Lansky vs. Spyderco

V

V10011011

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Apr 2, 2003
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The duel: Lansky Deluxe Knife Sharpening System vs. Spyderco Tri-Angle Sharpmaker

Lansky's Deluxe kit comes complete with extra coarse, coarse, medium, fine, ultra fine hones, multi angle knife clamp, honing oil, and 5 guide rods.

Spyderco's Tri-Angle Sharpmaker includes two sets of high Alumina Ceramic stones: A pair of medium grit (dark) stones, and a pair of fine stones (white).

Criteria are ease of use, final sharpness of blades and how durible the kits are (how long the stones last under standard use until they need replacement)

Why? Hehe, I have a few bucks to spend and don't have a sharpener for my nice Jaguar blade (the blade rocks, the handles suck until you do custom molded tang pockets with Epoxy 10 Metal). Used a standard generic "Pocket knife sharpening stone" from Home Depot (sharpening a steel ruler) and turns out I am not that great at sharpening by hand alone..makes ugly scratch marks on the other side, etc etc...cant keep angles consistant I guess.
 
The 204 is less of a pain to set up and is generally easier to use.

The consistancy seems better on the 204 than the Lansky. This could also be due to pilot error though.

The 204 is my personal choice.
 
...the Sharpmaker 204 is the only system that I use, except for my DMT Diafold(and benchstone ;)).

I've tried the Lansky, but it was inconvenient to set up and, as BOK mentioned, was not consistent. Unless you plan on doing alot of reprofiling, I'd suggest the 204, which is great for the upkeep of a razor sharp edge on your knives.

I don't think that you'd be disappointed with the Sharpmaker. :D
 
Sharpmaker all the way. I own both - the Lansky's a pain in the a$$ to use.
 
I OWNNED A LANSKY BECAUSE I HEARD AND WAS SOLD ON HOW EASY IT WAS TO GET A RAZOR EDGE ON A KNIFE SO WHEN IT ARRIVED, I WAS EAGER AS HELL TO FIND EVERY DULL KNIFE I HAD IN THE HOUSE. TO MY DISAPPOINTMENT, IT WAS A ROYAL PAIN IN THE BUTT TO USE BECAUSE OF HAVING TO FASTEN AND UNFASTEN THE ANGLE HOLDERS AND CHANGING HONING STONES WASN'T FUN EITHER. I BASICALLY SCRATCHED A LOT OF THE BLACK COATING OFF OF MY CQC 7. AFTER THAT, I TRADED IT TO A FRIEND ON THE FORUMS. I NOW OWN A SHARPMAKER AND THERE'S NO COMPARISON. THAT LANSKY SYSTEM IS A PIECE CRAP IN MY OPINION AND CAN'T EVEN HOLD A CANDLE TO THE SHARPMAKER. ANTDOG YOU ARE THE MAN AND 100% CORRECT. I HOPE THIS HELPS

IF WAR IS HELL, TAKE A BETTER PITCHFORK THAN THE DEVIL
 
If you have trouble chewing gum and walking at the same time the Lanskey may be troublesome. But for some the Lansky works great. They are both good systems. Iether system should last a long time and both will give you a very sharp edge. You cann't go wrong with either one. I like the Lan a little better because it reprofiles an edge better than the Sharpmaker and the Lan also has more hones. But as you can see the Sharpmaker has a large following and it does a good job as well at keeping the edge.
 
The rods that come with the Spyderco are fine enough to make a razor-sharp-shavable-edge? The Lansky seems to come with an Ultra-fine hone, but the Spyderco only goes up to fine it seems..
 
V10011011,

There are both ultra-fine and diamond triangles that Spyderco makes for use on the Sharpmaker, but they have to be purchased separately. (The diamonds are great if you need to reprofile the edge.) BTW, it is possible for you to achieve a razor, hair poppin', edge with the triangles that are provided with the 204, as long as you follow each of the four steps. ;)

Originally posted by db,
If you have trouble chewing gum and walking at the same time the Lanskey may be troublesome.
Click to expand...

If you like going through the trouble of setting up the Lansky system before each use, then by all means, you go right ahead.

