KME sharpening systems

Wheeler80

Wheeler80

Joined
Nov 12, 2013
Messages
1,951
I've been thinking about picking one of these up. I freehand my knives but I don't let them get excessively dull. But I have had some coworkers ask me to sharpen their knives and honestly I don't have the patience to completely redo an edge freehand. I'm getting them all Rat 2's for Christmas and I'm going to tell them to get them to me before they reach no edge at all territory. So, all that was a long winded way of asking if anyone has any experience with the KME?

Thanks in advance.
 
I've owned one for a couple of years and think highly of it. Build quality is excellent. Mine came with the diamond stones which I would recommend.
 
Yep, absolutely enjoy the KME, I just picked up some water stones for it. I'm very pleased with the system. IMO it's the best bang for the buck
 
I have just recently bought a KME sharpener with diamonds. In addition to the diamond stones, I also bought a Dan's hard black Arkansas stone for the finishing touch. I have to say I'm very impressed with the system and the edges I been making. I plan to get my brother this system for Christmas.

Another thing about KME is outstanding customer service. My fine diamond stone had a small divot in the surface, a hole just big enough to catch some knife tips. I sent an email to the company and Ron Swartz responded right away. He sent me a brand new stone after only asking for my address. He didn't ask me to send the stone back to him first, no questions asked, just a brand new stone shipped out right away. He will also answer your questions without trying to make you buy more of his products (not interested in just making sales), but giving you solid answers to whatever you ask of him. I have to say I'm a very happy customer.
 
I've had the same experience as everyone else. I over tightened the tension screw and rounded off the nubs that hold the clamp level. Emailed ron asking if he sold parts and he just sent me one for free. Couldn't believe it. The system itself is great. I really like that any 4 inch stone fits. I use a granite tile I cut into blanks to mount lapping films to for finishing. And strops with cbn. Im really picky and I dont have alot of money so I expect quite a bit from my purchases and haven't been disappointed with the kme.
 
Hi, I just recently ordered my kme system [hopefuly it will be here monday]. I had been looking around for sometime now hopefully i will be as pleases as these people are with there system. For the price I think it a good deal.
 
I think I'm gonna go ahead and pick it up. I have yet to see a bad review and I think it will save me a lot of headache in the future. Especially since I've noticed as I gotten older my patience level has dropped. I enjoy sharpening my blades but I don't enjoy having to reform an edge anymore. Thanks for the replies.
 
I looked into one quite awhile ago but never pulled the trigger! I mostly have sak's and mt's size blade, less than 3 1/2 inches and was unsure how it would work on these smaller blades.

I too never heard or read a bad thing about them though! :)
 
Another vote for the KME--and for diamond stones of some kind. I've used mine to re-profile and to fix more than one uneven bevel. It is pretty fast, easy and consistent.

That reminds me--I'd sure like that diamond rod for serrations...:thumbup:
 
Wheeler80 said:
I think I'm gonna go ahead and pick it up. I have yet to see a bad review and I think it will save me a lot of headache in the future. Especially since I've noticed as I gotten older my patience level has dropped. I enjoy sharpening my blades but I don't enjoy having to reform an edge anymore. Thanks for the replies.
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That was a big deciding factor for me as well. I couldn't find a negative review either. Being able to match up to the existing bevel and not completely reprofile everytime is a big plus as well. Here's a link to a mod i made for mine that allows you to precisely reset the angle when switching to a different size hone without having to remark the edge.http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1214285-My-kme-drillstop-equivalent It works like the stop collar on the edge pro. Ron said he will be coming out with something like it soon. Thought I'd put it here since there are a few kme guys in one place. If you only use the diamond hones you won't need it because they are uniform.
 
Having a Lansky and a DMT aligner guided set ups as well as a KME and a Sharpmaker I have some experience with guided rigs and te KME is the best of the bunch in my opinion.In fact I just got a kangaroo leather strop attatchment for mine.I only use the guided rigs for reprofiling bevels.
 
sir_mike said:
I looked into one quite awhile ago but never pulled the trigger! I mostly have sak's and mt's size blade, less than 3 1/2 inches and was unsure how it would work on these smaller blades.

