Newbie with do it all sharpener question . . .

H

HazenPingree

Joined
Jun 15, 2014
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38
Hi, longtime lurker here, been searching and learning, but I need some direction on this one.

I've been using a Lansky system with moderate success to sharpen my kitchen knives (Wusthoff Classics) and my pocket knives (which tend to be simple tool steel). Recently I've picked up a few Benchmades that have S30V blades, which I understand from you guys are difficult to sharpen.

So my question is, is there a knife sharpener or system that I should pick up that would be good for a newbie like me to handle everything from kitchen knives to S30V folders? Or am I doomed to a fate of sending my folders back to BM?

My complaint with the Lansky on the kitchen knives has been the retention method, as well as hitting the entire blade, down to the choil, but it's very possible that there's user error.

Thanks in advance.
 
Padad24al said:
Spyderco Sharpmaker. Trust me, you will love it.
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Agreed. It will sharpen almost anything. Watch the video, use light pressure, and go slow. I have found the diamond rods help A LOT for setting the edge angle correctly.

And welcome to the forum!
 
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With the diamond rods (S30V will sing, off of these), the Sharpmaker would likely be the best fit for someone starting out, in terms of ease of use.

For me personally, a simple pocketable diamond hone in a 'Fine' grit would likely be my 'one size fits all' sharpener. Diamond will be hard enough for S30V and other vanadium-rich steels, and the Fine grit will keep it from being too aggressive on simpler steels like 1095 or the Wusthof stainless and similar steels. The DMT 'credit card' hones are perfect for my uses, in this context.


David
 
Well yes lansky does make a spyderco sharpmaker deal I forget the name off hand but I do know that it will cost about half as much but I do believe its the same as a sharpmaker just with lanskys name on it, hope this helps
 
The Sharpmaker with diamond stones has excellent potential, but you still have to match the stone angle to the edge angle, and you still have to learn how to raise and remove a burr along both sides of the entire edge. The Sharpmaker is not idiot proof.

Read Sodak's sticky on the micro bevel. That's where the Sharpmaker can really shine.
 
If the bevel on those knives are not even, you will need to reprofile them. I have both the SM and the Lansky and the SM SUCKS for reprofiling. Even if you get the diamond stones, it will still take forever. I'm interested in diamonds for the Lansky for heavy reprofiling for knives with uneven edge angles. Anyone have any experience with these?
 
kershawguy13 said:
If the bevel on those knives are not even, you will need to reprofile them. I have both the SM and the Lansky and the SM SUCKS for reprofiling. Even if you get the diamond stones, it will still take forever. I'm interested in diamonds for the Lansky for heavy reprofiling for knives with uneven edge angles. Anyone have any experience with these?
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The underlined portion above still applies, with the Lansky setup. For HEAVY reprofiling tasks (big and/or very thick blades), it'll still take a long time. The small size of the Lansky hones will be a bigger factor limiting the speed, even with diamond. That's not to say the diamond won't be 'faster' than the standard hones (it is), but it still doesn't guarantee it'll get done quick, when a whole lot of metal has to come off the blade. More so, with high-wear steels like S30V. When it comes to hogging off a lot of steel fast, of any kind, nothing will be faster than a large bench-sized hone (for unpowered sharpening, anyway). For guided re-bevelling, the DMT Aligner clamp & a large diamond bench hone will be much, much faster and easier to use.


David
 
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Obsessed with Edges said:
The underlined portion above still applies, with the Lansky setup. For HEAVY reprofiling tasks (big and/or very thick blades), it'll still take a long time. The small size of the Lansky hones will be a bigger factor limiting the speed, even with diamond. That's not to say the diamond won't be 'faster' than the standard hones (it is), but it still doesn't guarantee it'll get done quick, when a whole lot of metal has to come off the blade. More so, with high-wear steels like S30V. When it comes to hogging off a lot of steel fast, of any kind, nothing will be faster than a large bench-sized hone (for unpowered sharpening, anyway).


David
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The XC diamond for the Lansky is coarser than the SM diamonds.
 
kershawguy13 said:
The XC diamond for the Lansky is coarser than the SM diamonds.
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Still not that fast though, as compared to the SM's rods or any other smaller honing surface. I have a Lansky diamond set, and haven't used the coarser hones much, because they tend to load up very quickly, and they slow down when they do. Again, the smaller 4" x 1/2" size of the hone will be a bigger limitation, more so than the grit used. I never realized how much, until I finally started using a C/F Duo-Sharp (8") from DMT, with the Aligner clamp. A speed difference of perhaps 4X or so, even with the 'finer' grit on the larger hone (30 minutes on the 8" Duo-Sharp, vs 2 hours on the Lansky). The length and width of each pass on the diamond will make the bigger difference.

BTW, I'm not knocking the Lansky; I used two sets (Deluxe and Diamond sets) for quite a while. They work well, with some patience; more so with smaller blades, such as on traditional pocketknives. I learned a lot from using them. BUT, after finally going to a larger bench hone setup, I'd have a hard time going back. :)


David
 
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HazenPingree, are you trying to do your kitchen knives in one pass with the lansky? if so, you will get a wide range of angles with it. I found that its really best to only try to hit about two inches either side of the clamp. so for longer blades, you might need to take two or three bites at it.
The lansky crocksticks (I think) are round, where the sharpmaker rods are triangular which help with surface area, and allow you to do serrations better. Another thing to keep in mind with the sharpmaker, is that you can wrap the sticks with wet/dry auto sandpaper, and get a courser grit for profiling. I've not done it, but other guys here have reported great success.

If you want to keep going on the lansky, the diamond hones do work well. One thing I found when using them is because the surface area is small, they do wear down faster than a larger diamond hone. But as they smooth, they still give a really good edge. So what I would recommend is to just buy the medium hone. As you wear it in, it will start acting finer, (you would still finish with your normal blue and yellow stones) Then its a simple matter of buying another medium for your tough work, and using the older one for finishing. Instead of buying the fine, which will have a lesser lifespan.

Apart from that it comes down to how much you want to spend.
 
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