sharpening with lansky, impossible!?

[biogon]

Ok, I finally give up.

I bought a Lansky sharpening set. (I also tried with DMT hones.)

I can't get the stones to follow the grind of ANY knife I have.

I've tried it on a Buck Strider Mini Spearpoint, Emerson Mini CQC7 tanto, various benchmade and CRKT's.

No matter which hole I use, or how far in I put the blade to the grip, the sharpening angle doesn't match as I get closer to the tip. The flat area directly in front of the clamp is sharpened nicely, but as I go towards the tang or the tip, the angle no longer matches the factory angle.

These are not long blades; the longest I have is a 3.25". The rest are 3" ones. Even if I shift the blade until the tip is directly in line with the clamp (hard because of the swedges), the tip angle is much steeper than the hone wants to sharpen, causing me to flatten out the angle and reprofile the shape of the tip (not to mention taking days to get there.)

Is there a trick to this!?

Thanks.

-Jon

 

[calyth]

Are you trying to sharpen the whole blade without moving the clamp?
Lansky style sharpeners are known to sharpen short knives well, but sometimes you just have to move them to keep a somewhat consistant angle.
The problem is that as soon as the hone is not perpendicular to the knife (well you lie your knife across your fingers if you were to hold the knife on the fingers, and the hone along the fingers), the height of the hone doesn't change, but the distance between the edge being sharpen to the slots on the clamp changes as soon as the angle deviates.
I wouldn't worry too much if the change is not that huge. Also you might not match the angle, because my Gatco set (which is pretty much like a Lansky) doesn't tell me exactly the place to clamp it down (and it's impossible to do so with the different knives). Just put the knife in the clamp as the instruction says, and set the angle to the "sharpness/durability" factor that you want (higher angle, more durable, less razor sharp). If it alters the original grind a bit, I'd say so be it.
My problem to the others is how to sharpen curved edges nicely without parts oversharpen and parts undersharpened.
PS try to avoid changing the grind angle on your tantos.... I screwed up my tanto once by changing the angle

 

[Akwacko]

Biogon,
I feel your pain. I owned the Lansky system and replaced it with an Edgepro. The Edgepro doesn't clamp the knife in one place, therefore I'm able to keep the blade edge perpendicular to the stone as I sharpen. I could get a good edge using the Lansky, but I greatly prefer the Edgepro even at the much higher cost.

Bruce