Need to Upgrade my Basic Lansky…What Hones to Add?? Advice Please.

N

Nalapombu

Joined
Oct 26, 2001
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303
Hey all.

I have the BASIC Lansky system. It’s more than 20 years old. I’ve been sharpening a few of my knives and I am finding that the coarse and medium stones take forever to get a burr. I have to stop and use a brass brush to “clean” the surface up from all the accumulation of metal particulates. It’s just a hassle when you have to start with the coarse stone to set the edge at what you want so I can know where to start in the future when I just need to touch up the edge.

Lansky has Diamond and all sorts of additional hones that can be added. I don’t know which ones would be most beneficial and give me the best results. I know I want the coarse Diamond and prolly the medium as well. After that, I don’t know which ones would be good to have. Maybe one to finish the edge with that’s better than the fine red stone in the blue holder I use now.

Maybe I should look to another system like the Work Sharp. I’m not a sharpening nut, I just like to have a sharp knife and I get a certain satisfaction at being able to put a great edge on a full knife. I just want to be able to do it better.

I don’t know how much the Work Sharp system with the 3 separate hones costs, or how much the Lansky Diamond kit costs, but the individual Diamond hones from Lansky are about $20 each. It wouldn’t take too many additions to put you at the cost for a whole new system.

What do you all think?

Any and all advice is appreciated.

Thank you kindly for your time and help.

BD.
 
Nalapombu said:
Hey all.

I have the BASIC Lansky system. It’s more than 20 years old. I’ve been sharpening a few of my knives and I am finding that the coarse and medium stones take forever to get a burr. I have to stop and use a brass brush to “clean” the surface up from all the accumulation of metal particulates. It’s just a hassle when you have to start with the coarse stone to set the edge at what you want so I can know where to start in the future when I just need to touch up the edge.

Lansky has Diamond and all sorts of additional hones that can be added. I don’t know which ones would be most beneficial and give me the best results. I know I want the coarse Diamond and prolly the medium as well. After that, I don’t know which ones would be good to have. Maybe one to finish the edge with that’s better than the fine red stone in the blue holder I use now.

Maybe I should look to another system like the Work Sharp. I’m not a sharpening nut, I just like to have a sharp knife and I get a certain satisfaction at being able to put a great edge on a full knife. I just want to be able to do it better.

I don’t know how much the Work Sharp system with the 3 separate hones costs, or how much the Lansky Diamond kit costs, but the individual Diamond hones from Lansky are about $20 each. It wouldn’t take too many additions to put you at the cost for a whole new system.

What do you all think?

Any and all advice is appreciated.

Thank you kindly for your time and help.

BD.
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Depending on how much you want to spend you may want to look into getting a Hapstone R2 and the fine tuning adapter.

I know for me I used to have a Lansky and a KME and when I went to a guided system that used edge format stones that was a game changer for me as far as the sharpness of my edge's and also how fast I could sharpen with longer stones.

https://www.gritomatic.com/products/hapstone-r2-standard-knife-sharpener

https://www.gritomatic.com/collections/hapstone-accessory/products/fine-tuning-adapter-for-hapstone
 
I essentially learned sharpening using a basic Lansky set like that. Mine is probably ~ 25+ years old - I bought it back in the mid-1990s or so, and even then, I'm not sure it wasn't already a few years old.

If staying with the Lansky system, adding an XC or Coarse diamond hone to your set can speed things up. After using my basic set for some time, I'd supplemented it with a Medium diamond hone. That was an improvement for profiling steels like S30V - but I could've used a Coarse or XC to better advantage.

The standard hones in the basic Lansky set at the time I bought mine were prone to severe glazing if they were used with very wear-resistant steels like S30V. In attempting to reprofile a fairly thick blade in S30V using that set, I basically ruined two of the standard hones - they dished and also became very glazed - so they stopped grinding almost entirely.

The downside to using any of the Lansky hones is that they are very small (4" x 1/2") and therefore much slower in big grinding jobs, no matter the abrasive type used. Sets like these are best suited to simple maintenance and touch-up sharpening. They will always be relatively slow and struggle to some extent, if used for big grinding or reprofiling jobs.
 
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Is a brass brush really sufficient to de-glaze a stone? I would not think so. Flatten it down on some SiC powder, and see how it cuts after that.
 
UncleBoots said:
Is a brass brush really sufficient to de-glaze a stone? I would not think so. Flatten it down on some SiC powder, and see how it cuts after that.
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Glazing of an aluminum oxide stone would definitely need something like SiC to recondition it. Glazing is the polishing of the grit by materials harder than the grit itself, like the vanadium carbides in wear-resistant steels. The only way to fix that is by abrading the grit with something harder and much coarser, to grind the abrasive grit back to it's original or coarser grinding character.

Brass is way too soft to do any good, and would likely just clog the abrasive further.
 
If you are committed to the Lansky system, get the diamond stones immediately. I have used them on all manner of steels with good effect. What made me upgrade to the KME was the choices for further edge finishing and the adjustability of the angle.
 
If you want to stay with the lansky, buy the diamond kit. They’ve upgraded the clamp over the years. Plus it’s cheaper than buying all the stones separately. The diamond kit pretty much gives you everything you need to get a basic sharp edge.

If you want to go the separate route. A must have is the the course, medium and fine diamond hones. Those will handle the job. I added a ceramic hone, yellow handle, for doing touch ups and micro bevels.
 
N Nalapombu For your stone glazing problem you can try Bar Keepers Friend powder in the gold canister to clean out the metal swarf.

To deglaze your aluminum oxide stones you can also use a diamond plate that is around 400 grit,I use an atoma one that I got off ebay from Japan but you can also use a KME Gold Series diamond plate or a DMT diamond plate as well.
 
I have some free Lansky stone holders for aftermarket stones. If you have access to a 3D printer, go ahead and make yourself a set. This will give you more options of stone choices.

www.thingiverse.com

Lansky Sharpener - Upgrades by leadingedge

Lansky Sharpener - Third party Stone/Hone Holders and Leather Strop. UPDATED - 8 September 2021 (See update Log below) I have 6 versions, with more To come in the future. (NOTE - Version "B" of the Files are for printing upside down without the need for supports, and with recessed text) 1 -...
www.thingiverse.com www.thingiverse.com
 
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