I, for one, have alot of better things to do....like sharpening my knives. :D
 
I have both the Spyderco and Lansky sharpening systems, and my EdgePro kicks either of their butts all to hell. I dumped both after the first time I used my EdgePro. The only thing I use my Spyderco Sharpmaker for now is to sharpen scissors.

If you want a full range of angle options to put on your blade, want to preserve your blade by removing as little as metal as possible, guaranteed reproducable results, professional looking bevels/edges (no scratches), and hair-scaring sharp edges - - go with the EdgePro. ;)

TT2Toes
 
Spyderco plus something very coarse for reprofiling edges. The really coarse item could be a DMT diamond stone, a 200 grit waterstone, a large SiC stone, or 60 grit wet/dry paper! Coarse material to set an edge at 30 degrees or less, then the sharpmaker grey rods to put on the secondary edge bevel. Use the white rods if you want a shaving sharp edge!
 
Hmm..time to look up some info on the EdgePro..

Offtopic: does it take an 8000 grit waterstone to make a hair-splitting edge and if not, what is the point of using a 8000 grit stone?
 
V10011011
If you decide to go with the EdgePro - - which you will not regret, take advantage of the upgrad opt. It includes 3000x polishing tapes, plus extra stones. These tapes will put a mirror finish on your sharpened edges, plus remove even the faintest bur-wire, leaving an atom-fine edge.

If I added up all the money I've spent on bench stones, Lansky sharpeners, DMT diamond sharpeners, and my Sharpmaker - - I could have bought two EdgePro Apex's. I wish I knew then, what I know now.

(Note: if you use your blade as a working knife, cutting rope, cardboard, paper material, you will want a rougher edge for slicing. I do this with my EdgePro by stopping after sharpening with a 180x medium grit and switching to the 3000x polishing tape. This way I leave the micro-toothy edge from the 180x, but smooth off the bur-wire and dress it up with the polishing tape. A perfect recipe for a lasting scary slashing/shear, HAIR-Shaving sharp, cutting edge. Otherwise, if you use the full spectrum of EdgePro stones; from coarse 100x, through the med, fine, ultra fine 600x, and then the polising tape - you will end up with a beautiful mirror polished surgical micro-machined edge. Except, this kind of edge is really best for push-cutting, not slashing/shear cutting. The EdgePro gives you lots of lattitude to tailor your edge to your needs.)

My $.02

TT2Toes
 
V,

an 8000 grit stone will put a mirror polish on an edge. There are basically 2 types of edges- a mirror polish for super push cutting (and pooer slicing), and a toothy edge for super slicing (but poorer push cutting). A good sharpening kit will allow you to sharpen the items you need to sharpen, and allow you to do toothy and polished edges.

The Edge Pro stuff is a very versatile rig and takes out the angle control factor from the equation. Also, you can adjust the angle quite a bit.

What you have to do is decide how much you are willing to spend and of the gear you sellect allows you to sharpen what you need. A sharpmaker and a large coarse stone will be half the cost of an edge pro, IIRC. This will allow you to very quickly sharpen small and long blades, recurved blades, serrated blades, scizzors, axes, etc. You even get 2 angle choices with the new sharpmaker- 30 degrees and 40 degrees. reprofiling an edge (making it thinner) is easy, fast, and doesn't take a lot of skill. You just hold the knife at an angle between 10 and 15 degrees and scrub away in large circles. In no time you'll raise a solid burr. Then you flip the knife and do it again on the other side, raising a burr again. Then you'll have a veery rough primary edge grind with an included angle of less than 30 degrees. Now say you want to sharpen 1 knife to do a lot of slicing, and 1 for push cutting. For the slicer, you'd sharpen on the 30 degree setting with the grey stone one one side only, until you get a burr. THis will take just a few seconds since your primary edge bevel was ground thin. Then you switch to the other side and sharpen until you raise a burr again. Then you do a dozen alternating strokes, going with lighter pressure until you hit the last stroke. DONE! THe actual sharpmaker step will take maybe one minute. Touchups thereafter only require a bunch of alternating strokes on the grey rods. For the push cutter, you'd do the above but then go to the white stones as well. TO improve things even more, you can make a strop. A scrap piece of wood with scrap leather from a leather goods maker contact cemented to it makes a great strop! Get the green strop compound from Lee Valley Tools and your strop will last you decades.

