Disclaimer: I bought all my sharpening stuff including the Ruixin on my own, none of the items were sponsored. I am no knife nut, don't own many personal knives or multitools, and don't consider myself a knowledgeable fuzzy regarding knife or sharpening topics in any way. This is not a systematic product review but an experience report, share of my thoughts, and presentation of how i do things with it.
Summary: I like the (modded) Ruixin better than any other sub-100$ guided rod sharpening system (GRSS), it satisfies all my needs and expectations as a beginner in the world of knives and sharpening. Now that I am consistently able to re-produce a scary sharp edge on my kitchen chef knife —the easiest of all knives duh— with such little money investment, "20$", it seems unreasonable for me to invest either much more $$$ or much more skill'n sweat just to get my few stuff even sharper. If funds weren't an issue, i would exactly know what to buy to replace my Ruixin eco system with; we all have wishlists, don't we?
Random thoughts and blabla
I always had an interest in guided rod budget sharpening because knowing (and doing) the sharpening of an edge is a highly useful and satisfying skill. Guided rods are more consistent and precise with the sharpening angles, very easy to operate, and why pay more as a beginner in the field? This thing costs 20US$ on ebay including 4 fantastic original whetstones and it taught me a lot, alongside the gain of massive experience, about sharpening in general. By now I really know what i am doing and why and what should be done next, the next step in the sharpening process and how to know if every step was completed successfully. In the end, imho, it comes down to seeing: If every dude saw in real-time and 100x magnified what his passing of the whetstone just did to the edge, he would instantly learn if the edge manipulation has been correct and doesn't need correction; he would take instant control, correct right away, if needed, and reach the desired sharpness without detours. It is imho exactly that, being blind and not seeing in real-time, which is the real reason which makes sharpening so difficult. My portable microscope helped me to see at least in stages; and that's where i learned about progress and failure.
This post can't be about the principles of sharpening (apex, burr, grit progression, burr reduction, burr removal, stropping, polishing), so let's move on to the main product, the (now popular?) 'Ruixin'. I got that version (2015 model? also called 'Ruixin Pro V3' or 'Gen3' or 'III'?) in January 2017 and have been using it since, whenever i do a sharpening session, which is not very often or regularly tbh. What can i say, i've come to love this thing, and yadda yadda bla blah.
It's been 7 months or so since my last notable Ruixin session. In the meantime i didn't do any sharpening but procured accessories for this budget sharpening system and got acquainted with the concept, setup, build/make, and beginner's practice of stropping strops (various sizes, materials, and compounds!) to get myself prepared for the ultimate task: improving the factory edge sharpness of my collector's mint multitools by removing the least amount of steel possible and without scratching up the shiny blades!
Finally, i found the time and motivation and followed through, as planned 7 months ago: in the past days I have successfully sharpened the non-serrated main blades of my LM Surge (polished edge with secondary bevel removed, slightly reprofiled blade shape naturally due to the Ruixin's inherent workings), Vinox SpiritX (arm-hair popping razor-sharp perfect geometrical edge with original angles, symmetric), and Vinox Camper (was a prize gift so i used it for learning and practicing the stropping concept
).
The work on the Surge was a pita and i am glad that i came through, somehow, with my inappropriate sharpening tools including the Ruixin. For starters, one would need sharpening rods (different grits, different materials), which i don't own and don't plan on buying, something like a Spyderco Sharpmaker.
The work on the SpiritX, on the other hand, was much fun, deeply satisfying, easy/fast, without problems or challenges, and led to the sharpest result i ever produced, wow!
And yes, crazy me, i started the SpiritX sharpening process with the Ruixin!! Why? Because the knife edge had grit machining marks on one side near the blade tip, and i preferred to not smooth them out by stropping. And because i wanted to check, if one could use 1 single Ruixin setting (angle, ..) for the SpiritX, knowing that for the Surge one needed omfg 2 different angles on the Ruixin, i.e. my modded Ruixin setup, to match the LM factory bevels.
I do take notes on my smartphone about the Ruixin settings (height of the wing nut, distance of the stainless steel plate, where to place the knife and similar specific comments) of each and every knife which i sharpened on the Ruixin; these notes proved to be very handy for the next sharpening session of the same long kitchen knife, for example.
Sometimes i also use the Ruixin for stropping: i bought balsa wood and glued it on the plastic holders (they are available from Aliexpress for cheap, 4pcs for 3$ iirc), loaded it most easily with compound, and then off i went. Works really(!) great for just removing the burr without any major polishing of the apex. I will definitely recommend the use of ruixin DIY balsa strops, especially for beginners or budgeteers:
Again, last but not least and never mind Lansky, Edge Pro Apex, Ruixin Pro III, or similar, the most important step is the final step, the stropping on a nice size leather strop loaded with an effective stropping paste. I am guessing that mostly 'sharpening beginners' (like myself) are interested and use these low cost sharpeners but they probably ignore or don't know that stropping is more effective, more important and must not be neglected. Alternatively one can use the PTS method for stropping plus polishing the edge.
Btw i also own another Lansky knockoff, distributed by Exduct, horrible build quality. Back at the time it seemed like the best budget system due to the lack of other commercial offers and i spent many effing hours with it, trying to learn about progress and learning failure instead ouch. Never mind. I am so glad that i got the Ruixin. It is fantastic, so much better than Exduct (and Lansky i suppose).
