Lansky or Spyderco

O

Outpatient

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Jan 21, 2011
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I am trying to make a decision on what knife sharpener to buy. I am deciding between the Lansky Professional Knife Sharpening System and the Spyderco Sharpmaker System. I was wondering if any of you had any input or experience on one or the other or maybe both. I have both Benchmade and Spyderco knifes and a few Kershaw's. I have herd good about both but I have not been able to find enough info to sway my decision one way or another.
 
I have the Spyderco Sharpmaker and I LOVE it. It gets my knifes very sharp, razor sharp is no problem. I sharpen all my Benchmades and my Spyderco and all my kitchen knives and scissors and so many other things haha, it's an amazing system and I totally recommend it.
 
sharpmaker i would say,,you can also sharpen scissors and chisles,,,fix broken tips..ect, on you knives, like with most things there is a small learning curve i have not used my sharpmaker much but i do like it more than the lansky, if you buy it just go slow and concentrate on consistency, and you should have a pretty damn sharp blade,,,i abused my spyderco persistance ripping up some boxes purposefully to dull the blade and i got it to come back pretty good with the sharp maker.

hope this helps
 
ajbuckelew said:
I have the Spyderco Sharpmaker and I LOVE it. It gets my knifes very sharp, razor sharp is no problem. I sharpen all my Benchmades and my Spyderco and all my kitchen knives and scissors and so many other things haha, it's an amazing system and I totally recommend it.
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do you use the 30 deg for that
 
Outpatient said:
I am trying to make a decision on what knife sharpener to buy. I am deciding between the Lansky Professional Knife Sharpening System and the Spyderco Sharpmaker System. I was wondering if any of you had any input or experience on one or the other or maybe both. I have both Benchmade and Spyderco knifes and a few Kershaw's. I have herd good about both but I have not been able to find enough info to sway my decision one way or another.
Click to expand...

I have both, and I have to say.......... get both.

They are very very different. I use the lansky to rebevel, and it can accurately take off alot of steel fast, esp the extra coarse diamond, and the ultrafine and the sapphire are really great for a mirror polish!

But for quick touchups, and to completely get rid of any hint of a burr, I use the sharpmaker. Sharpmaker lacks the ability to quickly take off a lot of steel.
 
I have both.

--Sharpmaker is quicker to set up and take down.
--Lansky is better for reprofiling.
--The clamp on the Lansky can scratch the knife (painter's tape under it prevents that, but then that adds more to the set up time).
--It takes some practice to figure out the right angle to use the Lansky clamp to prevent it from slipping.
--The Lansky offers four edge angles, while the Sharpmaker only has two.
--The edge angle with a Lansky is determined somewhat by where the clamp is placed, so, unlike the Sharpmaker, it might not necessarily put the same edge angle on the knife each time you use it.
--The Lansky is like half the price of a Sharpmaker. You can buy the additional extra course and sapphire stones to make reprofiling very fast and be able to put a mirror edge on a knife, and still be cheaper than a Sharpmaker's basic kit.
--Both are easy to clean.
--Both are easy to learn.
--Both have more stones you can buy to put a higher grit edge on it.

They each have pros and cons. I hope that list helps a bit.
 
mabey it was operator error on my part i had just ok results with the lansky, though i uderstood the meathod
 
kreole said:
I have both.

--Sharpmaker is quicker to set up and take down.
--Lansky is better for reprofiling.
--The clamp on the Lansky can scratch the knife (painter's tape under it prevents that, but then that adds more to the set up time).
--It takes some practice to figure out the right angle to use the Lansky clamp to prevent it from slipping.
--The Lansky offers four edge angles, while the Sharpmaker only has two.
--The edge angle with a Lansky is determined somewhat by where the clamp is placed, so, unlike the Sharpmaker, it might not necessarily put the same edge angle on the knife each time you use it.
--The Lansky is like half the price of a Sharpmaker. You can buy the additional extra course and sapphire stones to make reprofiling very fast and be able to put a mirror edge on a knife, and still be cheaper than a Sharpmaker's basic kit.
--Both are easy to clean.
--Both are easy to learn.
--Both have more stones you can buy to put a higher grit edge on it.

They each have pros and cons. I hope that list helps a bit.
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haha, we both posted the same thing at the same time

I'll add that other than the basics on the lansky, the extra coarse diamond, and the ultrafine is a must, and the sapphire is pretty nice to have too.

For the sharpmaker, the ultrafine is not a must, but it is very nice to have, I highly recommend it.

Usually I will do a 34 degree inclusive relief bevel on the lansky, and then put a microbevel 40 degree inclusive on the sharpmaker, so when I go to touch up, I can just use the sharpmaker and even with heavy usage, I don't have to regrind the relief bevel for months.


