Need advice on sharpeners.....

Joined
Aug 24, 2004
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I can't decide if I should buy a Lansky deluxe or a Spyderco Sharpmaker. Which is the easiest to use or should I say the easiest to understand! I would like to try something different than my old whetstone. Any help would be appreciated.
 
I've had one of the Lansky-type sharpeners and absolutely hated it. The Sharpmaker takes about 2% more skill to use, but is much faster to set up, and you don't worry about scratching your blades with the little clamp thingie. Granted that you have more grit options with the Lansky, but you can work your way around limited grit selection with the Sharpmaker.

If you do a search on "Sharpmaker", you'll find that almost every time this same question is asked, the Sharpmaker wins out.
 
I use a combination of a whetstone and a Sharpmaker. I use the whetstone to thin the edge and do my rough sharpening and the Sharpmaker to finish the job. It is not only neat and reliable, the ceramic puts on a particularly sharp edge.
 
They are two entirely different systems. The Sharpmaker is designed to maintain the blade edge. The Lansky can reprofile the edge angle and maintain the edge. Many knife's edge angle out of the box do not match the angle of the sharpmaker. It will take you all day to rebevel the edge to the sharpmakers preset angle on a high quality steel blade. Been there, done that. You need both systems. Before I got an Edgepro, I used the Lansky diamond system to set the angle and then the sharpmaker to keep it sharp.
 
I agree with Hawaiian.

Only thing I would add is that the Sharpmaker is designed to work with blades that have a 15 or 20 degree bevel.

If your knives all happen to have one of these two angles.......great.
If not, then you will not be sharpening but re profiling and the Sharpmaker is not the best re profile tool in the world.
 
I'm with Hawaiin as well. I bought these Sharpening systems in the following order:

Lansky, Gatco (similar to a Lanksy), Edgepro Professional, Sharpmaker 204.

If I were to do it again I'd only buy the Edgepro and the Sharpmaker. The Edgepro is much easier to use (more comfortable and precise) than the Lansky system. I also find it cuts much faster making reprofiling go much faster. Once I have thinned out the edge with the Edgepro, say going 15 degrees per side, I then put on a 20 degree per side micro-bevel with the Sharpmaker. From this point I can easily touch up my 20 degree per side edge any time I want with very little effort.

If I were to touch it up on the Edgepro I'd have to set it all up, set the guide, set the angle, get the stones wet, etc. It's a lot of work to just touch up an edge.

With the Sharpmaker I just leave the white stones set up in the 40 degree position (40 degree total, 20 per side) and give my knives a few swipes and they are shaving sharp everytime.

If I could only have one it would have to be the Edgepro because I'd rather go through all the work to touch up an edge rather than try and reprofile a new knife on the Sharpmaker.

If your budget allows, get both. :) You may not need the Edgepro Pro model though, I just figured I'd go all out instead of settling on the Edgepro Apex.
 
The Sharpmaker is a great choice. I have very good results with it. If you need to reprofile the blade, Spyderco also offers diamond stones (or better call them files) to match the 204. Not to mention that you may optionally get yourself a set of ultra fine stones for a perfect finish.
Speaking for my part, I found the regular gray and white stones of the 204 more than satisfying.
 
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