Pros / Cons of WorkSharp for sharpening Spyderco folders?

seem to work well if careful BUT I saw one blade messed up by accidentally hogging off too much metal.
 
HUGE con - As stated above, if you don't pay extremely close attention it is easy to wear a blade down quickly and ruin it. :eek: Fortunately it was a cheapie test blade and not a nice one.

Been there, done that, and took the sharpener back for a refund. I now use a Sharpmaker and strop and couldn't be happier.
 
I haven't used mine on any spyderco's, or hardly any folder for that matter, but I've put the sharpest edges I've ever had on every fixed blade I own. No reason it wouldn't work on folders, just haven't got to them yet. I've used a Sharpmaker for a while, and am still attempting to learn to freehand sharpen well, but I'm a big fan of the ken onion work sharp.
 
My father got one o few years ago and i have spent a lot of time with it. As others have said, it is really easy to get carried away and remove way more steel than necessary, and even ruin a blade. If you are careful it is a good tool and I use it for sharpening kitchen knives and other blades I don't want to spend too much time with. For my nicer folders I don't find it necessary or worth the risk of rounding points and wasting steel. That's nothing specific to this particular belt sander, it's just my thought on using any belt sander when it comes to sharpening folders. Get some diamond rods for that sharpmaker and you will have all your spydercos whittling hair in short order.
 
I only use my Ken Onion WorkSharp on my large fixed blades, or anything I deem too large for the SharpMaker or EdgePro.
For fixed blades, especially "camp knife" type blades or "choppers", it works like a dream.
 
I got the Ken Onion version for Christmas. Was hesitant to use it on my brand new PM2 and Chaparral until I finally went for it yesterday. Previously practiced on all the kitchen knives and Cold Steel "collection".

As long as one follows the instructions and STOPS belt movement before the tip is ~1/2 way across the belt, the tip of the blade will remain pointy. I made just two passes with the 80 grit belt on my Spydies (angle set at 20 degrees per side) and then several passes with the other belts (skipped the 6000 grit, as I found it actually DULLED the other knives a bit).

It does put a nice clean "concave" edge on the blades, but not a the beautiful beveled edge that I see in so many photos here.....but I gotsta tell ya, I had NO idea what a "hair popping edge" was until last evening.....both of these Spydies make hair POP off my arm, effortlessly. Like a barbers straight razor! Per the manufacturer, the concave edge is supposed to be longer lasting?? It does carve through wood, plastic and cardboard with almost no effort, and I can still shave hair with both knives (CPM S30V and CTS-XHP).

I will likely still purchase a Sharpmaker some day, but I know from 50 years experience that I absolutely SUCK at getting any semblance of sharpness from any knife I've ever tried to sharpen on any "stone" or other knife sharpening contraption.

So, if you are like me, and can be sort of careful with power tools, I would recommend the Work Sharp, I am sold on the thing, for now.
 
Surfingringo said:
Get some diamond rods for that sharpmaker and you will have all your spydercos whittling hair in short order.
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LOL the set of Spyderco diamond rods is going into the Amazon cart as we speak... Will get that damn (but beautiful) Sage 1 sharp yet lol :-)
 
RevDevil said:
I'd browse the section related to sharpening for more information. You would likely get more answers from a wider variety of members.
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/forumdisplay.php/794-Maintenance-Tinkering-amp-Embellishment
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Thanks, will check that forum section out as well, may post a separate WorkSharp KO question there from a more general perspective...

My main focus for this question is for my Spyderco folders (they keep multiplying lol). So was hoping to hear specifically from folks with Spydercos about their experiences, be they good or bad, with the WorkSharp for their Spyderco folders. Some helpful feedback rolling in too...

Thanks!
Dan
 
Never liked the Worksharp but the blade grinding attachment looks interesting..anyone tried it?

work_sharp_ken_onion_blade_grinding_attachment_1394374_3.jpg
 
DansGunBlog said:
Thanks, will check that forum section out as well, may post a separate WorkSharp KO question there from a more general perspective...

My main focus for this question is for my Spyderco folders (they keep multiplying lol). So was hoping to hear specifically from folks with Spydercos about their experiences, be they good or bad, with the WorkSharp for their Spyderco folders. Some helpful feedback rolling in too...

Thanks!
Dan
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Hey Dan, I will second Revdevils advice. There is a lot of knowledge floating around in that subforum and folks are very helpful. You will get a lot of good tips if you ask a few sharpening questions there.
 
And tape your blades before running them through the angle guides unless you want scratches. :rolleyes:
 
Barman1 said:
And tape your blades before running them through the angle guides unless you want scratches. :rolleyes:
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I have the KO Sharpmaker. I'm like other posters. I've sharpened a couple of paring knives and medium size kitchen knives.

I used it on 1 older Spydie and a Lahar. I scratched the blades a little, but I know why I scratched them.

Like others said I won't use them on my high end knives.:eek:
 
If it were me I would get a different option, like others have said you need to be careful about metal removal, but also overheating the edge and raising a huge burr are some pretty big concerns that cant really be avoided with power sharpeners, those things severely weaken your edge. I have considered the worksharp since it would be nice for really fast sharpening of bigger fixed blades but decided against it for the reasons above. I use an edge pro apex and sharpmaker, it does everything I could need, with a little skill you can sharpen big blades on it no problem too, and you are in complete control of how much metal you remove, burr minimizing etc. Just my two cents.
 
Any power device always removes more metal than needed. I tried out one at Bass, it's too easy to take off metal and a mistake could goober up your blade.

I have had 2 custom knives sharpened by their makers both were sharpened with power equipment and had a noticeable amount of metal removed. One of the knife makers was an ABS master smith. In both cases, I believe I would have done it better by hand.

Case and Buck also removed more metal than needed. My knives were sent in for repair, not sharpening (now I request for the blade not to be sharpened, just repaired). Case slightly re-profiled the the tip, probably because they snicked it a little sharpening it on a power tool.

I've been to the Randall shop and they put their final edge on a knife by hand using a large stone. It appears they do it for good reason.

I don't think the WorkSharp would work for spyderedge blades. :)
 
Any power device CAN remove more metal than needed.

Just used my new Ken Onion WorkSharp on my brand new PM2, Native and Chaparral (and my trusty old Kershaw and a couple of CS's).....beautiful convex edges on all of 'em in less than an hour, with very little "metal removal". Edges that pop hair from my arm and slice through cardboard like butter.

I'm using it freehand, sans blade guide, so no scratches on the edges of my blades.

YMMV.
 
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