Edit: oh and the mount thing is important too, otherwise your hand gets pretty tired, and another thing I did was cut out a bit of rubber from a tourniquet and use that between the blade and the clamp, other wise the clamp will slip, which is pretty annoying and it will scratch up your blade.
 
i was looking at those 2 until i saw the DMT aligner... after reading reviews reading these forums and (practically the entire internet) i bought it.. without a doubt the best knife purchase i have ever made .. those diamond stones will last until your children start collecting knives.. also since the blade is clamped theres little room for error and it works like more expensive sharpeners like the wicked..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JntWcNezmho
 
I don't use my Lansky set up nowadays because all my knives are convex and a simple strop is all that's required.

Though I did sharpen an axe the other day using the lanksy rods free hand. It worked a treat!
 
Sharpmaker, definitely. It works well, is easy to use, and is versatile. It'll do recurves and serrations, too. For those who say that the Lansky is better at reprofiling: did you try the diamond stones on the Sharpmaker? Because those take off steel fast. You can reprofile with the basic set and a lot of time (I did), but with diamond rods added in it goes very quickly.
 
I didn't

Already had the Lansky diamond hone, and I was pretty strapped for cash when I invested in the sharpmaker, so I didn't bother to get it, seemed redundant to me

I'm sure it works good.
 
I wouldn't offer an opinion on which is the "best" sharpening system, mostly because I don't own a Sharpmaker, but I will say that I am very satisfied with the Lanksy system. I have watched videos of the Sharpmaker and can see how it might perform better in some instances, such as the aforementioned recurve blades, and I may well invest in one for just that reason someday. Depending on the OP's demands on his blades, and his ability to set up the Lansky system consistently from session to session, it will perform at least as well as the Sharpmaker in the vast majority of applications for, IIRC, about half the price. If you're recurve-heavy in your collection though, you may want to spring for the extra ducketts.

Very light recurves are not a problem on the Lansky though.

Also, just thought about this, if you plan to sharpen a lot of large camp/survival/chopper knives, go straight to the Spyderco. The Lansky is about useless for them without doing the blade in two or three sections, moving the clamp and trying to limit the stroke to only overlap just right, which is nigh impossible. I don't use the Lansky on my choppers at all, and one of them is a Kershaw Outcast with a big, sweeping recurve to boot.

I've had the Lansky for several years and have used it very little. Not because it doesn't work, but because it doesn't work well on the knives of mine that are hardest to sharpen, like the choppers. I'm fairly handy with a whet stone, crock sticks and a strop though, so I only break out the Lansky when I have to reprofile, or remove a small chip in a blade. It's pretty much a waste of time and energy to get it all set up just to dress up a slightly dull blade. The Spyderco would be more like the crock sticks in that regard, and therefore, might get a lot more use than the Lansky.

Good Lord, I've confused myself here. No doubt I have been no help to the OP! Sorry about that. Good luck with your choice! LOL

Blues
 
Sharpmaker's diamond stones still take a lot longer than a Lansky. A Red dot DMT benchstone will beat both, though.
 
res1cue said:
I have both, and I have to say.......... get both.

They are very very different. I use the lansky to rebevel, and it can accurately take off alot of steel fast, esp the extra coarse diamond, and the ultrafine and the sapphire are really great for a mirror polish!

But for quick touchups, and to completely get rid of any hint of a burr, I use the sharpmaker. Sharpmaker lacks the ability to quickly take off a lot of steel.
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+1 That about sums it up. :thumbup:
 
I have both. I lean a little more towards the Sharpmaker, due to ease of set-up and take down for quick touch ups. One issue I do find w/the Lansky is on small pens knives,.... I have an extremely hard time getting the clamping system to take and maintain a strong hold.
 
I have both and prefer the Sharpmaker. Somebody once said that it should be called the sharpkeeper rather than the sharpmaker because if your knives are dull it takes quite a bit of time to resharpen. I would have to agree. However set up is so easy there really is not reason to allow your knives to dull. I use the white stones to touch up my users with a few strokes on a daily/as needed basis to maintain a shaving sharp edge.
 
The Sharpmaker is an excellent touch up tool but not good for grinding new bevels. So if you can only have one, the Lansky is more versatile. Note that the Lansky is fussy and slow to use. But it will get a knife as sharp as it can be.
 
lanskey works much better then the spyderco sharpmaker (OK if you have never really used/gotten a really sharp edge). I wouldnt suggest either though (I have both), I'd sugget a paper wheel system and/or a belt sander for quick and razor sharp edges or the edgepro/wicked edge systems for manual systems. I personnaly use a paper wheel system and will never go back to either of those systems. they are just unacceptable to me and the time and effort is not worth even the best results from those systems which are far far below that of paper wheel.
 
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