Powered Knife Sharpener.

[huntinlever]

John,

I am a FIRM believer in "you do yours, I'll do mine" without any judgement of who or why you do what you do. I am just reflecting on the past 20 years of sharpening my wives knives (professional chef in large kitchens) as well as the 'house knives' from her kitchens.

I have had to repair or toss no less than 500 knives that were "sent off" to be sharpened by any one of several dozen 'professional' sharpeners that all came back with ungodly rough edges, blue ghosting in spots and near serrations along the blade edges as well as missing tips from wheel sharpeners.

I started sharpening knives 20 plus years ago just to help my wife and get her crew back to production cooking. Now days, I only touch up the kitchen knives, I do not remove nicks, there is no reason to do so with production knives.

Friends and family.... I will reshape, regrind, even re-profile if need be but never with a wheel of any kind under any circumstances.

That said; I think the worksharp is a dandy chisel sharpener, I would buy one for that alone if I did enough work with chisels to make it worth the money.

JMHO

Crossed in the mail. Yep.

[schutzen-jager]

jmho - all the powered ones wear out the blades in time - for kitchen knives i use the Wusthof hand sharpener that has the steel V's on one side + the ceramic V's on the other - for others i use natural stones -

[DougGuy]

All these will work but it's very easy to burn through a lot of metal to get there. Personally I don't recommend them. If working stones is hard, these have a good rep.

$127 before shipping? I can get TWO of the Worksharp belt sharpeners for that!

[imashooter2]

I use a Chef's Choice trizor; costs about $150.00 on Amazon and does a very good job.

Same here. Kitchen knives sharp in seconds. I still do pocket knives and sheath knives on stones. More out of tradition than anything else.

[huntinlever]

$127 before shipping? I can get TWO of the Worksharp belt sharpeners for that!

That was just an option - there are others, much less expensive. I use waterstones for all my knives. The point is powered sharpeners will chew up your blade, and drastically shorten their life, so I consider them costly. I am a former chef, have dozens of valuable blades and wouldn't let them get anywhere near powered sharpeners.

[captn-tin]

Meatcutter, retired after 45 years. Still use a good ole Norton oil bath tri-stone. Never used the course stone! Method... lay new knife across stone and press the edge down to the stone. This will be the angle to always use.

[Tatume]

I've tried many sharpening systems, including the Work Sharp. I have a like-new Work Sharp on the shelf beside me right now. For sharpening knives I don't like it. I use it to reshape screwdrivers to fit narrow-slot screws.

I've had a Lansky kit for more than 40 years and keep coming back to it. About 10 years ago I added three Lansky diamond hones to my kit. The Lansky will put a very good edge on knives very quickly.

[Tatume]

P.s. & slightly off topic; I also have the Work Sharp bench top wood chisel sharpening system. I don't like it either. Instead I use 8" diamond stones and a roller-type guide. Usually I only use the extra extra fine plate, but I also have the fine and extra fine diamond plates. I keep my wood chisels extremely sharp, and it only takes about a minute.

[wildwilly501]

If you buy the Work Shop or any belt sharpening system practice with a cheap knife.Watch the point it’s really easy to round them off.

[atfsux]

True blade freaks will shout you down as a blasphemer is you ever advocate the use of one of those belt-sander types of blade edgers. That's because, to a real blade fan, only wet wheel machines are beloved by God, while belt-sanders are the Devil's toy.

The Holy Grail standard of knife sharpening machines are those made in Sweden by Tormek. The Tormeks sell for stoopid money, and are $800 machines when new. I found mine at a yard sale about 14 years for $175 and I was ecstatically over the moon to get it at that price.

This type of machine enables you to not only sharpen, but to do so by producing a "hollow-ground" concave edge. Far superior to those belt-sander types of machines you see all the knife sharpener guys using at the gun show. Yes, they sharpen an edge, but slowly destroy the blade with each sharpening by rounding off the edge; the reverse of a hollow grind, known as a convex edge.




A convex rounded edge will dull more quickly than a concave hollow-ground edge. But worse, every time you use a belt-sander sharpener on your blade, that contour gets more and more rounded each time, so the next sharpening lasts less and less time with each application of the belt. True knife guys are horrified at the exploding use of the belt-sander sharpeners and won't let their quality knives anywhere near them.

But as with anything worthwhile, wet wheel sharpeners require a learning curve. You will not immediately be getting professional results right out of the gate. This is where the belt-sander types are actually better: If you don't want to invest any time in gaining a skill and just want a sharp edge now (and don't care about damaging the blade), get a belt-sander machine. I had to spend a lot of time on my wet wheel and practice on a lot of knives and tools before I became proficient at it. The experienced guys make it look easy. And it is,...once you get there. But a wet wheel is the ultimate sharpening machine.

Fortunately, there are cheaper alternatives to the Tormek line. WEN now sells a Chinese knock-off of the Tormek wet-wheel for about $150. Will it last as long as a Tormek? Probably not. But at that price, who cares?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUJU0_sKMj8&t

[JimB..]

I like my Tormek for some things, but prefer a convex edge on field knives, pocket knives, machetes and axes. It can be just as sharp as a concave edge and it’s more durable. For something like a kitchen knife or butchering knife that gets touched up all the time I prefer concave or flat (skandi). I’ve long considered trying a chisel edge for a chef’s knife, but haven’t ever gotten around to it.

[Richard66]

I have two Chef Choice and have been using them for years with good results maybe not as fast as belts but a lot faster than stones for me that is