the best sharpener/s

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devilman3

Joined
Oct 28, 2012
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hey guys (and gals) i know it's probably been asked a million x's but what is the best sharpener for expensive knives? i have some benchmade, kershaw, buck, puma, (vintage ones), spyderco, zero tolerance and a few more. while i've been sharpening knives with stones since i was a kid, i am kinda interested in a decent sharpener. is the weps system a good one? I do get a shave sharp result by eyeballing the angle on my arkansas whetstones, i finish with a extra fine translucent stone and a little stropping. But it is a little time consuming since i'm a bit of a perfectionist. any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
 
DMTs sharpening products would be a good place to start.
The DMT Diafold (Course/Extra fine) is compact and takes care of most of my sharpening.
Then, i work with Spyderco's white ceramic stone and finish with a leather strop.
 
any precision sharpener will do as long as you know what your doing.... crap loads of systems out there go with the edge pro apex recommended highly. but you can always buy the higher quality sharpeners from the official websites spyderco makes some superb ones !!! hope this helps
 
If you have the dough, get a wicked edge. If you want something that gets the job done, get a sharpmaker. Simple as that.
 
The EP Apex and the WEPS are both excellent if you have the cash, it's very easy to get an absurd edge.

If you wish to be a purist, waterstones and / or diamond plates are your best bet.

If you just want to get that sucker sharp NOW, a belt grinder and a handful of good belts are your ticket. That's my most commonly-used method, although I have an EP and a WEPS as well for special cases.
 
Thanks for the info. I'll see if someone maybe my wife or kids wants to buy me one for xmas, i've been spending alot on blades lately. I'd like to hear what some good edc blades are, 4" or under preferably assisted, any thoughts? preferably not a liner lock but i'm carrying a bench made 790 now so i could live with it. I could probably spend about 300 without sleeping on the couch :-() Thanks
 
The Edge Pro is great, but for your most expensive knives, you will need to be careful to avoid scratching the blade. I've never had a problem with this, but some have. It's not difficult, just carefully clean the table each time you change a stone or blue tape on the blade. It will get your knives silly sharp.

The Wicked Edge is great and will get your knives at least as sharp as the EP. However, you have to be careful to avoid scratching on this one too. Most use a small square of tape or leather to protect the finish. One thing that some don't like about the WE is that it profiles the bevels at a slightly different angle (maybe 1 degree). Easy enought to accomodate if you are aware of it, but most probably don't even notice it.

As far as I can tell, these are the two premium systems. Unfortunately, they have price tags to match. You won't be dissapointed with the results you get from either.

The other systems mostly perform nearly as well, but with some of them you will need to develop a little more skill.

JMHO,
Allen
 
I think a combination of the DMT big plates...Diasharp, and a Sharpmaker is a pretty potent combination.
 
Agreed, Hoosier.

If you want fast edges without spending a lot of cash or going powered, a DMT extra-coarse diasharp freehanded for the primary bevel, then the Sharpmaker medium and fine rods for a final microbevel will get you an easy, fast, smoothly-armhair-shaving edge on most anything. Won't be a PRETTY edge, since most of the primary bevel will be ground with the DMT and bear the huge scratches from the XC diamonds, but it is certainly quick! I've used that method a few times, mostly because that particular setup is amazingly transportable.
 
Pretty hard to beat a belt for getting the job DONE, Bigmark.

I use my Kalamazoo more than any of my other sharpening gear, honestly. I love being able to swap from 40-grit for grinding a new tip on a knife that's got an inch gone, to stropping on leather with half-micron compound to finish another knife's edge in ten seconds or less.
 
Komitadjie said:
Pretty hard to beat a belt for getting the job DONE, Bigmark.

I use my Kalamazoo more than any of my other sharpening gear, honestly. I love being able to swap from 40-grit for grinding a new tip on a knife that's got an inch gone, to stropping on leather with half-micron compound to finish another knife's edge in ten seconds or less.
Click to expand...

I agree, Jerry Hossom was the one that got me into belts .... I rarely use grits unless i have damage, the leather belt with a couple compounds keeps'em sharp as hell.
 
Same here, actually. Between Jerry Hossom, a fellow named Doug Rising, and one other fellow.

I actually use grit a fair bit, although mostly extremely fine stuff (Trizact A16 and lower), followed by 1u boron carbide on leather. I'm considering going to 4.5u CBN on linen, though, it has a great reputation.
 
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