpened freehand on stones or some of the belt type sharpeners, but once you have both sides perfect, it's really quick and simple to touch up a blade to where it is fantastic once more.
 
I have a Spyderco Sharpmaker and Lansky. The Lansky is awesome for the price and can reprofile a blade so the bevels are perfect. I use the Spyderco for honing. I'm not too terribly impressed by its sharpening abilities.


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My lansky broke last night so looking for something new. Considering another lansky although it is a kind of a pita on bigger kitchen knives. Also thinking about spyderco sharpmaker or the worksharp. Wondering what everybody else is using?

Not sure what broke on your lansky. I broke two stones on a fairly new lansky within a week. . Emailed them. They said send them in. Sent me replacements. Cost about $3 with shipping.
 
One of the little ears that clamps down on the blade broke. It was worn down a bit from several yeas of use. I feel like I got good use out of the lansky I seem to remember paying 30 something dollars at bi mart maybe 5 years ago. I'm not dissatisfied with it at all more curious if there is a better mousetrap available.

Call them and see if they can repair or replace it for you. Pay a little bit instead of getting a whole new setup.

I will second the comment of how quickly the Worksharp will take metal off of your blade if you are not careful. You don't need to apply much pressure at all, if any.
 
I use the sharpmaker and Lansky with good results. I use the sharpmaker for quick touchups and the lansky for knives that are pretty dull. I am pretty serious about keeping all my knives and machetes razor sharp and have done so for years using these 2 systems . I don't think you can go wrong with either or both. I cant speak for the others such as KME or work sharp etc.
 
We have a Chef's Choice, EdgeSelect 120 that is probably 12 years old that I highly recommend. Got it with Cabelas credit card points....it sold for about $130 at the time. It is an electric sharpener with 3 sets of sharpening wheels with blade guides built in.....coarse and fine diamond wheel sets, and and a stropping wheel set. This unit takes all the drama and time out of knife (and replaceable blade broadhead sharpening, although they are more difficult to hold. i use a pair of small needle-nose vise grips in that case). Well worth the $$ for one for the razor sharp knives and speed.

Note that the first time you sharpen a knife on the unit you likely will have to grind some metal off to get to the Chef's Choice pre-determined blade angle. Use the coarse diamond wheel set and grind away. After that touch up takes seconds. When I am cutting up meat with my filet knife I usually just touch it up on the strop wheels for about 3 uses before I have to go back to the fine diamond wheels.

Anyway, I have Arkansas stones, porcelain stones and sticks, diamond sticks, files, various guides, leather strops, jeweller's rouge, etc etc. I can get a good edge with any of them but they see no use after i got the Chef's Choice electric unit. Cabelas still catalogs the same model in white for $149.99 when I searched them. They get a 4-1/2 star of 5 rating with 322 reviews FWIW.
 
We have a Chef's Choice, EdgeSelect 120 that is probably 12 years old that I highly recommend.

The Chef's Choice sharpeners are best for kitchen knives, which work better with a 20 degree angle. I use a 25 degree angle on all my hunting knives. It's not as fine an edge but holds up much longer than 20 degrees. I use the Chef's Choice on all our Wusthoff kitchen knives.

I've gone through so many sharpeners over the years, and I keep coming back to the Lansky. Even sold the Wicked Edge, which does work well......but so does my Lansky.
 
I just use whetstones and a sharpmaker. Have a Lansky somewhere, works on pocket knives, but not on bigger/thicker blades. \

Use the stones when the blade needs a lot of work, use the sharpmaker for just quick touch ups. Everything I have in a knife, expensive or cheap will shave hair, with the exception of maybe one or two blades. For whatever reason never been satisfied with the edge on those lets say two blades. They seem to need divine intervention. Probably own 2 dozen hunting knifes.
 
Have a Lansky somewhere, works on pocket knives, but not on bigger/thicker blades.

My main hunting knife is a fixed with 4" blade, and it works great. I have even used it on our 8" Chef's knives. The clamp will open up to whatever thickness blade you want to fit in there, and the guide rods are long enough to reach quite a ways for longer blades.
 
My main hunting knife is a fixed with 4" blade, and it works great. I have even used it on our 8" Chef's knives. The clamp will open up to whatever thickness blade you want to fit in there, and the guide rods are long enough to reach quite a ways for longer blades.

4 inch is fine. Try a bigger blade that is thick, you will see what I mean, I'm guessing the chefs knife was pretty thin if it worked with that. The lansky stone isn't long enough to get a full sweep of the blade. The clamp won't line up and hold thick blades. If the knife has a big belly or curve to the blade the lansky is less effective.

I'm not trying to poo poo the lansky if it works for you great. It's not just a solution for every knife. I believe eventually you sharpen enough knifes most will end back up with a stone at some point. I use King Japanese whetstones for the most part, they are pretty cost effective. You do have to maintain the stone a little to keep them flat. I have two Spyderco Sharpmakers one in the kitchen and another at my workstation for my knives. Great for quick touch-ups, but I wouldn't want to work up a new edge profile with one.
 
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