Sharpmaker / Ken Onion Sharpeners

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missin44

Joined
Nov 25, 2015
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As some of you know I'm looking at a gift for my wifes brother to sharpen high quality kitchen knives with a budget of $300 or less. There were a number of sharpening systems we were looking at, after reading the responses to my previous post I have a couple more questions. We had never heard of the Sharpmaker or Ken Onion. After looking at both my questions:

Sharpmaker
1. It seems this has fixed blade/edge angles. After further investigation said brother has a number of knives, German, Japanese, even US made knives. Many of these knives have different blade/edge angles. It seems to me the Sharpmaker would be limited in this reguard?

Ken Onion
1. While variable in angle, I'm concerned that since this is electric that too much material would be removed causing premature wear?

Thoughts?

Many thanks for very insightful advice
 
The sharpmaker has 2 edge angles. If that is not sufficient for your bother, then he should just use stones.
 
And as far as the premature wear....what was his old sharpener using? Could have been the exact same thing. Or something more aggressive. He seemed to be fine with the guy until he retired.
 
missin44 said:
As some of you know I'm looking at a gift for my wifes brother to sharpen high quality kitchen knives with a budget of $300 or less. There were a number of sharpening systems we were looking at, after reading the responses to my previous post I have a couple more questions. We had never heard of the Sharpmaker or Ken Onion. After looking at both my questions:

Sharpmaker
1. It seems this has fixed blade/edge angles. After further investigation said brother has a number of knives, German, Japanese, even US made knives. Many of these knives have different blade/edge angles. It seems to me the Sharpmaker would be limited in this reguard?

Ken Onion
1. While variable in angle, I'm concerned that since this is electric that too much material would be removed causing premature wear?

Thoughts?

Many thanks for very insightful advice
Click to expand...

Run down a few more threads in this area a blade forums, and you will see a thread talking about kitchen knives and their sharpening.

Comments from me and others that use the WS KO and really like it. Just follow the instructions and it is a great piece of equipment!

Robert
 
First, it is a work sharp sharpener. There are several types, one of which is the Ken Onion version. I own the standard version. And yes, there is the potential to remove too much metal and round the tip. It will take a little practice to make using it as easy as everyone has been saying, at least in my experience. I only use it for big sharpening jobs, reprofiling, or fixing damage. For undamaged home kitchen knives I would never use it unless I was practicing.

Like in your other thread, I don't let my kitchen knives get dull. I touch them up on a ceramic rod regularly, which is essentially what the Sharpmaker does. You can get more coarse stones for it to do more aggressive sharpening or reprofiling as well.

The KO Work Sharp does have more angle options yes, but the SharpMaker has 15 and 20 DPS which I think is more than adequate for kitchen use. If you are sharpening 20-30 knives at a time and do that regularly the KO WS is the way to go. If you are a home cook and just want to keep what you will be using in the moment sharp I would go with the SharpMaker no question.
 
I didn't see the last thread (I don't think?). Was Worksharp Culinary talked about at all?

I wouldn't invest in a Sharpmaker for kitchen knives but I also wouldn't buy the Ken Onion sharpener for that either.
 
bluemetalchurch said:
I didn't see the last thread (I don't think?). Was Worksharp Culinary talked about at all?

I wouldn't invest in a Sharpmaker for kitchen knives but I also wouldn't buy the Ken Onion sharpener for that either.
Click to expand...
Last thread: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads...ening-system-for-kitchen-knives-poll.1540176/

TL;DR: Doesn't sound like the guy wants to free hand (which is what I do). The buyer asked about expensive Consistent Angle Sharpeners. That is a lot of money, time, and setup to sharpen soft kitchen knives. Overkill in many's opinion. The SharpMaker and KO WS were mostly suggested.
 
Don't take the (Ken Onion) Worksharp, have it, hate it.
There are cheap edgepro clones, that fully suffice for the ocasional sharpening; or if you don't like CL, there are russian systems.
If you want to go all out, wicked edge.
Or two Bench Stones; there really are lots of possibilities
 
craytab said:
Last thread: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads...ening-system-for-kitchen-knives-poll.1540176/

TL;DR: Doesn't sound like the guy wants to free hand (which is what I do). The buyer asked about expensive Consistent Angle Sharpeners. That is a lot of money, time, and setup to sharpen soft kitchen knives. Overkill in many's opinion. The SharpMaker and KO WS were mostly suggested.
Click to expand...

