Lansky Turn Box Sharpener

[Danny Linguini]

A few months ago, I picked up a Lansky Diamond Sharpening System. It works ok, but, as I was concerned about, it’s limited by its four preselected edge angles. Most knives in reality usually fall somewhere in between those angles, meaning you have to do a lot of coarse shaping before you’re sharpening the whole edge. And worse than that, the clamp is clunky - yes, it has a clunky clamp - where on certain wider blade shapes the tightening knob gets in the way, and you can’t get to the 20° or 17° rod holes. I generally had a hard time clamping any blade tight enough so it doesn’t move, and I put about zero pressure on the sharpening rods. So I was less than thrilled with it, and set out to find a better replacement. While pricing out the Spyderco Sharpmaker, I stumbled across the Lansky Diamond/Ceramic Turn Box. It does basically the same thing as the Sharpmaker at a fraction of the cost, with a much simpler base/storage box, and it gets very good reviews. Only two sets of rods - medium diamond and fine ceramic - but I very, very seldom have needed anything coarser than medium anyway (except when a certain other sharpening system requires it because it can’t match the factory edge). So I grabbed one.

After just a few uses, I’m very happy with it, finding it much more comfortable and confident than the fancier Lansky system. Most of the time a few stokes down the ceramic rods and a quick stropping have been enough to get a paper-shaving edge back. And it’s very easy to adjust your grip to be able to follow any factory edge angle. I know there are better solutions out there, but I’m generally very easy on my knives, and they seldom need more than a touch-up, so the Turn Box seems to be a good choice for me. Just throwing this out there for others like me who want something inexpensive, but aren’t quite good enough to totally free-hand it - it’s a decent little sharpening set.

 

[Vlade]

A few months ago, I picked up a Lansky Diamond Sharpening System. It works ok, but, as I was concerned about, it’s limited by its four preselected edge angles. Most knives in reality usually fall somewhere in between those angles, meaning you have to do a lot of course shaping before you’re sharpening the whole edge. And worse than that, the clamp is clunky - yes, it has a clunky clamp - where on certain wider blade shapes the tightening knob gets in the way, and you can’t get to the 20° or 17° rod holes. I generally had a hard time clamping any blade tight enough so it doesn’t move, and I put about zero pressure on the sharpening rods. So I was less than thrilled with it, and set out to find a better replacement. While pricing out the Spyderco Sharpmaker, I stumbled across the Lansky Diamond/Ceramic Turn Box. It does basically the same thing as the Sharpmaker at a fraction of the cost, with a much simpler base/storage box, and it gets very good reviews. Only two sets of rods - medium diamond and fine ceramic - but I very, very seldom have needed anything coarser than medium anyway (except when a certain other sharpening system requires it because it can’t match the factory edge). So I grabbed one.

After just a few uses, I’m very happy with it, finding it much more comfortable and confident than the fancier Lansky system. Most of the time a few stokes down the ceramic rods and a quick stropping have been enough to get a paper-shaving edge back. And it’s very easy to adjust your grip to be able to follow any factory edge angle. I know there are better solutions out there, but I’m generally very easy on my knives, and they seldom need more than a touch-up, so the Turn Box seems to be a good choice for me. Just throwing this out there for others like me who want something inexpensive, but aren’t quite good enough to totally free-hand it - it’s a decent little sharpening set.

I freehand sharpen my knives. I'm not that good at it but I keep trying. I practice on one of my junk knives. I don't want to screw up a really nice knife. I'm going to look into that turn box you're talking about. Thanks for the information

 

[Guy McVer]

I own one of these and I like it. The Lansky Turnbox is great but it does have some issues/limitations.

The first thing you should do when getting one of these is to measure and verify that the angles of the pre-drilled holes are correct. Sometimes the angles are off.

The Turnbox only has holes for sharpening at 20 and 25 degrees per side. Since the base is wooden, you can drill your own additional sets of holes at different angles, but you should be careful about their placement.

The Lansky rods have 2 main drawbacks. They're a bit short, and they can't reach the whole edge on some knives because the rods are round. The Spyderco Sharpmaker fixes both of these problems by using longer triangular sticks.

If you need to reprofile an edge then don't use the Turnbox because it will take forever. The Sharpmaker has the same issue.

 

[P_A_S_1]

Another option is the Idahone which falls price wise between the Turnbox and the Sharpmaker. It has longer rods then both, 9 inches, making it better suited for large cooking knives.