I too never heard or read a bad thing about them though! :)
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He has a new set of jaws you can buy that are made specifically for smaller blades. It will even allow you to sharpen the tiny little blade on a Victorinox Classic key chain knife. I believe he calls it the pen blade jaws or something like that. DeanO does a review of it on YouTube.
 
Ryan J said:
That was a big deciding factor for me as well. I couldn't find a negative review either. Being able to match up to the existing bevel and not completely reprofile everytime is a big plus as well. Here's a link to a mod i made for mine that allows you to precisely reset the angle when switching to a different size hone without having to remark the edge.http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1214285-My-kme-drillstop-equivalent It works like the stop collar on the edge pro. Ron said he will be coming out with something like it soon. Thought I'd put it here since there are a few kme guys in one place. If you only use the diamond hones you won't need it because they are uniform.
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Ryan, Did you make your stop bar from scratch, or did you find metal somewhere that actually fit the width? I'm guessing having the sides wrap around make it easier and much more precise. It's actually a pretty genius solution for both the KME and EP. I originally ordered the KME with diamond set, and got the Arkansas later. I was a little disappointed in amount of thickness variance in the KME Arkansas set. I'm really looking forward to adding the mod to save the thickness variance problem.
 
bflying said:
Ryan, Did you make your stop bar from scratch, or did you find metal somewhere that actually fit the width? I'm guessing having the sides wrap around make it easier and much more precise. It's actually a pretty genius solution for both the KME and EP. I originally ordered the KME with diamond set, and got the Arkansas later. I was a little disappointed in amount of thickness variance in the KME Arkansas set. I'm really looking forward to adding the mod to save the thickness variance problem.
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It was the casing that covered the outside of an old feeler gauge set. Id already disassembled it to test my sharpening on the gauges lol. Got a comfortable shave. Anyway, I just put it in a vice and tapped it with a hammer to get the 90 degree bends. Drilled a hole for the thumb screw. It took a few tries to make it the right width and square. It works great though. Ive used it to realign from a 3/16 diamond hone to a peice of 1/2" granite with sandpaper and confirmed with marker that its accurate. The only disadvantage is that it limits how low you can go. It could be solved easily by filing a slot for the thumb screw to go down into. I havent needed to though. I just flip the rod guide upside down. Glad I could help thats why I put this up.
 
Just wanted to update. I got this in today and have been playing around with it for about an hour. All I have to say is I should've bought one a long time ago. I've got 4 junk/mystery steel gas station knives a buddy gave me to sharpen. I could get them paper slicing sharp but that was it. I've reprofiled 2 of them and added a microbevel. They're as sharp as my knives now. I highly recommend anyone looking for a sharpening system to check these out. Thanks for the push everyone.
 
Wheeler80 said:
Just wanted to update. I got this in today and have been playing around with it for about an hour. All I have to say is I should've bought one a long time ago. I've got 4 junk/mystery steel gas station knives a buddy gave me to sharpen. I could get them paper slicing sharp but that was it. I've reprofiled 2 of them and added a microbevel. They're as sharp as my knives now. I highly recommend anyone looking for a sharpening system to check these out. Thanks for the push everyone.
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Glad to see you like it, for me, it makes knives more enjoyable. Did you get the diamond stones???
 
Ajack60 said:
Glad to see you like it, for me, it makes knives more enjoyable. Did you get the diamond stones???
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Yeah, that's what I'm used to and the cost difference wasn't much. I just got the basic setup. I'll probably pick up some of the other stones down the road.
 
Wheeler80 said:
Yeah, that's what I'm used to and the cost difference wasn't much. I just got the basic setup. I'll probably pick up some of the other stones down the road.
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Yep that's how it goes. Now if your like me you ogle the choseras until you can swing it. And visit the kme page and pine for the accessories. I've thing I will say is the roo strops and cbn are awesome.
 
I find the KME a real nice setup with diamond stones and then strop after sharpening. This system is much easier then the APEX pro for me to use.
 
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