I haven't used this but the M3 Kitchen Knife Sharpener by Worksharp Culinary is what I would go with. It'll hone, sharpen, has guides and is 50 bucks.

I agree. I bought the Worksharp Guided System (manual) so that I could get better at freehand. My ultimate goal is to freehand anything I carry/use.
 
SV-97 said:
Don't take the (Ken Onion) Worksharp, have it, hate it.
There are cheap edgepro clones, that fully suffice for the ocasional sharpening; or if you don't like CL, there are russian systems.
If you want to go all out, wicked edge.
Or two Bench Stones; there really are lots of possibilities
Click to expand...
First, don't buy clones. Hurts the hobby immensely. Second, this suggestion doesn't really address the Op. I think he is out on the idea of a clunky consistent angle sharpener and isn't interested in stones.
 
I'd get him a real Edge Pro. You don't have to spend a lot of money all at once. Just get him a basic kit, and let him build upon it.
 
missin44 said:
After further investigation said brother has a number of knives, German, Japanese, even US made knives. Many of these knives have different blade/edge angles. It seems to me the Sharpmaker would be limited in this reguard?
Click to expand...
And just to addressthe edge angle concern, I doubt the angles a vastly different enough from 15-20 dps to make the sharpmaker ineffective.
 
If you are looking at a budget of $300, why not look at something like a Tormek?
 
craytab said:
First, don't buy clones. Hurts the hobby immensely. Second, this suggestion doesn't really address the Op. I think he is out on the idea of a clunky consistent angle sharpener and isn't interested in stones.
Click to expand...
I've recommended some consistent angle ones ;) the russian one(techstudio?)
And I really don't want this thread to derail into the clone discussion; it should be up to the OP, as an adult he'll be able to decide for himself.
 
SV-97 said:
I've recommended some consistent angle ones ;) the russian one(techstudio?)
And I really don't want this thread to derail into the clone discussion; it should be up to the OP, as an adult he'll be able to decide for himself.
Click to expand...
Nope. We don't promote clones here. Period. If you mention promoting clones it will always be an issue. If you don't want to derail then don't do it. This community has an obligation to point out the cloners and how bad it is for said community.

This thread is about the sharpeners he asked about. Not clones or russian ones.
 
A family member who is a chef with a lot of different knives uses diamond hones for sharpening and water stones for finishing. They sharpen both western and Japanese style knives. They use both a Shun Japanese water stone and a Chinese-made natural polishing water stone. Diamonds stones/hones are DMT. I believe the maker Tony Bose likes EZ-lap.
 
brownshoe said:
A family member who is a chef with a lot of different knives uses diamond hones for sharpening and water stones for finishing. They sharpen both western and Japanese style knives. They use both a Shun Japanese water stone and a Chinese-made natural polishing water stone. Diamonds stones/hones are DMT. I believe the maker Tony Bose likes EZ-lap.
Click to expand...

He doesn't want to use stones.
 
I mentioned the idea of the Worksharp Culinary in the last thread.

It is more expensive than the Ken Onion, but it seems to me that it may be easier to use and a better setup for kitchen use. Unfortunately, I have not used one in real life, so can't back it up. Durex, the parent company of worksharp, does have a pretty good reputation, and the few reviews I've seen suggest that it would be a good answer to the OP's question.

I do have both a Sharpmaker and Ken Onion worksharp. Both are great. If you go with the worksharp, just use low speeds and high grit belts, and you should be good to go for touch ups without removing too much materials. Also, I think it's been said elsewhere, practice with a couple of cheap knives.

The sharpmaker has 2 angles (15 and 20 degrees). I sharpen all my kitchen knives to 15, so I haven't had an issue touching up on the sharpmaker. It works best at touch-ups. If you need to go aggressive on the sharpmaker, you can lean/clamp a diamond stone on the rods and use it that way.

From my reading of the OP's original post, I would suggest either the Worksharp Ken Onion with some extra belts (fine), or the Worksharp Culinary. The Worksharp culinary to me seems the easiest for the kitchen, and has some pretty nice features for the price (integrated vacuum, small footprint so you can leave it out on the kitchen counter).
 
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marcinek said:
He doesn't want to use stones.
Click to expand...
It's as if people aren't reading the Op. He is asking very specific questions about the two sharpeners he was recommended in his last thread.

1. Will the sharpmaker be able to handle the possibly different angles on kitchen knives.

2. Does the KO WS. Remove a lot of metal. Could this be a problem.
 
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