Technique is more important than any equipment, though good equipment helps. Don't think that you have to spend a lot of money on sharpening gear. However, just make sure that the gear you are going to buy will sharpen all of the things you want sharpened, and will do it for a price that you can afford.

Good luck.
 
Wow thanks for the replies. The EdgePro unfortunately makes my slim student wallet very vERY unhappy, so I probably will get something cheaper. Mostly I will use the knife for push cuts, cutting paper, newspaper articles, opening letters, wowing friends, quick-fixes for bed-head, tomatos ;), oranges, and maybe the occasional shave if I ever get the guts to do it. The Spyderco only allows 30 and 40 degree bevels? So it would be impossible for me to sharpen say..this beauty
piranhatri.jpg
which has a 17 degree bevel? Any knife I sharpen wouldn't be used for cutting anything harder than cardboard so I don't think edge strength is an issue.

Does this change anything or does the recommendation still stand at Spyderco?
 
I would say that I think the Lansky is the cheaper brother of the Edgepro. It has a 17 degree angle on it also. However you could always prop up the end of the Sharpmaker to also match the knife's angle. The Lansky is about as much trouble to set up as tieing your shoes, pretty difficult for some I guess.. With any system you due end up getting there are tricks and a little learning you will find. it really helps to understand how to sharpen no matter what system you decide on a good first read is the sharpening FAQ here on this site. Also do a google search on sharpening you'll learn alot. Not sure of spelling but Steve Bartoff has a great one.
 
Is that 17 included, or 17 degrees per side?

The 30 and 40 degrees on the Spydie sharpener are included angles- 15 and 20 per side. Assuming 17 degrees of angle per side, that knife is at a 34 degree angle. The 15 degree rods wouldn't touch the very edge, but the 40 degree setting would. Of course, as I said, you could thin out the bevel on that knife and then the 30 degree setting would be fine. If you are just concerned about that knife right now and you want to make your bucks stretch, go buy one sheet of 60 grit wet/dry paper and a sharpmaker. That will reprofile the edge and sharpen it to a hair popping edge in a jiffy.

Good luck!
 
17 degrees per side I believe. The Spyderco is looking very appealing, but the Lansky Standard package is around HALF its price at NGK! Maybe I'll give my wallet a few weeks rest and try again ;)
 
If you are down to the Lansky and the Sharpmaker because of your budget, please do yourself a favor and get the Sharpmaker! The Lansky really IS a pain to use. Here's WHY:

To sharpen a knife with the Lansky you have to clamp a jig to the back of the blade to hold the guide rods. It's sometimes tough to get the clamp tightened down right (I broke one of the screws trying to get it to hold tight) and it will scratch your blade (unless you wrap the end of the clamp with tape - but then the problem is that it won't hold the blade worth a crap with all the tape on it) Ok, after you get the clamp on the blade, you screw one of the stones onto a guide rod and put the guide rod through one of the holes in the clamp assembly. With me so far? Ok... now the trick is that you have to hold this whole contraption as steady as you can, including the knife! (it was VERY awkward to me) and try to grind the stone along the edge to create the edge bevel. Then you work up through progressive grits to make the edge finer. You can buy a stand to hold the clamp assembly to make it a lot easier. Without the stand, it was really a pain to clamp all that stuff together and hold it steady while trying to work the stones.

With the Sharpmaker, you set up the rods and run the knife's edge down them alternating sides. That's about it. Easy huh?!

When I first got my Lansky, I thought it was pretty good - it got knives sharp, but it was still more work than I wanted to put in. After I got my Sharpmaker, I threw my Lansky in the bottom of the closet and haven't touched it since. (If I hadn't bought a Sharpmaker, I'd still use the Lansky. It's just a lot of fuss for what you get.)

The only thing the Lansky does that the Sharpmaker doesn't is reprofiling. (with the new Spyderco diamond rods, I'm sure it will even do that now) I have been in your shoes before, and I would strongly advise you to get some kind of coarse stone to reprofile with (learn how to sharpen freehand - well) and get a Sharpmaker.

But... hey if the Lansky works for ya, more power to ya!



:D
 
i only have the lansky system
find it troublesome to setup too
it worked pretty well to reprofile my cs kobun
but i decided to use my dmt diafold and a ceramic stick for my sharpening
 
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