I ordered an Ezesharp a few weeks ago and having finished my summer classes, I finally have some time to fiddle with it and post some impressions.
Here is the rig mounted to the "workbench".
I tried it out on some chinese junk kitchen knives to get familiar with things before I started with my good knives.
They are:
Benchmade Nimravus M2
Buck Akonua
Kai chefs knife
Microtech socom elite auto
Kershaw Leek
I only have one bench stone, a norton 4000/8000 grit waterstone. As others have mentioned it is a bit of a pain to get the stones mounted in the frames correctly. I used the guide rods as spacers and a few pennies under the stone to fine tune the alignment with the frame. The file attachment fit all my files fine but i wanted to use my fine/extrafine DMT diafold in it so I filed out the inside of the attachment about 1.5 mm and it fits fine now.
All edges were created with the 4000 grit side then polished with the 8000. They had all been maintained freehand on the same stone prior to this sharpening on the ezesharp. Only the Socom and the Kai was hair shaving sharp. When sharpening the leek by hand i found that i could get it to just start shaving and when i took it back to the stone to get it a little bit sharper, it would end up dulling the edge. However, it was nicely convex and retained its edge fairly well. The Kai on the other hand was sharp when new but after maintaining it freehand on the waterstone it is now scary sharp. It cuts bread and tomatoes better than any of my serrated knives and meats and vegetables practically cut themselves. My GF has put a few chips in the edge but they are small and dont effect performance any.
Mounting the blades in the flipover requires loosening both the hex screws and the philips screws till the plates seperate then tightening the philips screws first followed by the hex screws. I covered all blades (except the leek) with clear tape to protect them from scratches. The leek experienced a slight increase in reflectivity where it contacted the blade holder.
The sharpening experience is as easy as pie. Pick an angle and go. For the Akonua I chose a 15/25 degree edge. It started off with a chopping edge on it. I set the primary with the diafold which was a bit tedious as the stroke length was only about 2 inches long. After about a half an hour between the diafold and the norton, the akonua can shave hair better than my mach 3 and cuts beef and chicken like butter. Veggies require a slicing action but that is simply due to the curve of the blade. However, the half inch of edge closest to the handle remains largely untouched. In order to sharpen the tip of the knife a rolling motion of the stone is required to move the contact area evenly across the edge but at the heel of the edge this is impossible. Thinking this was most likely user error I moved on.
The stone was flattened on both sides using 320 grit wet/dry paper on a window pane. This took quite some time as it turned out that the 4000 grit side was quite dished.
Next up, the nimravus. This one got a 20 degree edge so that i could compare the two and see what i liked best. The M2 sharpened as easily as the akonua and took about a half an hour as well. Again the heel of the edge remained largely untouched. I attempted to roll the stone to the heel the same way i rolled it to the tip. This changed the sharpening angle a bit but did help to maintain contact with the edge. Again, hair shaving sharp. Meats? like butter, Veggies? well onion slices were paper thin but thicken a bit as the thickness of the blade effects cutting angle. Attention to technique prevented this.
The leek got a 15 degree ( i think, maybe ten?) and exhibited the same characteristic unsharpened heel but the edge is sweet. I would say this might be too sharp for a pocket knife that i find myself handing to people often. Again I tried to roll the stone to the heel and met with limited success. Oh yeah, a note about blade length. When mounting the blade i inserted only the top flat sections into the jaws, this allowed me to sharpen all the way to the tip without hitting the clamp.
The socom was aborted early on as i could not get it mounted in such a way that the stone could reach all the way to the tip. but again exhibited the lack of heel contact.
Onto the Kai. This knife was as sharp as i could desire before i got the ezesharp. After see how well this thing cut and how relatively poorly my other knives cut i was motivated to research jigs like the ezesharp and edgepro in the first place. The knife mounted into the clamp just fine. I could even reach all the way to the heel without and trouble because there is nothing blocking the stone from traveling far enough. I started by matching the edge i had put on the knife by hand. It turned out to be ten degrees. I used only the 8000 grit side and polised like normal. After some time i checked the edge. Oddly enough it was less sharp than when i started?! I remarked the edge with a sharpie flipped the stone to the 4000 grit side. Worked it a bit to make sure it was flat and met evenly, it did. Checked the edge. definately not shaving. Back to the 8000 for a polish. Just couldnt get the edge back to where it was. It would pop a hair or two but definately not mowing it down. I havent used it in the kitchen since. I'll update after tonights dinner.
It seems that the 3 inch width of the norton waterstone might be excessive and hinder the sharpening of knives that do not allow full travel past the heel. Guess thats why edge pros have such slim stones.
Comments, suggestions, anecdotes, appreciated. I'll be testing the edges as objectively as i can over the next few days and posting my findings here.
I tried taking edge pictures but i cant get them to turn out nearly as well as other on this forum. I'll Keep trying if anyone cares.
