Lansky vs Spyderco sharpeners. Your recomendations ?

M

MamBo

Joined
Feb 10, 2002
Messages
223
I never did sharpening myself in the past (had a friend who did it for me)

I read the forums, and IMHO there are only two choises:

Lansky and Spyderco sharpmaker.

So your advice for complete sharpening newbe whould be ?

P.S. my blades are:
Benchmade BM43
Camillus EDC
Cold Steel El Hombre
 
I have no experience with the Lansky, but I have been using a Spyderco Sharpmaker since I got one of the very first Police models from Spyderco, before they even chamfored the edges of the handle. In all of that time the Sharpmaker has been great. I would suggest it to anyone getting into sharpening their knives for the fisrt time. Before I used the Spydie Sharpmaker I did all freehand sharpening. Since going to the Sharpmaker all of my edges are more uniform and precise. It is a great for maintaning a good edge. It is a little slow for reprofiling an edge, but for regular maintenance of an edge it is great.
 
I have a Lansky set. The one I have has 5 stones from extra course to ultra fine with a steel rod for each. It is the model that sells for about $45 or $50. This set has 4 angle choices. I use the 25 degree for my hunting knives. I think the 20 degree would be okay for some hunting knife steel. I do use the 20 degree for my fillet knives. However, you can not sharpen at an angle other than what is provided. For instance, I don't have a choice of sharpening at 21 or 22 degrees. The choices are: 30, 25, 20, and 17 degrees.

I like my Lansky alot and may purchase the optional diamond stones for it. I do not have experience with the other manufacturer you mention. I would not hesitate to buy another Lansky if mine got lost.

Later;
 
and, as ArchAngel says, it it a bear to reprofile a hard blade, but it doesn't take much to whipe the edge back to razor sharp if you don't let it get too bad.
 
MamBo,
What kind of Lansky do you have in your mind? They make both clamp-n-rod sharpening system and V-style sharpener with round rods. This last is very nice for kitchen knives with long blades, I prefer it over SharpMaker in my kitchen because the rods are full inch longer.

I have no experience with Lansky clamp-n-rod sharpener, I have similarly shaped device from GATCO and it works very well for me. But SharpMaker is faster to set up and easier to use with comparable effects. So I reach it more frequently in my laziness. This year SPYDERCO made very useful addition – quite coarse diamond triangles for edge reprofiling, the thing what SharpMaker have lacked the most. Certainly you can’t go wrong with it sharpening plain blades or SPYDERCO-like serrations.

However if your CS El-Hombre has serrated blade you will have problems to sharpen it both with SharpMaker and Lansky (no matter V-style or clamp-n-rod system). If so you should get Lansky dog-bone style sharpener, they make specially shaped one for Cold Steel serrations.
 
What ArchAngel and Sergiusz said!

I've had the Sharpmaker for a little over a year now. It is good for maintaining an edge, and now, with the optional diamond rods, it should be good for reprofiling as well. If you don't want to spend the $$$ for the diamond rods, you can use the poor-man's reprofiler described here.

I would advise looking at the total cost of both systems by including the cost of the stones necessary to reprofile. You should be able to get a Sharpmaker + diamond rods for just under $100, FWIW.

Hope that helps,

Matthew
 
Especially considering your El Hombre and Camillus EDC - the Spyderco 204 Sharpmaker is almost certainly THE way to go for you, the 204 is better with serrations and is recommended by Cold Steel for their serrations, also the 204 has a very good rep for working with recurves, present on the El Hombre and EDC. Joe Talmadge personally endorses the 204 for Recurve work "I now use the Spyderco 204 Sharpener for this. In theory any v-stick sharpener will work, but I've found the 204 has features that are a must for recurved blade sharpening."
And believe me, Joe Talmadge has forgotten more about sharpening stuff than you or I will ever know :P
I personally have a 204 and have been nothing but satisfied with it's results (and for whatever it's worth, I reprofiled my Camillus 154CM EDC to 15 degrees of scary-sharpness in about 40 mins on my 204).
While I hear the Lansky is fine for most stuff, it just isn't as flexible as the 204, it's not good for recurves, it can't do serrations, and if your blade is bigger than 4" you're probably gonna end up fiddling with it all the time, if the Lansky-style system appeals to you... do it right, get an Edgetech (I think it's called Edgetech anyway) rig, otherwise 204!
 
