EdgePro vs Store sharpening

on_the_edge

on_the_edge

Joined
Jan 31, 2006
Messages
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My local cutlery shop says they will sharpen something up for $3/knife. If I have about 15 knives (10 kitchen) that I would eventually like to sharpen up, do you guys think an EdgePro 3 is worth it, or will I NOT be doing enough sharpening to justify the expense. I have some nice stuff that probably won't need to be sharpened all that often, and I could probably get about 60 knives sharpened before I hit the price of that EdgePro. Then again, who knows what I'm going to get when I give a knife to a guy behind some counter. What do you all think? I know I could go less expensive than the EdgePro, but I tend to prefer the best (arguably) from the outset. Thanks!
 
I wouldn't trust my quality knives to some random guy on a grinder.

And you have to figure the future into those calculations- the knives will get dull again and have to be touched up.
 
Since it sounds like you don't have any kind of sharpener already, why don't you get a Spyderco Sharpmaker and give it a go. If you find it too limiting later, you can always gift it to a friend and buy the Edgepro. If you find that you don't care for sharpening, you can still give the thing away and go with the store.

Being able to sharpen your knives yourself is a good skill to have, plus, who knows what some yahoo with a grinder will do to your knives?
 
If you decide to try the store, give him a couple of cheap knives that you won't miss, to see how good he is.

If you are going to be a serious knife collector, you should know more about your collection than how much it costs.

This includes some knowledge of the materials used, the designs, and how to maintain them -- lubricating, protecting, sharpening.

It is not hard to learn to sharpen. Get a Sharpmaker and practice on a couple of old paring knives. Not only will you be able to do a reasonable job of restoring the edge, you will learn what sharpening is, what is happening at the edge when you sharpen.

The most complex and expensive system is not necessarily the best, or we would buy our three-year-olds Harleys instead of tricycles to start with.

Here are some sources you could look through:

EDC Knives Sharpening FAQ
http://www.edcknives.com/pdf-files/Sharpen_v2.pdf

Knife Maintenance and Sharpening
http://forums.egullet.com/index.php?showtopic=26036

Sharpening Made Easy
http://users.ameritech.net/knives/knives1c.htm

And a couple of more specialized but interesting guides:

Convex Grind FAQ
http://home.nycap.rr.com/sosak/convex.htm

Sharpening the Ontario - Jerry Hossum
http://hossom.com/sharp/
 
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With all due respect, don't let a store sharpen your good knives. They use powered equipment and that simply removes more metal than necessary, no matter how good the operator is.
 
I felt that if I am going to piss and moan about getting my knives sharp, sharp, SHARP I knew that I needed to invest into a good sharpening system. I found it in the Edge Pro. All of my knives can be sharpened on the Edge Pro without any problems. There is a some small setup time involved and it can get messy because of the water stones but the results are remarkable. It is better than what I could get on my Lansky clamp on sharpener that I've owned for almost twenty years. Recently I've aquired the Sharpmaker and that has been working out great for my general sharpening needs. But I always use my Edge Pro if I really want my knives to perform well and get to the factory edge sharpness. It is much more worth it to have the ability to sharpen and develop the skill of sharpening your own knives than to depend on others and wait until they are available to sharpen your knives.
 
mauiblue: I also bit the bullet and bought an Edge Pro. Love it! Nuff said on that score. However, about the mess. I set mine up inside a large metal baking pan which sits on the kitchen counter atop four half inch square pieces of double sided tape. I clamp the EP down with it's suction vise and away I go. Result is no water or stone slurry on the counter top and the pan is large enough to be a handy place for other stones while I'm using it. Regards.
 
Thanks Old CW4 for that suggestion. Next trip to Walmart I'm going to find a baking pan that will work for me. I appreciate the tip!
 
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