Hapstone R1 Teaser

Hello Gritomatic. Any prototype pics?

 

Orange wooden handle to black. Please.

 

Good to see you guys are on a continuous improvement path.

I don't know how far along you are, but in my view the single biggest shortcoming of the sharpening systems out there is repeatability when resharpening the same knife at a later date. Even the people using the sharpener as a professional service will have repeat customers where this would be a big time saver, if they could just log the exact x-y-z-axis positioning of the knife and arm.

Granted, it would be really expensive to create a sharpener that has micrometer controls for the x-y-z-axis placement of the knife in the clamp, and the arm height relative to some fixed reference, and any adjustments for stone thickness.

But I think you could get nearly that level of precision by engraving fine index marks at various places on the sharpener body and clamp. And even spiral index marks on the fine-adjustment vertical rod used to set the arm angle, similar to the shaft of a micrometer (although you'd need a larger diameter vertical rod for that to be practical). Also, the faces of the clamping elements need to be able to conform to full flat grinds with distal tapers.
If you solve all these ambiguities, you'd have a product that really stands out from the rest. I'm not saying it would be easy to do this and still have a cost-effective sharpener, I'm just saying I view these things as weaknesses in current systems.

 

Curious to know the differences between this and hapstone V6 and v7. Why now make an r1? Will the r1 continue where the v7 leaves off or will it be a new completely separate version?

 

Is it safe to assume that the R1 is the more premium product? And can the wooden ball handle be removed from the shaft (v7 and R1)?

 

The R1 looks a lot like a sharpener already on the market although the R1 from the concept drawing doesn't look as well constructed. Curious at what price range it will be at.

 

Wasn't it another version of your sharpener, that you added a clamp to... that caused it to tip over in use? Hard to tell from your drawings here, but seems to me that the front legs should be under the clamp area more than they are, to prevent this.

 

I have a Hapstone myself. Good sharpener, like it a lot. But only because it offers better quality for a lower/same price. EP now feels like a plastic toy. But I have a feeling that this model will not sell well. Wicked edge we130 model costs almost the same(525 US) WITH 100,200,400,600 stones and in general, it is more user-friendly than any other system.

 

Didn't say I didn't like it. I am just struck by how much your rotating clamp system looks almost identical to the other Russian system.

 

Interesting idea with the upper and lower pivot rod bearing. I presume that was necessary to get a wide angle range?

If the drawing is to scale, the rod height adjustment looks very coarse. Is there a fine adjustment that isn't easily seen from the drawing?

Assuming tsprof is your target competition, and even thought their clamp rotation mechanism is arguably 'over-designed', I think your price point is too high especially with what appears to be a much less costly rotation mechanism. For the small price difference, I would guess that many will still opt for the "fancier" rotation mechanism in the tsprof.

The R1 is foldable, which will be useful to some, but not that valuable to all potential buyers. How much of a premium are you assigning to the foldability?

I agree with the earlier comment that stability looks to be an issue.

Are there index markings to make the setup repeatable for a given knife?

The soundness of the clamps and ability to conform to FFG, distal tapers, and do large and small, and thick and thin knives, would be a good thing to do a video on. Maybe the R1 has an advantage here (hard to tell just from drawings)

What specific aspects of the R1 do you see as the advantages or improvements over the tsprof K02/K03?

If you don't want to answer some of these yet, I understand.

 

Not sure what you mean about the rotation mechanism being different, they look the same to me, without taking it apart. I think the two pivot points are because they didn't want to put it in the middle. What about a compensator? That bottom pivot looks like it will get in the way if it were available. As to price, that is a lot of parts to make.