Why do you think you NEED the Diamond stones for reprofiling with a 204? I've had no problem reprofiling AUS8, 440A, and 154CM with just the medium alumina ceramic stones, is time so precious these days that you can't spare an extra 20 minutes to save $50?
 
Youngcutter I am with you bro. You can get where you wanna be with the medium sharpmaker stones, it just takes longer. Fact is, though many people don't need the diamond rods to get the bevels down, they are just too lazy to wipe the stone every 4 or 5 swipes, reprofiling with the 204, if you wipe off the edges every 5 swipes or so, and maintain good pressure evenly and staedily, you can reprofile somewhat fast. Somewhat fast considering the grit of the stone at least, which is pretty "fine" to begin with. But if you got an extra $50... Don't get on me about the sebenzas either, you spend the money once, while your young, and it's worthwhile in the long run. Do I want to be justifying a $300+ knife to my wife years later? NO WAY, so you buy it now before your married.

JC
 
Originally posted by YoungCutter
Why do you think you NEED the Diamond stones for reprofiling with a 204? I've had no problem reprofiling AUS8, 440A, and 154CM with just the medium alumina ceramic stones, is time so precious these days that you can't spare an extra 20 minutes to save $50?
Click to expand...

Youngcutter -

Well, with 3 kids running around and a wife in school, as a matter of fact, I AM pretty busy :)

Actually, I have not used the diamond rods yet - I just wrap some silicon carbide paper around the existing rods and profile away.

I noticed that you called out Joe T. as your guru on sharpening - why don't you ask him what he does when he reprofiles an edge....or just read his FAQ again :)

Matthew
 
Youngcutter said...
While I hear the Lansky is fine for most stuff, it just isn't as flexible as the 204, it's not good for recurves, it can't do serrations, and if your blade

Youngcutter you don't know what you are talking about. I have no problem with any of this with the Lan. and I personally think it is much more versitle than the Sharpmaker.
 
I have the Lansky 'Sharpening System'. I should have said so in my first post but did not remember the model name at that time.

The one thing I learned quickly about it is that each rod needs to be hand bent so that it is aligned correctly with its associated stone. Each stone is encased in a molded plastic handle. The handle accepts the steel (small diameter) rod. Because each molded handle is not exactly the same, using only one rod for all stones does not retain a consistant angle for cutting the knife edge, from stone to stone. That is propably why there are five rods for five stones. I adjust my stone/rod by attaching the rod and laying the assembly flat against a smooth flat surface and ensure the face of the stone is flat with the rod (face of stone and rod lay equally upon the test surface). Each rod is calibrated to its own unique stone - by me. Mixing them can cause a fine stone (for example) to dull an edge just finished with a courser stone. I do not have to readjust the rods after each use but do give them a quick check on a flat surface before using them - just to make sure they have not been bent. The case that comes with the kit provides a means of associating the rods to their corresponding stones.
 
I have both systems, and would recommend you buy the Sharpmaker. As stated by others the Lansky doesn't have accurate angle markings. The Sharpmaker is also more versitile, and if you buy the diamond rods, or use one of the tricks, it will reprofile just as easily. I also think that the Sharpmaker will give you much sharper edge, or maybe I just havn't really practiced enough with the Lansky, but with the Sharpmaker it only took 2-3 blades to get respectable results. I also feel that the Sharpamker is a lot easier to use because you don't need to clamp the guide on, fairly important to me anyway.


Erik
 
Another vote for the Sharpmaker. I got my 204 about two weeks ago, and I haven't found anything that can sharpen like this system. I tried a system identical to the Lansky, and found that it is too inconvenient.
The 204 is extremely versatile in that it can not only sharpen knives, but any tools that may require a good edge like scissors, chisels, tin snips, shears, etc..
Get the 204, you'll be glad you did.;)
 
DB,

I was referring to the clamp and rod rig, if what you speak of is the Lansky "V" rig, I can't comment, having not even seen such an item.
 