Summary: I like the (modded) Ruixin better than any other sub-100$ guided rod sharpening system (GRSS), it satisfies all my needs and expectations as a beginner in the world of knives and sharpening. Now that I am consistently able to re-produce a scary sharp edge on my kitchen chef knife —the easiest of all knives duh— with such little money investment, "20$", it seems unreasonable for me to invest either much more $$$ or much more skill'n sweat just to get my few stuff even sharper. If funds weren't an issue, i would exactly know what to buy to replace my Ruixin eco system with; we all have wishlists, don't we?
Random thoughts and blabla
I always had an interest in guided rod budget sharpening because knowing (and doing) the sharpening of an edge is a highly useful and satisfying skill. Guided rods are more consistent and precise with the sharpening angles, very easy to operate, and why pay more as a beginner in the field? This thing costs 20US$ on ebay including 4 fantastic original whetstones and it taught me a lot, alongside the gain of massive experience, about sharpening in general. By now I really know what i am doing and why and what should be done next, the next step in the sharpening process and how to know if every step was completed successfully. In the end, imho, it comes down to seeing: If every dude saw in real-time and 100x magnified what his passing of the whetstone just did to the edge, he would instantly learn if the edge manipulation has been correct and doesn't need correction; he would take instant control, correct right away, if needed, and reach the desired sharpness without detours. It is imho exactly that, being blind and not seeing in real-time, which is the real reason which makes sharpening so difficult. My portable microscope helped me to see at least in stages; and that's where i learned about progress and failure.
This post can't be about the principles of sharpening (apex, burr, grit progression, burr reduction, burr removal, stropping, polishing), so let's move on to the main product, the (now popular?) 'Ruixin'. I got that version (2015 model? also called 'Ruixin Pro V3' or 'Gen3' or 'III'?) in January 2017 and have been using it since, whenever i do a sharpening session, which is not very often or regularly tbh. What can i say, i've come to love this thing, and yadda yadda bla blah.
It's been 7 months or so since my last notable Ruixin session. In the meantime i didn't do any sharpening but procured accessories for this budget sharpening system and got acquainted with the concept, setup, build/make, and beginner's practice of stropping strops (various sizes, materials, and compounds!) to get myself prepared for the ultimate task: improving the factory edge sharpness of my collector's mint multitools by removing the least amount of steel possible and without scratching up the shiny blades!
Finally, i found the time and motivation and followed through, as planned 7 months ago: in the past days I have successfully sharpened the non-serrated main blades of my LM Surge (polished edge with secondary bevel removed, slightly reprofiled blade shape naturally due to the Ruixin's inherent workings), Vinox SpiritX (arm-hair popping razor-sharp perfect geometrical edge with original angles, symmetric), and Vinox Camper (was a prize gift so i used it for learning and practicing the stropping concept
).The work on the Surge was a pita and i am glad that i came through, somehow, with my inappropriate sharpening tools including the Ruixin. For starters, one would need sharpening rods (different grits, different materials), which i don't own and don't plan on buying, something like a Spyderco Sharpmaker.
The work on the SpiritX, on the other hand, was much fun, deeply satisfying, easy/fast, without problems or challenges, and led to the sharpest result i ever produced, wow!
And yes, crazy me, i started the SpiritX sharpening process with the Ruixin!! Why? Because the knife edge had grit machining marks on one side near the blade tip, and i preferred to not smooth them out by stropping. And because i wanted to check, if one could use 1 single Ruixin setting (angle, ..) for the SpiritX, knowing that for the Surge one needed omfg 2 different angles on the Ruixin, i.e. my modded Ruixin setup, to match the LM factory bevels.I do take notes on my smartphone about the Ruixin settings (height of the wing nut, distance of the stainless steel plate, where to place the knife and similar specific comments) of each and every knife which i sharpened on the Ruixin; these notes proved to be very handy for the next sharpening session of the same long kitchen knife, for example.
Sometimes i also use the Ruixin for stropping: i bought balsa wood and glued it on the plastic holders (they are available from Aliexpress for cheap, 4pcs for 3$ iirc), loaded it most easily with compound, and then off i went. Works really(!) great for just removing the burr without any major polishing of the apex. I will definitely recommend the use of ruixin DIY balsa strops, especially for beginners or budgeteers:
Again, last but not least and never mind Lansky, Edge Pro Apex, Ruixin Pro III, or similar, the most important step is the final step, the stropping on a nice size leather strop loaded with an effective stropping paste. I am guessing that mostly 'sharpening beginners' (like myself) are interested and use these low cost sharpeners but they probably ignore or don't know that stropping is more effective, more important and must not be neglected. Alternatively one can use the PTS method for stropping plus polishing the edge.
Btw i also own another Lansky knockoff, distributed by Exduct, horrible build quality. Back at the time it seemed like the best budget system due to the lack of other commercial offers and i spent many effing hours with it, trying to learn about progress and learning failure instead ouch. Never mind. I am so glad that i got the Ruixin. It is fantastic, so much better than Exduct (and Lansky i suppose).
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But the total expenses were still under 50$.
. Also relaxing. No sweat. Including the operation of the ruixin balsa wood strops. But then comes the treatment on the leather pad strops: often i would need to stand up for this activity, be focused that my stropping strokes are within the perfect range, and can't let my thoughts wander. There's always some amount of mental concentration needed! Freehand sharpening and freehand stropping are clearly physical activities, body, arms, wrists, mind form a harmonious interplay; your heart rate increases a bit, and some big guys may even start sweating, especially depending on the knife size and the strop size
.
no thanks. with my Ruixin i reach an absolutely precise geometrical edge (microscope) with the full bevel polished to any micron without convexing it. the PTS method it is maybe the key to success why i prefer and can recommend sharpening and stropping Spirit X and Surge on the Ruixin.
