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- Jul 16, 2007
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Recently I was contacted by a representative from TSProf asking if I'd be interested in receiving a Pioneer to review and evaluate. I was a bit surprised as I'm not a well-known "influencer" by any means although I am a professional sharpening with a brick-and-mortar shop. While I've been sharpening for a few decades I only recently started experimenting with clamping-type systems after picking up a Xarilk Gen 3 (a clone/copy of the TSProf Kadet). So I happily accepted the offer which was to be given the machine at no cost in exchange for some posts offering a review and feedback. I should note there was no suggestion or even implication that my review had to be positive, just that it reflect my own thoughts. TSProf has good reason to be confident of their products as I was to soon learn.
Last week two boxes arrived, one with the Pioneer and the other with the upgraded base and a box of swag. The goodies included a nice mug, some stickers, etc. to thanks for the bonus stuff! The base is a terrific piece of engineering in and of itself! Any owner of a Pioneer using the standard base would be delighted by the upgrade.
Everything was well packaged with custom foam inserts to protect it all. Included was the Pioneer and base and a set of five electroplated diamond stones. The instructions are very well illustrated by only in Russian. There were enough parts in the box that I opted to hit Youtube for an assembly video but once I did I found the process was pretty intuitive. The first thing to note is just how incredibly well made this machine is! The Pioneer, while not exactly inexpensive, is towards the budget end of the TSProf lineup but the quality is still very impressive. Everything is precisely machined and nicely finished, even the parts you don't generally see. Having only used the clone by Xarilk I was curious how much better/more solid the real thing would be an the answer is...much better! There is literally no play I could detect at all in the lockup of the Pioneer. When the bracket that holds the knife clamps is locked it genuinely feels like it's machined out of one piece! There is literally no wobble, no play, no indicating that it's even meant to rotate. To me this is super impressive.
The Pioneer includes lots of little quality-of-life features that I really appreciate including a stone thickness compensater and a little "parking brake" thing that holds the stone guide rod up and out of the way while not in use. Very nice! My one quibble might be that the guide rod could be a few inches longer to accommodate larger knives, but TSProf does offer an extension and it's a pretty minor issue. Also, the videos and the manual shows a rod stop for the end of the guide rod that I couldn't locate. To be honest, it's just as likely that I misplaced it while I was working on unboxing vs it actually being missing. It's an easily sourced part anyway and I have a couple of spares that I use with the Xarilk Gen 3.
I didn't specifically mention it yet but the Pioneer shipped to me with the standard clamps. They seem quite precise and well machined, but I already had a pair of TSProf Quick Clamps on hand that I bought for the Xarilk. They're made for the Kadet but they fit the Pioneer perfectly with one caveat- if set at the absolute innermost position the oversized nuts/knobs prevent the mechanism from rotating. This is a pretty minor issue that can be worked around in a couple of ways but I felt it was worth mentioning.
This is already getting pretty long so my next post will detail actually sharpening on the Pioneer along with my opinions of how it compares to the Xarilk Gen 3.
Thanks for reading this, and again I'd like to proffer my humble thanks to TSProf for giving me the chance to test this beast!
Here's a few pics of the Pioneer with the stock clamps and the Quick Clamps as well as one of it and the Xarilk Gen 3. Pics were taken in my shop so forgive the lighting.
Last week two boxes arrived, one with the Pioneer and the other with the upgraded base and a box of swag. The goodies included a nice mug, some stickers, etc. to thanks for the bonus stuff! The base is a terrific piece of engineering in and of itself! Any owner of a Pioneer using the standard base would be delighted by the upgrade.
Everything was well packaged with custom foam inserts to protect it all. Included was the Pioneer and base and a set of five electroplated diamond stones. The instructions are very well illustrated by only in Russian. There were enough parts in the box that I opted to hit Youtube for an assembly video but once I did I found the process was pretty intuitive. The first thing to note is just how incredibly well made this machine is! The Pioneer, while not exactly inexpensive, is towards the budget end of the TSProf lineup but the quality is still very impressive. Everything is precisely machined and nicely finished, even the parts you don't generally see. Having only used the clone by Xarilk I was curious how much better/more solid the real thing would be an the answer is...much better! There is literally no play I could detect at all in the lockup of the Pioneer. When the bracket that holds the knife clamps is locked it genuinely feels like it's machined out of one piece! There is literally no wobble, no play, no indicating that it's even meant to rotate. To me this is super impressive.
The Pioneer includes lots of little quality-of-life features that I really appreciate including a stone thickness compensater and a little "parking brake" thing that holds the stone guide rod up and out of the way while not in use. Very nice! My one quibble might be that the guide rod could be a few inches longer to accommodate larger knives, but TSProf does offer an extension and it's a pretty minor issue. Also, the videos and the manual shows a rod stop for the end of the guide rod that I couldn't locate. To be honest, it's just as likely that I misplaced it while I was working on unboxing vs it actually being missing. It's an easily sourced part anyway and I have a couple of spares that I use with the Xarilk Gen 3.
I didn't specifically mention it yet but the Pioneer shipped to me with the standard clamps. They seem quite precise and well machined, but I already had a pair of TSProf Quick Clamps on hand that I bought for the Xarilk. They're made for the Kadet but they fit the Pioneer perfectly with one caveat- if set at the absolute innermost position the oversized nuts/knobs prevent the mechanism from rotating. This is a pretty minor issue that can be worked around in a couple of ways but I felt it was worth mentioning.
This is already getting pretty long so my next post will detail actually sharpening on the Pioneer along with my opinions of how it compares to the Xarilk Gen 3.
Thanks for reading this, and again I'd like to proffer my humble thanks to TSProf for giving me the chance to test this beast!
Here's a few pics of the Pioneer with the stock clamps and the Quick Clamps as well as one of it and the Xarilk Gen 3. Pics were taken in my shop so forgive the lighting.
