I have a wicked edge system, and also the KME. Some have belt sanders, some have the Work Sharps Ken Onion edition, the Tormek , Kalamazoo’s, the viels, or even cheap sanders from Harbor Freight.
Which ones would you recommend I buy next down my river of obsession?
I’m the type who gets obsessed and wants to buy one of each to find out each strength and weaknesses. It seems the Wicked Edge generally has the consensus of potentially creating the sharpest edge. What is the strength and weakness of these other systems?
(Played to the tune of the boxing ring started up, lets get ready to rumble) LETS GET READY TO SHARPEN!!!
I have the WEPS, a Spyderco Sharpmaker, a WorkSharp and a bunch of sharpening stones, both synthetic and natural. I have a 6X48 Rikon belt sander I could use from sharpening, but instead, for those real quickies, I go to my Jet double-ended buffer on a pedestal stand with diamond grit on 10" polishing wheels. Except for the WEPS and the manual stones, each of the others is pretty much limited to two steps in coarseness and you have little control over re-profiling.
The WorkSharp and the polishing wheels are the fastest, with the polishing wheel setup having an edge (pun..) over the other.
I have the spyderco sharp maker, a cheap tri-stone system, and a lansky.
The spyderco is great for adding a quick microbevel and touch-up sharpening. It is easy to use and gives nice results. However, it is nearly useless if you want to do a re-profile or repair damaged blade.
The tri-stone setup is all free-hand, so you need to have good technique to get a usable result. The advantage is that there are no limitations on the sharpening angle and no need to find the sweet spot in a clamp.
The lansky is very inexpensive (excellent value) and will put a working edge on knives fairly consistently. It can be used for re-profiling and it takes a lot less technique than the free-hand method. On the downside, it is very slow because you are only working one side of the blade at a time with very narrow stones, it is not very consistent (too much flex in the guide rods), the results are not repeatable because there is no way to record clamping positions, and you need to do blades longer than about 6 inches in sections because the guide rods are too short.
If I were to purchase another sharpening setup to compliment my Wicked Edge, I think I would either get a paper wheel / bench grinder or a belt grinder setup like the AMK 75 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9buJ0Hnt3k).
I use a Spyderco Sharpmaker in the kitchen to touch up kitchen knives that do not need the WEPS treatment. It works fine. I have no need to get another sharpener. Why whould you buy a Lansky when you have a WEPS?
I have the Wick Edge sport with all the extras, a 1 inch belt sander, paper wheel system and work sharp. The Wicked Edge is by far the gets me the best results.
I have too many. I have gone down the river you speak of. I have stones, lansky, apex, tormec, electric sharpeners, Ken Onion belt sharper and the WEP. I was never great at getting consistent results on the stones. Lansky was a step forward and Apex was a big step beyond the basic Lanskey. Electric slot sharpeners were pretty disappointing. The Apex was quite good but the WEP was and still is the best high end option. I like the belt sharpener for axes and hatchets. The Tormec T8 is great for many things, even knives. The Tormec works great on knives that are made of steels that are hard to sharpen that would otherwise be throw-away. However, the WEP on knives, offers precision, repeatability and the ability to do things like precision micro-bevels. For knives, the WEP has no peer if one wants something beyond a workmans’s edge.
2 X 72 belt sanders are the most popular rig for knife makers. Most can be configured to operate in a number of ways and with different size pulleys. If you watch “Forged in Fire” you’ll occasionally see them using them. Also appear in a bunch of Youtube videos. With coarse grit belts, they can remove a lot of metal in a hurry. With certain attachment devices, you can create hollow grinds pretty easily.
I like having an Edge Pro Apex to use when doing FFG blades (and when I’m in the mood to use it). Also, I do think the Work Sharp Ken Onion with the Blade Grinding Attachment has saved my sanity. Sometimes people will ask me to sharpen really bad knives. The WE 100’s barely touch those. I use the WSKO-BGA to rough them in and switch to the Wicked Edge to finish. I can produce excellent results in reasonable time.
