Noob with Work Sharp Ken Onion edition sharpener

R

Ralph Penza

Joined
Mar 9, 2021
Messages
3
Hi all,

I recently got the WSKOE and I'm struggling. I've been using a Chef's Choice 300 electric sharpener for years so all my knives are trained to whatever angle that uses - I can't find any info on that unit's angle.

So I'm using 20deg as suggested and for the life of me, I can't get a burr. I can get the knife sharp where it cuts through paper well, but when I slice veggies, it doesn't cut as well as I'd expect.

I've run my knife through the second coarsest strap a ton of times to get the burr to no avail. Should I use the more coarse belt? Or change the angle?

Thanks in advance!
 
I would take a.knife that I wouldn't mind trashing. And keep on a coarse grit until you get a bur on one side. Repeat on the other side. Finer grits create much smaller burs. So taking a knife to a higher grit will make it easier to get rid of the bur. It's a learning curve like anything else.
 
There could also be other issues with the knife's design inhibiting its performance as a kitchen knife what is the knife(or knives) you're trying to sharpen on it?
 
PirateSeulb said:
There could also be other issues with the knife's design inhibiting its performance as a kitchen knife what is the knife(or knives) you're trying to sharpen on it?
Click to expand...

I figured I would do all the knives since I got the WSKO. My chef's knife is 8" and lower quality. I don't even remember where I got it or how old it is. I'm willing to use that one as my guinea pig. I have some "decent" knives that are either Wustoff or Henkel. Nothing too expensive, probably got them at Bed Bath and Beyond, lol. Of those, there's a 6" suntoku, a 6" that's like a chef's knife just smaller, and a 4" pairing knife. I have a Dexter boning knife that's cheap, but had good reviews.

I think I'll go ahead and order a high quality chef's knife in the meantime, but definitely want to figure out the WSKO; and as I said, I'll just use my current chef's knife as my practice one before trying again w/ the other knives.

Thanks again for the feedback, let me know if anything I've written gives you other ideas
 
Bill3152 said:
I would take a.knife that I wouldn't mind trashing. And keep on a coarse grit until you get a bur on one side. Repeat on the other side. Finer grits create much smaller burs. So taking a knife to a higher grit will make it easier to get rid of the bur. It's a learning curve like anything else.
Click to expand...
I 2nd this. I made a couple into recurves I didn't want.
 
Welcome to BF-
I followed the cardboard cheat-sheet that came with mine after watching some tubes, couple dozen knives later I understand why so many non-knife folks love theirs. I progressed from cheap to nice knives, going thru stock belt kit, plus 8k after-market strop. Used a lighted magnifier and analyzed pics to see edges/burrs along the way. I always use a very light touch, focusing on drawing blade thru trying for extreme handling consistency.
I'm waiting for dulling so I can play with after-market belts and the guide removed. Removing the thumbstud helps for some pocket knives.
 
O, forgot, While turned off, put angle finder on blades in your old sharpener to guesstimate angle. I used an old iPod with a few angle finder apps, free to cheap, to get angles for 3 settings on my knife sharpener, within a couple degrees probably.
 
Update - I adjusted the angle to 17deg and was able to get a burr. Part of my problem may have been not realizing how subtle the burr is. I can’t really feel it with my thumb, but I can by dragging my thumbnail over it. So now I have a much better edge on there, but I still think it could be sharper. Maybe not due to it being a mediocre knife, but we’ll see. I ordered a Shun Premiere 8” so I’ll finally have a real big boy knife, lol. I also emailed the company that makes the electric sharpener I’ve been using for years to see what angle that unit is set to. Hopefully that will take the guess work out of the rest of the knives.

Thanks and I’ll keep ya posted if any new revelations occur
 
With a the added freedom of the WorkSharp you can work to really redo the whole edge to your liking another tip that I know freehand and other guided sharpeners have is using a Sharpie to give a visual aid to know what has and has not been done on the edge.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top