about to buy a worksharp ko; anything else I should consider?

J

JulianHayes

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I have been looking at different sharpening systems for a long time. I have had a sharp maker a few years and I never really liked it that much, so I bought some stones and use those, as well as the rods from the sharpmaker to get a decent edge. However, sharpening harder steels (going from case cv to cpm s30v an d2)is problematic and I want a sharpening solution that requires minimal effort, time skill, and money to get hair shaving sharp. I can't afford a WE and an edge pro would be a real stretch.. the worksharp KO has been getting positive reviews, and it looks quicker that manual alternatives..
So, my questions are; is there a reason one might advise against the worksharp KO (I know belts are oddly sized and wear)? is there a problem for recurve blades? is it really as easy to get a sharp edge so quickly, or have I been brainwashed by YT? Should I get waterstones and perfect freehanding instead, or get an edge pro apex? I have gone through some may thread, but people always have support for each option and now I am lost. Any advice from sharpening enthusiasts is very much appreciated. this is an expensive buy and I want the long term best option. Thanks in advance for any help at all.
 
When your sharpening are you using a sharpie to make sure your grinding away metal where you want? Because a sharpmaker to my understanding is a pretty good solution for touching up a blade and keeping them very sharp but it has to hit the stones correctly to do so. So my first thought is that the blade needs to be profiled to fit the sharpmakers angle or you have to adjust the angle you hold the blade to fit the sharpmaker so your sharpening it properly. These are the usual problems I hear about the sharpmaker besides the fact that it's not built for heavy metal removal such as reprofiling a blade. Though it shouldn't have any issue touching up s30v or d2 as long as your using correctly to my understanding of how it works. Beyond that the only major difference between Case CV vs those other steels is that it should take a bit more time as it's more wear resistant.

As for the worksharp KO I haven't looked into it much, but there was a pretty large thread here about the worksharp KO that may interest you if you haven't read it already. Not answering what you asked but hopefully it helps.
 
I use my WSKO without the guides, so I'm not doing it exactly like most people. I like mine and have used it to sharpen over 50 knives so far, most of which needed a LOT of attention. My belts seem to be holding up just fine. To me the only down sides of the WSKO are: It is loud at top speed, or nearly top speed. It's not as fast as a "real" belt sander. It's hard to deburr correctly using just the WS belts. That's about it.

Otherwise, it's fairly fast, portable, and pretty easy to learn I think. On really beat up blades, DO plan to spend a good bit of time. My video where I sharpen a really dull kitchen knife took over 20 minutes.

I can't really address your other questions, as I haven't tried a recurve blade yet, and no super steels have touched the belts either. I'm sure they would sharpen up just fine; I just haven't tried one yet.

Brian.
 
Thank you very much for both replies. I will try the sharpie trick again today on an old kitchen knife and take some time with the sharpmaker. I believe you may be right; I am not hitting the angles right (and I am impatient). Don't know why have have such better results with stones. Mr. Gentry, I have watched your video ( and read all of the threads here) and I really appreciate you taking the time. Your video was the first one I watched and that is what convinced me this might be a good idea. If I may ask, How does it go through belts? For example, how many knives can you sharpen before you have to get new belts? Thanks again, this forum never fails to impress me with kind and informed members willing to share the knowledge. Thank you, julian
 
JulianHayes said:
Your video was the first one I watched and that is what convinced me this might be a good idea. If I may ask, How does it go through belts? For example, how many knives can you sharpen before you have to get new belts?
Click to expand...

Cool that you enjoyed my video. In the interest of full honesty, there's about 6 or 7 minutes of sharpening (and me talking) that got missed since my camera stopped around the 11 minute mark or so. It missed the X22 belt and my first full pass through the X4 belt also. So total time to sharpen that particular dull blade was a little longer. Anyway...

I'm still using the stock set of belts. The P120 has a nick where the abrasive is gone about the size of a pea on the edge of the belt. It still seems to be cutting at the same speed (I think?). The other belts seem fine also and show no damage. The white belts are now gray and get a little whiter when I use the belt cleaning stick on them, but they never go back to fully white. Again, grinding seems unaffected. I do the bulk of my work on almost every blade with the P120, so I'm expecting it to wear out first, and for the others to last for a really long time. I would guess that the amount of work I've done on the 50-ish knives I've done so far is equivalent to something like 200 knives that were just a bit dull. But that's just educated speculation there. I just know I've ground a ton of metal off of those blades! :)

I'd bet the P120 lasts for at least another 50 blades, but only time will tell. I'm looking forward to some more coarse belts anyway (like the 60 grit ceramic).

Good luck to you,

Brian.
 
I really don't think you need to consider something else if the KO is in your budget. Having the sharpmaker for final touching up might be a great finish up step. I have no problem getting my knives to hair popping sharp, regardless of which steel, and I have knives of everything you can imagine. I was thinking about it recently, I have a Burr-King 562 belt grinder from another hobby, and I was looking into making it more knife specific, specifically sharpening, and what I came to the conclusion of is, I needed it to make it run at lower--preferably variable speeds. It was right them that I realized I already had a variable speed belt grinder-in my KO Worksharp. The more I use mine the more versatile it appears to me. I intend to purchase the blade grinder attachment for mine, and I understand that there is a leather belt for that attachment, which is just the icing on the cake IMO. I have had about every sharpening system you can think of, including the Tormek, a wide array of Japanese waterstones, diamond stones, and various other stones as well as a KME system. Just FYI the KME is the best guided sharpening system value on the market IMO. I really like the dynamics of the WE, but I think the KME does just as good a job as the WE for a lot more reasonable price. (I don't own a WE but have used a friends quite a bit) And my buddy who has the WE is jealous of my KO Worksharp.

Good luck with your choice, but I'm confident you would like the KO Worksharp
 
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I would be looking at getting the 1x18 blade grinding attachment. The structured ceramic belts that come.in the low grits are extremely high quality. Once you move past those i woild replace the rest of the factory belts with CBN /Linen , this is a much more versatile and cost effective solution long term. Id leave the structered ceramics down low for stock removal / damage repair.
 
I just received the standard work sharp. I like it, I sharpened about 10 or so kitchen knives with it today. It is pretty versatile and works good on blades that are in dire need of sharpening. I still free hand and use a sharpmaker as well. I am using it as an supplement to my other methods. It basically replaced my lansky guided system.
 
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