Powered Knife Sharpener.

I can get a good edge on knives using stones, but it does take time and with my kitchen knives getting used/abused by others, it takes a lot of time to keep them all as sharp as I like. I’ve started taking some to sharpener who shows up monthly at or local market. They come out great, but it’s getting to be expensive.

I recently saw a post and it mentioned that the poster never could master the technique to get his sharp as he wanted with stones. He said he saw a post of a sharpener on this site and got one. He claims it works great. Could this be it?

https://www.worksharptools.com/shop/...ool-sharpener/

Any other semi professional knife sharpeners anyone has had good luck with?

Thanks

You can find the same tool without the Ken Onion name on it for 1/3 of that price. Look for WSKTS that's the non Ken Onion model.

I use the 220 grit belts and sharpen with the belt running towards the blade and it works very good. Order a pack of belts when you get one I think mine takes 1/2" x 12" and I got a pack of 10 for 10.95 free shipping.

Well, the link got edited out of this comment b/c I was not aware I could not post links to ebay items. Okay, will remember this in the future, meanwhile, just go to ebay and search WSKTS the first hit I got was for $49.99 and free shipping. I should point out that at this price, this one will be gone SOON so if you want one, grab it up!

I have the worksharp that DougGuy put a link to.
Put a razor edge on every knife in the house. I could never master the art of sharpening a knife with a stone so the worksharp is perfect for me

https://www.ruralking.com/catalog/product/view/id/34065

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Originally Posted by recumbent

https://www.ruralking.com/catalog/product/view/id/34065

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I bought the same electric sharpener about 4 years ago from Cabellas to resharpen the wife's kitchen knives each week. (She has a bad habit of using a knife to cut in a cast iron skillet or other BAD places for knives). Cabellas is now listing a Green color version of this knife sharpener - but at 30 dollars higher the the link recumbent provides above. Amazon has the same sharpener available in prime for $65.00: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003IT5F14...d-bc9496cf20f2

Have found this system works well and puts a good edge on a kitchen knife; or a pocket/work knife (which may take a few more passes).

Sharpeners come in alot of styles the belt style like shown will do a very good job with the right belts and grits. Then there are he low speed grinders sold by woodcrafters grizzly and others I think tormax is one name. These have one water cooled fine grinding wheel and a strop wheel thats treated with a paste. Attachments for the rest allow for many things to be sharpened from planner blades, chisels, scissors,knives and other tools. I think the wheel running in water is a plus for the cooling and keeping wheel from loading up.when sharpening under power you need to keep heat down to reduce the annealing affect of the fine edge.

I have a "Work Sharp" knife sharpener. I'll just say I haven't had the kind of results that I would like. My Henkels and Forschner kitchen/butchering knives turn the belts that came with the "Work Sharp" to grey dust but, don't give me an edge that I can live with. I have used diamond sharpeners for several years and find that they give me good results. Better belts may be the answer but I haven't even tried to find them. I will say it does a good job on the wife's scissors. A company that sells sharpening stones talked me in to buying a Japanese water stone because they say diamond leaves scratches in the edge that can cause the edge to break off in use. So far I haven't tried the water stone. I'm beginning to think I should have followed my instinct and bought another large diamond hone.

Of course your mileage may vary.

My finest edges come from finishing on a diamond lapp and or a strop. The diamond lap is a 1" thick X 3" wide X 6" long piece of soft copper that is surface ground flat. A small amount of yellow diamond is spread on the surface then a light coat of lite oil and the edge worked like on a stone. This makes a very nice edge.

The strop is a piece of steel basically the same size with a piece of leather glues down and then ground flat. I usually work a little red rouge into it every few uses. This will produce a mirror.

I've got the Work Sharp with the Ken Onion name on it. Yes, I'm sure I paid more than some, but I am well satisfied with the results. Just to be accurate, I didn't pay the price shown on the Work Sharp site. I don't remember where I got it but it works for me. My standards are not so high that I expect to be able to shave with a knife. Our kitchen knives have never been so sharp and kept that way ever since I got the machine.

I'm even more satisfied with the results I get with my pocket knives.

i use diamond stones then a wet stone to finish

Me too, DMT followed by a wet stone. Takes perhaps a minute to restore the edge to shaving condition. Powered sharpeners are a sure way to burn an edge.

I'm sure that an edge can be burned on a hard wheel at 3450 rpm. with little effort. On the WorkSharp you would have to work at it. I set the speed of the belt at about half speed. I've only used the most aggressive belt once on a severely damaged kitchen knife.

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

I would think using the work sharp to bring an edge in close and re true it if needed then a short time on a fine stone and strop to really bring it in would speed up sharpening and the sharpness of the edge

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Originally Posted by elk hunter

My Henkels and Forschner kitchen/butchering knives turn the belts that came with the "Work Sharp" to grey dust but, don't give me an edge that I can live with.

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Gray dust = too fine of belt? I use the brown 220grit belt, and I sharpen with the belt going toward the blade, not away from it. This leaves a really nice burr which does the cutting. If you polish or strop off the burr, the edge is prettier and smooth but the knife doesn't cut as well.

Fwiw, when you send in a knife to Cutco for their lifetime free sharpening, it comes back with a burr, and a belt sharpened edge and they are very sharp.

My Worksharp with the brown 220grit belt produces an almost identical edge.

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

I just got done having a conversation with a friend who's a meat cutter at our local country store in Pinetop Arizona. He was using it last week while I was getting restocked. Asked him about it an he swore it's the best he's found ever. Just be sure to buy the little bag of extra belts and your set for life.

I've got an ancient Presto Eversharp on the kitchen counter. It has both coarse and fine wheels. Then I got a Harbor Freight 1x30 belt sander in the garage with a leather belt on it for stropping. I put green rouge on the belt. This system will make a knife shaving sharp.
I cannot stone a knife to save my life. And believe me, I've tried.

I have the KO version, got it years ago and wasn’t as expensive as it is now. I like it for a quick fix on kitchen knives.

I also have diamond plates, hard stones, a tormek and an edge pro. Hate the tormek for knives, basic wheel is too coarse and I’ve been too cheap to buy a better wheel. Maybe I’ll add that to the Christmas list.

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.

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Originally Posted by Dapaki

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

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Crossed in the mail. Yep.

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 -

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Originally Posted by huntinlever

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.

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

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Originally Posted by wch

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

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

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Originally Posted by DougGuy

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

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Attachment 323255 https://i.imgur.com/t4J0a2R.png?1
https://i.imgur.com/3InD1Rm.png

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

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.

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