Is the "Edge of Glory" knife sharpener worth it?

M

MenWhoStareAtKnives

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As many of you have probably seen, there is a TV advertised sharpener called the Edge of Glory. In the commercial, the guy runs his dull-as-a-spoon kitchen knife through it three or four times and slices a tomato like nothing.

Now I don't doubt that this knife sharpener makes the blade super sharp, but what I want to know is if it does anything bad to the blade. Does it remove material? Anything else?

I would love some answers, especially from those of you who know quite a bit about sharpeners ;)
 
Search "carbide scrapper" I have a thread with some pictures that will help you understand why they are bad.

All sharpening removes metal, it is a destructive process.
 
Just another p.o.s. pull-through carbide sharpener. It rips the steel away from the edge until there is an edge-like surface exposed. It's a bit like weeding your garden with a back-hoe. It does not make the blade super sharp, it makes it jagged. If you want a cheap knife sharpener that will get you close to sharp, look at companies like Smith. If you are truly interested in getting various pieces of hardened steel sharp, stick around and learn about bench stones, Spyderco Sharpmaker, proper technique and paper wheels. If you are a shill for that awful device, then...
 
When that ad first came out, it showed them using a credit card sharpened to cut a tomato. You could see lots of ground up credit card alongside the "sharpener". They have since turned it away so you can no longer see the shavings. Not good for knives or credit cards. (scissors are better for credit cards!:yawn:)

Omar
:rolleyes:
 
Tomatoes are very easy to cut . Now, it they showed the credit card clean cut paper and the knife whittle a hair or slice news paper clean- i would say its Ok to purchase :p
 
Razorsharp-Travis said:
Tomatoes are very easy to cut . Now, it they showed the credit card clean cut paper and the knife whittle a hair or slice news paper clean- i would say its Ok to purchase :p
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Well in all honesty, most people cut tomatoes more often then news paper or whittle hair, its still a fun past time though.

They work, and the knife is better then dull.
 
Hawkings said:
Well in all honesty, most people cut tomatoes more often then news paper or whittle hair, its still a fun past time though.

They work, and the knife is better then dull.
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They rip out chunks of metal and destroy the edge. They do not work. If they could cleanly slice paper then it would show they are at least halfway sharp. I think you might have misunderstood what Travis was saying.
 
Utter garbage, run away! Those suckers WRECK edges, I usually fix two or three edges a week down at the shop that have been worked on those carbide scrapers. I have to re-grind the entire bevel to repair the damage.
 
Drag & Scrape sharpeners not only leave a jagged edge but they typically remove material unevenly along the edge because it is next to impossible to apply consistent pressure along the carbide scrapers. Some (including knife makers) will tell you they are fine for field use, but there are other alternatives to use in the field that won't destroy your blades. Benchmade even says this about the carbide scrapers they hawk, Both have a 60-degree inclusive angle (often referred to as a 30 degree angle) that will easily touch up the edge of your blade anywhere, anytime without removing unnecessary blade material. Yeah right.
 
I used to think that the drag & scrape sharpeners were good if you used a light touch. But now that I know what damage improper use can do, I consider them garbage. Even if used properly with just the right touch, they don't do a very good job.

JMHO,
Allen
 
Fanglekai said:
They rip out chunks of metal and destroy the edge. They do not work. If they could cleanly slice paper then it would show they are at least halfway sharp. I think you might have misunderstood what Travis was saying.
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If the tomato is cut, and it was not before
If the onion is cut, and it was not before
If the meat is cut, and it was not before
If the bread is cut, and it was not before
If the potato is cut, and it was not before
I'll go out on a limb and say the sharpener works, and that edge is an improvement on a lot of kitchen knives I have seen.

The sharpener is not aimed at your Sebenza at 58-59 RC
Its a sharpener for soft kitchen knives for people who just want to cut stuff in a kitchen, where it does not really matter if small chunks are torn of a cheap knife.

And to be honest the people who puts down carbide sharpener saying it destroys the knife edge.....Well I think these are people who have spent a lot of time, learning how to sharpen with diamond or stones or sandpaper or other things that need a certain skill level to work. hours on hours some for years, hell even decades for that matter.
I also doubt that these same people have put the same effort and time inn to producing the best edge a carbide sharpener can make.
This is just my own believe, I have not made a big study of it.

Make no mistake, skill and proper sharpening gear will make a better edge every time, no two ways about it.

But a carbide sharpener can make a dull kitchen knife able to sever a food item ( Or other item ) with less effort then it did before.
It works.............chunks, or no chunks.
 
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I'm in the process of putting a good edge on a full set of Parker Bros kitchen cutlery left behind by the previous owners of my home. The block has a grooved steel included. Some of the knives in the set were lucky enough to have escaped being molested by the thing and only needed their 50 degree factory bevels ground to something more useful. The rest were so torn up and dulled by improper use of the steel it leaves one speechless.
When I was a kid we had one of those rolling sharpeners that look like a yo yo with a stone in the center - worked OK compared to a totally dull knife. I have no opinion of the carbide scrapers, but if they can give a working edge with remotely even bevels, it can't be any harder to fix down the road than an edge that's been hit with a grooved steel and sounds like at least it will cut in the meantime. Sadly, there's a place for tools like that in the average kitchen.
 
The sharpener is not aimed at your Sebenza at 58-59 RC
Its a sharpener for soft kitchen knives for people who just want to cut stuff in a kitchen, where it does not really matter if small chunks are torn of a cheap knife.
Click to expand...

I would agree that the carbide scrapers are not aimed at Sebenza owners. Chris Reeve Knives will sharpen your knives for free if you pay the shipping and they recommend Spyderco Sharpmaker, the Lansky system or just stones for the DIY owners.

I disagree with the notion that the carbide scrapers are just marketed to owners of soft cheap kitchen knives. As I mentioned previously Benchmade sells these things with their name on it and their knives are certainly not cheap soft kitchen knives. SOG is another than hawks these scrapers.

Carbide scrapers will sharpen a dull blade to a certain extent but they will not improve the edge. Repeated use of these things can cause extensive damage that will take considerable reprofiling to repair. I about fell down on my knees and cried one time when I was asked to rescue a $300 gyuto that was turned into a 270mm rollercoaster. Many people might not ever notice the damage to their knives from using these things and like they say, ignorance is bliss. When it comes to creating a really sharp knife edge, however, it requires a certain degree of mental sharpness.
 
As odd as it may sound, I DID at one point actually find a use for one of the things. If you find one that has a reasonably steep angle (I think the one I found was a Smiths), and use it VERY carefully, it can handle the heavy material removal that a Sharpmaker can not, for knives with very obtuse angles. Then take it to the Sharpmaker at the 40-degree setting, and run it through the rods. It's not a GOOD way to do it, but it beats trying to Sharpmaker down a massively-obtuse edge with the medium stones.

A close second is using a smooth section of the sidewalk as a reprofiling plate, though.
 
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