Here is the rig mounted to the "workbench".
I tried it out on some chinese junk kitchen knives to get familiar with things before I started with my good knives.
They are:
Benchmade Nimravus M2
Buck Akonua
Kai chefs knife
Microtech socom elite auto
Kershaw Leek
I only have one bench stone, a norton 4000/8000 grit waterstone. As others have mentioned it is a bit of a pain to get the stones mounted in the frames correctly. I used the guide rods as spacers and a few pennies under the stone to fine tune the alignment with the frame. The file attachment fit all my files fine but i wanted to use my fine/extrafine DMT diafold in it so I filed out the inside of the attachment about 1.5 mm and it fits fine now.
All edges were created with the 4000 grit side then polished with the 8000. They had all been maintained freehand on the same stone prior to this sharpening on the ezesharp. Only the Socom and the Kai was hair shaving sharp. When sharpening the leek by hand i found that i could get it to just start shaving and when i took it back to the stone to get it a little bit sharper, it would end up dulling the edge. However, it was nicely convex and retained its edge fairly well. The Kai on the other hand was sharp when new but after maintaining it freehand on the waterstone it is now scary sharp. It cuts bread and tomatoes better than any of my serrated knives and meats and vegetables practically cut themselves. My GF has put a few chips in the edge but they are small and dont effect performance any.
Mounting the blades in the flipover requires loosening both the hex screws and the philips screws till the plates seperate then tightening the philips screws first followed by the hex screws. I covered all blades (except the leek) with clear tape to protect them from scratches. The leek experienced a slight increase in reflectivity where it contacted the blade holder.
The sharpening experience is as easy as pie. Pick an angle and go. For the Akonua I chose a 15/25 degree edge. It started off with a chopping edge on it. I set the primary with the diafold which was a bit tedious as the stroke length was only about 2 inches long. After about a half an hour between the diafold and the norton, the akonua can shave hair better than my mach 3 and cuts beef and chicken like butter. Veggies require a slicing action but that is simply due to the curve of the blade. However, the half inch of edge closest to the handle remains largely untouched. In order to sharpen the tip of the knife a rolling motion of the stone is required to move the contact area evenly across the edge but at the heel of the edge this is impossible. Thinking this was most likely user error I moved on.
The stone was flattened on both sides using 320 grit wet/dry paper on a window pane. This took quite some time as it turned out that the 4000 grit side was quite dished.
Next up, the nimravus. This one got a 20 degree edge so that i could compare the two and see what i liked best. The M2 sharpened as easily as the akonua and took about a half an hour as well. Again the heel of the edge remained largely untouched. I attempted to roll the stone to the heel the same way i rolled it to the tip. This changed the sharpening angle a bit but did help to maintain contact with the edge. Again, hair shaving sharp. Meats? like butter, Veggies? well onion slices were paper thin but thicken a bit as the thickness of the blade effects cutting angle. Attention to technique prevented this.
The leek got a 15 degree ( i think, maybe ten?) and exhibited the same characteristic unsharpened heel but the edge is sweet. I would say this might be too sharp for a pocket knife that i find myself handing to people often. Again I tried to roll the stone to the heel and met with limited success. Oh yeah, a note about blade length. When mounting the blade i inserted only the top flat sections into the jaws, this allowed me to sharpen all the way to the tip without hitting the clamp.
The socom was aborted early on as i could not get it mounted in such a way that the stone could reach all the way to the tip. but again exhibited the lack of heel contact.
Onto the Kai. This knife was as sharp as i could desire before i got the ezesharp. After see how well this thing cut and how relatively poorly my other knives cut i was motivated to research jigs like the ezesharp and edgepro in the first place. The knife mounted into the clamp just fine. I could even reach all the way to the heel without and trouble because there is nothing blocking the stone from traveling far enough. I started by matching the edge i had put on the knife by hand. It turned out to be ten degrees. I used only the 8000 grit side and polised like normal. After some time i checked the edge. Oddly enough it was less sharp than when i started?! I remarked the edge with a sharpie flipped the stone to the 4000 grit side. Worked it a bit to make sure it was flat and met evenly, it did. Checked the edge. definately not shaving. Back to the 8000 for a polish. Just couldnt get the edge back to where it was. It would pop a hair or two but definately not mowing it down. I havent used it in the kitchen since. I'll update after tonights dinner.
It seems that the 3 inch width of the norton waterstone might be excessive and hinder the sharpening of knives that do not allow full travel past the heel. Guess thats why edge pros have such slim stones.
Comments, suggestions, anecdotes, appreciated. I'll be testing the edges as objectively as i can over the next few days and posting my findings here.
I tried taking edge pictures but i cant get them to turn out nearly as well as other on this forum. I'll Keep trying if anyone cares.
)
