IGX

Got this because hand sharpening planes and chisels is a gigantic time suck. Sharpening is pretty simple, but keeping sharpening stones flat is a pain, and free handing when you don't need to for a living takes too long to learn.

The belt sharpening attachments (for scissors and knives) will take a knife with no edge on in, and put an edge with angles between 10 and 35 degrees along with a micro-bevel, or can be freehanded.

Short version: gets tools very sharp in no time with no real reconditiong of your sharpening gear. Dumb to not have if you use planes, chisels, & knives.

Thanks for posting. I bought the knife sharpener from Amazon. Quick, easy, and a good edge.

I've tried using different grit stones, with fixtures for holding the angle of my wustof kitchen knives, but because of how they are fixed and pivot, the angle is never consistent.

This makes a good belt made convex edge, quickly.

My dad got one of the newer Ken Onion models but hadn't used it yet so I borrowed it with the assumption I'll be

Tried it out on a POS Kitchen Aid santoku and a Spyderco Sage 4.

With the Spyderco (and other pocket knives) you're essentially free-handing it near the tip as the knife narrows in all directions and doesn't make contact with the angle guide. Don't like - if I wanted to practice my free-handing skills I'd buy a more powerful 1x30 belt sander setup and work quicker.

The Kitchen Aid santoku, OTOH, with about five minutes work is sharper than I expected. I could do better but it cleanly cuts copy paper now. I'm not ready to try one of my good kitchen knives but I've got a $30 Victorinox chef's knife that's decent but cheap.

I'm seriously thinking about picking up a Wicked Edge sharpening system - I've got a large collection of a fairly expensive pocket and fixed blade knives and now I'm adding some decent Global and Shun chef's knives to the mix.

I use the scary sharp method for planes and chisels. You stick sandpaper onto plate glass and use that instead of a stone. It works.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scary_sharp

nafod wrote:I use the scary sharp method for planes and chisels. You stick sandpaper onto plate glass and use that instead of a stone. It works.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scary_sharp

I've used Scary Sharp in the past since waterstones are impossibly dumb from a time cost standpoint IMO. I considered it for this setup, but once you get into the glass, paper, etc., you're approaching the cost of WorkSharp and the WorkSharp is much, much faster. I know some guys like the process of prepping tools, I personally hate how long it takes to do it by hand.

Plus, with the belt attachment, all your knives are razors. I had a blunted Indian Kukri I put a 35 degree edge on, and it's like an ax now. I reconditioned a Wusthof boning knife and it's better than new.

Grandpa's Spells wrote:

nafod wrote:I use the scary sharp method for planes and chisels. You stick sandpaper onto plate glass and use that instead of a stone. It works.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scary_sharp

I've used Scary Sharp in the past since waterstones are impossibly dumb from a time cost standpoint IMO. I considered it for this setup, but once you get into the glass, paper, etc., you're approaching the cost of WorkSharp and the WorkSharp is much, much faster. I know some guys like the process of prepping tools, I personally hate how long it takes to do it by hand.

Plus, with the belt attachment, all your knives are razors. I had a blunted Indian Kukri I put a 35 degree edge on, and it's like an ax now. I reconditioned a Wusthof boning knife and it's better than new.

If I had a WorkSharp, I'd definitely use it.

But "approaching the cost of a WorkSharp"? A WorkSharp is a couple of hundred or so with doodads, right? Then you buy the abrasive round pads, so there's a recurring cost, same as sandpaper on glass. A piece of glass is a few bucks, some spray glue is a few bucks, and sandpaper that I use anyway is a few bucks. The beer(s) I drink while sharpening at the big expense.

Glad its working for you. I'll stick it on my Christmas list since my parents never know what to get me.

nafod wrote:If I had a WorkSharp, I'd definitely use it.

But "approaching the cost of a WorkSharp"? A WorkSharp is a couple of hundred or so with doodads, right? Then you buy the abrasive round pads, so there's a recurring cost, same as sandpaper on glass. A piece of glass is a few bucks, some spray glue is a few bucks, and sandpaper that I use anyway is a few bucks.

Should have been clearer. To get the multiple locked-in angles the WS provides, I'd need to buy one of these. Not having glass laying around, I was looking at a higher cost than you. I think I got my WS for $180 shipped. Approaching is the wrong word, but the cost was close enough that I didn't have to save too many hours of sharpening to make it worthwhile.

Also, my sharpening skill is above "guy who owns some knives" but lower than somebody who's been regularly woodworking for a long time. So this is getting me better results than I'd get with SS. Others may have the opposite experience (though you can get into finer grits on the WS and start getting nuts with that as well).

Grandpa's Spells wrote:

nafod wrote:If I had a WorkSharp, I'd definitely use it.

But "approaching the cost of a WorkSharp"? A WorkSharp is a couple of hundred or so with doodads, right? Then you buy the abrasive round pads, so there's a recurring cost, same as sandpaper on glass. A piece of glass is a few bucks, some spray glue is a few bucks, and sandpaper that I use anyway is a few bucks.

Should have been clearer. To get the multiple locked-in angles the WS provides, I'd need to buy one of these. Not having glass laying around, I was looking at a higher cost than you. I think I got my WS for $180 shipped. Approaching is the wrong word, but the cost was close enough that I didn't have to save too many hours of sharpening to make it worthwhile.

Also, my sharpening skill is above "guy who owns some knives" but lower than somebody who's been regularly woodworking for a long time. So this is getting me better results than I'd get with SS. Others may have the opposite experience (though you can get into finer grits on the WS and start getting nuts with that as well).

I've got one of these, which costs $10 or so. A little fiddly to get the tool set in there right. I'll put the Veritas on my Xmas wish list.

Yeah, I had one of those and couldn't do anything with it. The Vertias gives you multiple angles and micro-bevels. I started out in one of the park district's wood shops (pretty amazing, running a couple days a week with a master woodworker helping people with their projects) and using waterstones and Vertias guides was super-effective but insanely time sucking.