Relatively affordable sharpening systems?

Comeuppance

Comeuppance

Fixed Blade EDC Emisssary
Joined
Jan 12, 2013
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I've hand-sharpened the entire time I've had knives. While I can typically get a hair-popping edge, it takes good lighting and a lot of time. It's not super consistent, either - some days I can get an edge so sharp that it beats utility knife blades, and some days I can barely get 'em to shave. It's frustrating, has been known to keep me up at night, and I think it's time to automate it.

I'm looking for something akin to the edge pro or wicked edge, but I certainly don't have $300 to drop on a sharpening system. The KME is much more in my price range, but I can't find very many trustable reviews of it ( most seem to be worded like sales pitches. My suspicions are high :P )

I'm really not looking for a Sharpmaker style system - my hands have a natural tremor, and those kinds of systems have proved to be just as inconsistent as hand-sharpening for me.

So, any suggestions? I could probably swing 150 at most towards such a system.
 
If you are not opposed to powered sharpening, you could get the work sharp belt sander with angle guide. No clamps and your tremor should not cause any issues.
 
I'd much prefer manual - I live in an apartment, and there's something kinda zen about manual sharpening.
 
DMT aligner? you can use the clamp as an angle guide with a flat surface and your stones
 
I'd stick with hand sharpening if I were you. Even with some tremors, the beauty of a hand honed edge is convex doesn't have to be perfect like a v-grind. As long as you are hitting the edge apex, it will get sharp. Just experiment with different sharpening medias. That's what I did. Now I mostly just use sandpaper and leather (loaded) strops.
 
I'll have to consider the DMT, but with a little bit of reading, I'm seeing a lot of quality control issues in the reviews. It's cheap enough that I could replace it 10 times before I hit the cost of the KME, but the KME seems more robust overall and built to last. I wish the grits on the stones were higher, but apparently one can switch 'em out (ironically) with the DMT stones.

I'm leaning towards the KME at the moment. Thank you very much for the link, Ohallum :)
 
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