Well, I’ve had the ProPack 1 for a couple weeks now, and I’m really starting to get the hang of things. It’s actually kind of cool to see progression, as well as the stones marked improvement.
First off, I’ve found these really helpful for quick pattern checks:
Much easier than putting down the stones to pick up a loupe, or scope, or whatever. =)
Last week, my wife brought me home some random knives from work, including this almost-swordlike one:
Yes, that’s 11.5″, and floppy as heck. But, with some slow sharpening, I got it done. If you’re curious, it’s a Gerber Durandal. I believe it’s a fillet/slicer, but I’m not confident. It’s certainly got the flexibility of a fillet, but unless you were filleting something really big…
After stropping, it was a bit like having a razor sharp sword. Cutting sheets of paper with it was actually pretty fun given the length. =)
The only downside is the spine of the blade was just a hair too thick for the support to work. So I had to just hold the blade as straight as possible while working on it. Also, there’s about a 1/4-1/2″ spot nearest the fingerguard that did not end up sharpened due to the angle of the stones. I could have done the knife in stages, and blended it together, but this worked pretty well, and one rarely is going to use that last 1/4″. =P
The system is actually quite enjoyable, and assuming major re-profiling isn’t needed, the process is actually much quicker than I thought it would be. Only thing I could really use would be a riser block to get lower angles on paring knives… right now, I can’t get much lower than 19° on some due to the blocks hitting either the set screw, or the clamps themselves. =/
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