Pull through sharpeners?

IMO, no.
Most of them that i've seen actually widen the bevel making the knife more dull. I'd just get a cheap bench stone and start on that
 
Mostly no. The one exception is the ERU (Edge Renewal Utility) by forum member Fred Rowe. Bethelridgeforge.com

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Mike
 
For people that buy their kitchen knives at the super market and keep them in a pile in a drawer, sure.
 
Joe Kidd said:
Are any worth a crap?
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Not again!

Do a search and you find excellent reviews/analysis, particularly by Fred Rowe (ERU as mentioned above) and by HeavyHanded who took the time to use one, take it apart, fine tunes it and gives us some insight how and why they work the way they do.
 
Well, contrary to everyone else's opinion, I use a miniature Lansky pull through sharpener that has carbide and ceramic sticks. I never use the carbide to sharpen, only the ceramic sticks. After a few passes with the Lansky (approx. $3) I finish up with a leather strop. The knife becomes incredibly sharp and without the negative results as aforementioned in previous posts.
 
frankster said:
Well, contrary to everyone else's opinion, I use a miniature Lansky pull through sharpener that has carbide and ceramic sticks. I never use the carbide to sharpen, only the ceramic sticks. After a few passes with the Lansky (approx. $3) I finish up with a leather strop. The knife becomes incredibly sharp and without the negative results as aforementioned in previous posts.
Click to expand...

The carbide inserts are usually the source of most trouble (and deserved scorn) on the typical pull-throughs, having more to do with their hard-edged shape, like scissor's edges, and how that configuration simultaneously focuses pressure on each side of a blade's edge to sharply 'pinch' and tear the edge as it's drawn through, leaving the edge weakened, tattered and 'wavy'. At the crudest level, it 'works' in the sense that it strips metal away to reshape the edge, but has a lot of potential to leave a damaged mess in doing so; even more damage left, if pressure is too heavy. The new 'edge' is left in a weakened condition (it's more of a coarse burr than an 'edge'), and might be sharp; but the weakened steel will not support a sharp edge for long, necessitating resharpening at a much more frequent interval than would be needed if using less damaging tools (stones, V-crock, etc).

Assuming the ceramic inserts are the round rod-type, they're not as potentially damaging as the scissor-configured carbide inserts, because they don't have the same tendency to pinch and tear the edge. Same could be said for the pull-throughs which include round rod diamond inserts.

(The notable exception of the ERU, mentioned earlier, doesn't orient the carbide inserts in the same hard-edged 'scissor' fashion as the other run-of-the-mill pull-throughs, but instead keeps wider, flat carbide faces on each side in contact with the blade's bevels. Configured as such, it won't have the same tendency to 'pinch' or tear a blade's edge, and consequently won't damage it like the scissor-edged configuration can.)


David
 
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As the maker of the ERU let me add a bit to the discussion. David's observations are correct; the reason the ERU works as it does, to leave an even aligned edge, is the time thats taken to position the carbides in the tool face and the accuracy with which they are set. The carbides are mounted in the CNC machined "T" slots using a two step epoxy technique. After they dry in place over night the faces of the carbides are lapped using a diamond plate and a positioning block, the result is two matching abrading surfaces that are both true, relative to each other, as well as angle correct within a 1/4 degree. Yes its that accurate.
Used in conjunction with its alignment pin this sharpener leaves a beautifully polished and straight cutting edge.

The ERU, like most inventing is about; the advancement of an idea to the point where it becomes not only useful but a true advancement.

Regards and thanks for posting your observations guys, Fred
 
Joe Kidd said:
Are any worth a crap?
Click to expand...
That is not the question you should be asking :) (more on questions at end)

I've got an accusharp (carbide slot gadget),
a few rapala and other crock sticks (ceramic slot gadget)...
to me they've been mostly useless.
They're all difficult to use, don't fit all knives , dont contact whole edge, blade near handle always doesn't get contact
and even when you're using everything correctly, the best results aren't all that great, barely printer paper slicing
Sure when you bang knives on metal plates, and the edge gets all dinged rolled, they restore cutting ability ... like a smooth steel, but so could the plate that dulled the knives

I bought a stone in december, I got printer paper slicing in about 5 seconds just by winging it ~30 dps
Way better than I could get with any of the slot gadgets

Except for the really thin fillet knives, most of the knives (kitchen and folder) are just too thick for these slot gadgets to do anything, even reach the apex

Read more about it here Knife sharpening with slot devices

Who buys this stuff? People who aren't tool people, people with dull knives who don't know what to do, never even watched anyone sharpen anything :)
they never see bench stones/sharpening stones in the stores, they see this slot gadgets ... this is who buys this stuff

Now the question that you should ask, is how much do your knives cost?
How much does a slot gadget cost?
How much does a decent bench stone cost?
Do you use a chef steel and do you want a tiny chef steel?
Have you ever sharpened anything before?
Are you looking for a pocket gadget or a home/kitchen/workshop gadget?

So, if you use a chef steel, a slot gadget could be used like that ... but its not as easy to use as a chef steel, and can easily cost the same chef steel

My slot gadgets are $1, $3, $6, $11 , mostly a waste of money, even for cheap kitchen knives ( under $5 a piece, some $10)

For $7 tax included I bought 6 inch Norton Economy sharpening stone at home depot
Much easier to use than slot gadgets and does things slot gadgets can't
you can pick any angle you want, and its silicon carbide so you can use it pretty much on any kind of steel, S30V/VG10...whatever

I can now (with aid of paper wedge/triangle angle guide) get sharp enough to shave some hairs off my arm

Now slot gadgets do fit in a pocket ... but so does sandpaper or pocket stones, pocket diamond
... there is even $1/$3/$4 stones for sale out there (aluminumoxide and silicon carbide)

Get a cheap stone and try sharpening, you'll realize slot gadgets are way too limited
 
I also destroyed knife edges with carbide pull throughs. I bought the ERU to throw in the RV for camping but found that it works so well it needed to stay in my kitchen.
 
The best tool is the one you have in your hand. I have countless stones (water. oil, diamond, etc.) from several countries, strops, compounds and the like, but I can still put a hair shaving edge on my field knife with a SharpNEasy (ceramic) when I need too. I love the stones, something relaxing about them ... but sometimes you have to do what you have to do. A few passes on a leather strop (or belt, if necessary) and my hairy arms doesn't care where it was sharpened .. they pop. YMMV
 
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Edgemaker pro works pretty well. With a little practice and a light touch, it can sharpen silverware drawer dull steak knives to a really decent steak cutting edge in under a minute. That said, it's still not going to be perfect polished, but quite usable. I bought mine after reading how well they do serrated edges (which they do very well) and was surprised how well they do at rescuing typical junk drawer knives. Did up some Henckels steak knives that took quite an edge. Easy with the blue course one. It's pretty dang aggressive. The orange and yellow ones are all most would need.
 
I have one that I use the carbide portion on my new Cold Steel machetes, to remove the burrs, and even up the edge grinds a little bit. It is not used on any other knife.
I guess Cold Steel does not consider a machete a knife. The three I have were almost as sharp as a brick, out of the box. So much for "the world's sharpest ... knives ..."
 
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