hi bearcut,
i have a few questions about the aliener magnetic you bought. Can't believe it works! I had a Lansky system for many years and the thing just barley worked. No where near a razor edge did it ever produce. I've also heard things on this forum about clamp systems not keeping the same bevel on large knives. What have you used it on so far, and did you get the same results every time?
Please E-mail me so I may exchange info with
armilite,
beakman3@aol.com
armmilite,
Not sure what you mean by 'aliener magnetic'. Perhaps 'magnetic aligner'?
Anyway, the system I am using is from DMT, [Diamond Metal Technology], makers of diamond sharpening stones. As I posted, the it is callled a Magna-Guide.
The old Lansky system has several flaws. First, the clamp wouldn't fit thicker knives. Second, the rod and holes had too much play which kept the stones from keeping a consistant angle. Third the stones just weren't as good, in my opinion, as the diamond stones.
I sharpened every 5", or less, bladed knife I had with the DMT, using three different angles, depending on the knife. What I mean by this is that I used the 20 degree angle on my 921 Osborne and the 25 degree angle on my Ritter survival knives, etc. etc. I got a consistant bevel on all of them. I sharpened S30V, D2, Talonite,[finally!], 154cm, and 440c.It worked well on all of them. I have not tried it on my larger chefs knives so I don't know if it will work as well on that size blade or not. I plan on doing this in the next couple of days and will report the results back on this thread.
One difference between Lanskey and DMT is the technique used to move the stones on the blade. As I recall, the Lanskey advised a sweeping motion [choil to tip, choil to tip, choil to tip..] with the stones, and no, it didn't work very well. The DMT suggests a vertical motion, repeated several times for the length of the blade, [edge to spine, edge to spine, edge to spine...]
At any rate, this worked a LOT better than the old Lansky system.
I wish I was one of those people who can freehand sharpen well, but I'm not.
This system gets me a great edge and it's a no-brainer once you get used to it.
Most of my knives came extremely sharp from the factory. This system restored them to at least as sharp if not sharper.
Bearcut