2 x 72 belt sanders are probably most popular for knife makers. But are they also most popular for knife sharpeners? Whenever I ask on a Dutch knife forum about the best automated knife sharpener, the advice is always a Tormek T-8. (Not that I’m considering one…) What do you think?
Hi Mark76, I have many sharpening devices. I own a Tormec T8. The Tormec is favored by me when: I am sharpening large knives that are made of poorly heat treated steel that are very hard, small knives with poor steel that take a long time to sharpen that don’t take an edge very well, and knives that are abused by family members and need frequent attention. The Tormec will also sharpen scissors, hedge trimmers, etc. The Tormec is not precise enough to apply primary and secondary bevels. The Tormec will put a good workman like edge on a knife very quickly. However, the Wicked Edge is capable of precision ultra sharp repeatable results like no other.
As you know, the Ken Onion edition of the Worksharp is a belt sander. When I do use the Ken Onion, I use it with the Ken Onion Belt attachment. The niche where it fits is for sharpening things like hatchets, axes and survival type knives where quite a bit of metal needs to be removed. In other words, I like the Ken Onion belt attachment when I want to quickly put a slight beveled grind on the blade. The slight bevel is just an outcome of the deflection of the belt against the knife… sort of like a leather strop. I know a beveled edge can be done with the WEP as I have done it a few times. However, the belt sharpener is much quicker. With the Ken Onion belt attachment - while there is an alignment reference guide - you are sharpening free hand. So, less precision and it is easy to remove lots of metal quickly. I found that with both the basic Worksharp and the Ken Onion edition, when inserting the knife into the angle guides, they kind of have a sweet spot for the size of the knife they will work on - not too thick, not to small, etc. The Tormec does not put a beveled grind on the blade. Some my argue it puts a hollow grind on the blade because of the round wheel. However, for all practical purposes, where the blade meets the stone, it is a flat grind. I do not care for the Tormec axe/hatchet holder. So, that is my two cents. The WEP sees about 90% of my sharpened tools. I especially like the ability to put on a primary and secondary bevel and that kind of precision can only be done in a repeatable way on the WEP. Now, I am experimenting with using the Tormec for the primary bevel and the WEP for the secondary bevel when I encounter a knife needing a resharpen for the first time. Also, I plan on experimenting with the Tormec on some of my good knives once the secondary bevel eventually wears done from resharpening to the point that the secondary bevel performed on the WEP is gone.
I now use the AMK-75 (Click Here for Link) for re-profile work and repairs followed by the Wicked Edge for polishing and perfecting the edge. Because the AMK-75 has a adjustable speed control and the modern “structured” abrasives available on the market don’t heat up as quick as the old abrasives, this has become a great combination without the burdens of heat damage, the use of messy cooling water, and stone wheel truing issues. I believe that the AMK-75 and the Wicked Edge are a Synergistic mating of absolute perfection. I also use the CATRA Focused Goniometer Mk2 (Click here for link) for quick edge angle identification. I can now repair a badly damaged knife and sharpen it to better than factory perfection in under five minutes . In the commercial business, Time is money! Yes, it is true CATRA also produces a pull through sharpener that functions with CBN coated interlocking grinding wheels. I prefer the Tru Hone (Click here for link) over the CATRA system (Click here for link) for it’s “on the fly” angle adaptability, cost, and proven reliability.
I started out with a Spyderco Sharpamaker. Easy to use, satisfactory results albeit time consuming if you need to reprofile and edge. Then I bought a basic WE system and add the angle cube, 1200/1600 ceramics, 5/3.5 & 1.0/0.5microns leather strops. Very happy with the results, and my folders do stay sharp longer. Easy to setup and replicate results with the WE system. I still use the sharpmaker especially whenever I am outdoors activities as it is much easier to bring along. There are belt sanders etc available here but for me the WE system/sharpmaker is more than adequate for my needs.