Starfish,

I know Joe Talmadge endorses diamond stones for serious reprofiling, and i'm not questioning that they make things easier and faster, i'm just saying that you can accomplish a good reprofiling with just the brown alumina ceramic stones, for those of us who are pretty much constantly broke and have 4000 things they need to buy, it's nice to skip the $50 for the diamond stones.
But if I had some spare cash (yeah, that's a laugh...) i'd pick a set up for sure, along with some of those nice ultrafine stones.
 
I’m just curious why Lansky clamp-n-rod system should work worse on recurved or serrated edges than SPYDERCO SharpMaker? Please search their site and you will find triangle hone for serrated blades, even in two (medium and fine) grits. Also the performance on recurved blades depends mostly on the hone wideness and Lansky hones are not wider than SharpMaker rods. The hones on my GATCO EdgeMate sharpening system (basically very similar to Lansky one) are 1,5 times wider but I didn’t have any problems reprofiling and resharpening recurved blades (BM Pinnacle, KATZ KNIVES Special Forces and more).

So probably we deal mostly with the question like or do not like.
To say “Lansky will not work on serrated blades” or something like this – excuse me but this is good deal of exaggeration ;)

Yes, I do like SharpMaker more and use it more frequently (in fact the most frequently I sharpen freehand :) but this is just thanks to my laziness and SharpMaker ease to set up.

If someone is looking for the real difference:
  • SharpMaker’s advantage is clearly visible working on the blades longer than 4 inches.
  • Its disadvantage is the possibility to blunt your blade’s tip if you will allow it to break from the rod in natural way at the end of each stroke.
  • Even with diamond and ultra-fine rods added (SharpMaker) Lansky still has more hones to choose. Quite another question is how much of them you really need...
As to diamond rods...
Quite naturally it is everyone’s private matter how to evaluate the value between their money and time. But let’s compare comparable things only, please. You are spending your bucks once for diamond rods but you are wasting your time each time using medium rods for the tasks they are not intended for. BTW, do you think they do not wear out, especially at the angles, when reprofiling edges?

Ooppsss, Spark, when will you found us the contest for the longest post? I’m so willing to win at least once... :D
 
Sergiusz Mitin the Lansky clamp sys. works just fine for recurves, in fact it works great on them. I also find that up to 6 inch blades are fine without reclamping. The Lansky has many different types of hones for it and if you move the rods on the hones you get many different angles out ooof the system
 
Got em both rarely use either, most of my sharpening is done free hand on diamond bench stones and wet stones. As far as the Spyderco Sharpmaker goes, when it gets used, it's usually on the kitchen cutlery for a fast touch up, or for sharpening serrated edges.
My Lansky is basically used for profiling blades.

In closing I would like to add that aligners and jigs/fixtures, are fine to start with but you have to get proficient at free hand on bench stones. You'll probably never master it but with lotsa practice you'll be able to amaze your friends, and sharpen to a hair popin razor sharp edge, if that's what you want. Just remember a razor sharp edge is not always the best thing.

Peace & Love Forever

:)
 
Originally posted by YoungCutter
Starfish,

I know Joe Talmadge endorses diamond stones for serious reprofiling, and i'm not questioning that they make things easier and faster, i'm just saying that you can accomplish a good reprofiling with just the brown alumina ceramic stones, for those of us who are pretty much constantly broke and have 4000 things they need to buy, it's nice to skip the $50 for the diamond stones.
But if I had some spare cash (yeah, that's a laugh...) i'd pick a set up for sure, along with some of those nice ultrafine stones.
Click to expand...

I believe you when you say that reprofiling can be done with the medium rods, although I would venture to say that the job would likely take most of us more than an extra 20 minutes.

I know what you mean about the extra cash. I mentioned the full house up there that sucks up most of my free time...I'll give you three guesses as to the other thing that seems to be in short supply :D

Matthew
 
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