Confused on which upgrade to purchase

[Rod Christmas]

Hi All!

I am new to the forum and have found tons of great information. I just purchased my first handmade knife from Lamont Coombs. I have been using paper wheels to sharpen my various knives over the years. They were damaged in a recent move so that with the new knife I am shopping for a new system. I am really torn between replacing my wheels, the ken onion workshop and the edge pro. I dont want to spend over $250 if possible and be able to sharen a broad range of knives from small folders to bushcrafts and kitchen knives. I am just lost in all of the options. If there was a system that could also do ax and lawnmower blades that would be a plus.

 

[sickpuppy1]

I guess questions are in order.... The biggest one is, were you happy with the paper wheel set up? I don't know what the cost of paper wheels are, but if you were happy with it, that would seem to be the way to go. Also, what kind of wheel set up did you have? Did it have a guide bar to do everything you need and can you add on options for it if needed/wanted.
As far as axes and lawnmower blades, a simple puck type sharpener would be fine for any axe and I use a Dremel with sanding disk for lawnmower blades. A light pass is good enough for the whole summer, and won't get it off balance.

 

[Sonnydaze]

I cannot comment on the paper wheel sharpening, but we have a resident forum expert on paper wheels...who excels in very rapid sharpening as well
as making his own knives...
I have the Edge Pro Apex and the Ken Onion Worksharp...
The Edge Pro came first, and it will do anything, but takes some time..
The Ken Onion Worksharp was a real surprise; sharpens your blade so quickly...I use it primarily for quick sharpening of
my wife's kitchen knives.
If I am REALLY after a nice mirror finish, on a SPECIAL knife, or to set a new edge angle on a thick blade, where accuracy is all-important, it's the Edge Pro all the way...
If I could only own ONE, it would be the Edge Pro.

 

[wade7575]

I would go with an edge pro or hapstone sharpener before the worksharp,the worksharp will remove the edge faster and shorten the life of your blade.

I would get some diamond stones for lower grit sharpening and some water stones for finishing,I use the Chosera 1K 3K the most and sometimes the 5K.

 

[Rod Christmas]

Awesome feedback guys thank you for taking the time. I was leaning to the work sharp just because of speed I work pretty long hours and have four kids. But I think I will go with the edge pro apex wade7575 would you mind given me a little more detail on the need for the diamond and waterstones and how they would fit with the edge pro and which ones you would recommend.
. I thought it was a complete system. Thanks again super helpful for me.

 

[777 Edge]

Hi

Hi All!

I am new to the forum and have found tons of great information. I just purchased my first handmade knife from Lamont Coombs. I have been using paper wheels to sharpen my various knives over the years. They were damaged in a recent move so that with the new knife I am shopping for a new system. I am really torn between replacing my wheels, the ken onion workshop and the edge pro. I dont want to spend over $250 if possible and be able to sharen a broad range of knives from small folders to bushcrafts and kitchen knives. I am just lost in all of the options. If there was a system that could also do ax and lawnmower blades that would be a plus.

Hi Rod Christmas,

I just replied about a similar question 2 days ago for someone else, so my apologies for copying my reply to him in here, but the same applies:

If you have a 3D printer at home, or access to one then feel free to download my design and make yourself one of my sharpeners. It does everything you need.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4135236

I have most of the fixed angle systems, including various Hapstone models and Edge Pro models (plus many, many more). Yes, I know I have a bit of a sharpening addiction...don't judge.

I found that I jump back and forth between my systems to use the best part of each of them, depending on what I need to do, so I decided a couple years ago to design my own system that can do everything I needed.

 

[Blues]

777 Edge

While we very much appreciate your community mindedness, let's please not turn every thread into a protracted discussion of your designs, where to view them and how to contact you. As an alternative, avail yourself of PM's to reach out privately so that we don't end up with multiple threads being sidetracked.

3-D printing is not going to be a realistic option for everyone.

Thanks for both understanding, and giving freely to the community. I'm sure your efforts are appreciated by those who can take advantage of your designs.

 

[777 Edge]

777 Edge

While we very much appreciate your community mindedness, let's please not turn every thread into a protracted discussion of your designs, where to view them and how to contact you. As an alternative, avail yourself of PM's to reach out privately so that we don't end up with multiple threads being sidetracked.

3-D printing is not going to be a realistic option for everyone.

Thanks for both understanding, and giving freely to the community. I'm sure your efforts are appreciated by those who can take advantage of your designs.

No problem Blues , as you wish. FYI, I'm not sidetracking at all, I'm only reaching out to fellow enthusiasts who are looking at an alternative sharpening system, like this exact thread. Merely trying to help out our community of fellow sharpening enthusiasts and trying to go back to the roots of forums and sharing information for free. Especially now that finances are tight for so many people.

Unfortunately PM is not available for R Rod Christmas , it is a paid membership benefit.

Any chance we could look at changing the forum so PM is available for anyone?

 

[Blues]

Unfortunately PM is not available for R Rod Christmas , it is a paid membership benefit.

Any chance we could look at changing the forum so PM is available for anyone?

I doubt it...however, such changes are the exclusive domain of the site owner. Paid membership helps defray the cost of running the site, so I doubt that Spark would alter the perks and inducements to build up such membership.

Further discussion of such topics should be directed to the "service and support" section of this site so that we don't detract from the topics germane to this sub-forum.

 

[wade7575]

Awesome feedback guys thank you for taking the time. I was leaning to the work sharp just because of speed I work pretty long hours and have four kids. But I think I will go with the edge pro apex wade7575 would you mind given me a little more detail on the need for the diamond and waterstones and how they would fit with the edge pro and which ones you would recommend.
. I thought it was a complete system. Thanks again super helpful for me.

I use diamond stones first then water stones if I'm going to with a lot of powder metal blades and S110v is a perfect example,you can use silicon carbide stones to sharpen S110v and go to a really high grit but the problem is the edge will really crappy.

The problem with S110v is that it isn't that hard of a steel at all it's that it has a lot of vanadium in the steel and they also turn it into vanadium carbide when they make the steel,the problem is the only thing hard enough to cut vanadium carbides is CBN or diamond,not all all steels that contain vanadium will have vanadium carbides in the steel sometimes it's there to refine the grain structure of the steel as vanadium is great for that,from what I understand it's got to do with how hot they get the molten steel and also how long they hold it at that temp to form vanadium carbides.

What I normally do is if I'm sharpening a knife with a metallic CBN stone or diamond stone that is 400 jis grit then I will then move to a 1K chosera and go up to a 3K or 5K at the highest for a working edge,I would get a 1K 3K and 5K chosera stone from gritomatic and I would also get a Suehiro G8 8K stone as well if you want to try a higher stone,the G8 stone is silicon carbide and not aluminum oxide like the chosera stones but the G8 finish's really nicely just like an aluminum oxide stone.

You will also that an aluminum oxide stone will always give you a more refined edge unless your talking the G8 then it's about the same,there no need to really work the edge for along time with a water stone if you have apexed the the edge with your diamond or CBN stones because your jus trying to refine the edge and not remove a ton of metal.

If you want a handy grit conversion chart email at wadenorton2008@yahoo.ca and just title the email grit chart,the reason for the grit chart is because the Venev stones are rated in FEPA and the chosera's are rated in jis.

If you want to look at the G8 stone just type in G8 at gritomatic and it will come up.