 

[GmpaJim]

A few months ago, I picked up a Lansky Diamond Sharpening System. It works ok, but, as I was concerned about, it’s limited by its four preselected edge angles. Most knives in reality usually fall somewhere in between those angles, meaning you have to do a lot of coarse shaping before you’re sharpening the whole edge. And worse than that, the clamp is clunky - yes, it has a clunky clamp - where on certain wider blade shapes the tightening knob gets in the way, and you can’t get to the 20° or 17° rod holes. I generally had a hard time clamping any blade tight enough so it doesn’t move, and I put about zero pressure on the sharpening rods. So I was less than thrilled with it, and set out to find a better replacement. While pricing out the Spyderco Sharpmaker, I stumbled across the Lansky Diamond/Ceramic Turn Box. It does basically the same thing as the Sharpmaker at a fraction of the cost, with a much simpler base/storage box, and it gets very good reviews. Only two sets of rods - medium diamond and fine ceramic - but I very, very seldom have needed anything coarser than medium anyway (except when a certain other sharpening system requires it because it can’t match the factory edge). So I grabbed one.

After just a few uses, I’m very happy with it, finding it much more comfortable and confident than the fancier Lansky system. Most of the time a few stokes down the ceramic rods and a quick stropping have been enough to get a paper-shaving edge back. And it’s very easy to adjust your grip to be able to follow any factory edge angle. I know there are better solutions out there, but I’m generally very easy on my knives, and they seldom need more than a touch-up, so the Turn Box seems to be a good choice for me. Just throwing this out there for others like me who want something inexpensive, but aren’t quite good enough to totally free-hand it - it’s a decent little sharpening set.

I went the other way, from rods (to pull through, untill I realized they were a trick from Satin) to the Lansky.
Your description is true. I decided, to either learn to use it or spend $700+ on a Wicked Sharp.
The clamp IS tricky. I finally gave up on those little grooves. I use painters tape on the knife, and clamp far enough to get a good bite, keeping things straight and parallel. On smaller blades the protruding end of the set screw will interfere with the rod. I got a shorter screw. Per the inst. I’ll snug the set screw, and seriously torque the knob.
You’re right about the degrees too. All my knives are now 17 or 20*. The problem is remembering what knife gets which
The biggest thing for me is the initial set up. I know it’s coming, so I’ve mastered it enough so the rest is ez peze.
I’d encourage you to have it on hand if you do need to drastically change an edge. I’m not sure how well sticks will do that, although I’m not familiar with todays materials. I go back to Crock Stick days. I’m also blessed with time to putter with such things.
In closing, last week I added Lansky the leather strop. It turns sharp into uncomfortably sharp.
No hard sell intended, just conversatin…

 

[Danny Linguini]

I own one of these and I like it. The Lansky Turnbox is great but it does have some issues/limitations.

The first thing you should do when getting one of these is to measure and verify that the angles of the pre-drilled holes are correct. Sometimes the angles are off.

The Turnbox only has holes for sharpening at 20 and 25 degrees per side. Since the base is wooden, you can drill your own additional sets of holes at different angles, but you should be careful about their placement.

The Lansky rods have 2 main drawbacks. They're a bit short, and they can't reach the whole edge on some knives because the rods are round. The Spyderco Sharpmaker fixes both of these problems by using longer triangular sticks.

If you need to reprofile an edge then don't use the Turnbox because it will take forever. The Sharpmaker has the same issue.

If I need to do any serious sharpening, I do the Sharpie thing on the edge and just tweak the angle. For some reason I find that easier to do consistently when holding the knife vertical instead of trying to find the correct angle on a flat stone. Otherwise, I haven’t found anything (of mine) that the Lansky rods don’t work on (yet).

Another option is the Idahone which falls price wise between the Turnbox and the Sharpmaker. It has longer rods than both, 9 inches, making it better suited for large cooking knives.

In all my searching for knife sharpening systems, I have never seen this brand come up. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[cudgee]

I have never seen this brand come up.

They are good, and fantastic customer service. Also will give you 4 angles, 15, 20 , 22.5 and 25 approx. As stated always check the angles, i use an angle cube, but they are usually fairly close, if too far out, i use some thin cardboard wedged in the base to align them. Also will give you 4 grit sizes. 320, 600, 1000 and 1200-1500, these are the grit sizes given by the makers. Plus you can buy diamond rods for both if needed.