What LANSKY Hones Do You Have and Use?

N

Nalapombu

Joined
Oct 26, 2001
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Hey all,

A while back I picked up a Lansky basic kit with the Green, Red and Blue hones. I think those are the Coarse, Medium and Fine hones. I bought it because I have never been able to sharpen anything and thought this system would solve that problem. I needed to be able to sharpen all my dull knives AND sharpen by broadheads and get them as sharp as possible.

I had decent results with the system, but not shaving sharp. Maybe I wasn't paying close enough attention to what I was doing.

Anyway, the other day I watched a video of a guy going through the proper way to use the Lansky and now I think I need to pick up another hone to complete the system and get the results I am looking for. In this video he finished up with the YELLOW or Ultra Fine hone, which I don't have. I checked out their website and they sell all kinds of accessory hones. In addition to the YELLOW one they also have a Light Blue one that is the FINE SAPPHIRE hone.

So now I need to pick up a finishing hone to get that razor edge on my broadheads. Should I get the YELLOW Ultra Fine or the Light Blue Ultra Fine Sapphire hone? Or is there another one I should get to finish things off? What do you use and recommend?

I have also been told to pick up a GATCO stone in Medium and just use that for all my chores. What do you think of those hones?

What would you recommend that I add to my LANSKY system to complete it?

Thanks for your help and time.

Nala
 
Nala,
Welcome the edge. I had a Lansky with the Yellow handle, I believe it was a white stone. It was for honing. I liked the Lansky and I was able to get shaving sharp with it, but it was a lot of work. You have to make sure you work up a burr with the coarse stone before you move onto the next finer stone. Make sure you set your rods all at the same place to ensure proper angles. I removed the thumb screws and got some hex screws with the same size threads. This gave me a longer stroke. I also paid for the pedestal to keep my hands free, which made the task more enjoyable. I had a problem with the blades slipping out of the clamp jaws until I finally put blue painters tape on the spine, which solved that problem. I found that I could not sharpen at 17 degrees because the stone hit the clamp, so I think the next setting was 25. You repeat the burr process with each finer stone. You should ease up on the pressure of the last stone, it should not take much. The yellow stone polished the bevel quite nicely. The last step to achieve shaving sharp, may not seem like it makes sense, but you take the yellow stone and move it up to the 30 degree position and lightly work the stone across the edge on both sides to produce a micro bevel. As long as you keep your fundamentals sound, raising the burr, keeping angles acurate, and micro bevel, you will get a good working edge. I chose to not use honing oil, but I cleaned the stones after every session with Bar Keepers Friend, so my stones cut and were not caked with metal. Hope this helps. BTW, I sold my Lansky and bought the razor sharp paper wheels, and now I obtain sharpness in a matter of minutes. I will probably one day go to free hand with bench stones for fun, but with 5 kids pre teen, I do not have that kind of time.
 
Lighter fluid will also flush the stones quickly to keep them clean, I have and use the same kit you purchased along with the yellow Ultra Fine stone and pedestal mount

I am headed out to pickup my set of razor sharp wheels Sat., very excited about it too.
 
This may or may not be what you're looking for, but I really dig the Lansky Sharp Stick "Crock Stick." It is an 8" ceramic rod for touching up edges. It doesn't have angle guides...completely freehand, but as much of a dunce as I am with sharpening I seem to be able to use this one extremely well. And it WORKS! Not sure if you'll be able to use it for your broadheads, but with a knife it is easier than hauling out my whole Gatco system, unless the knife REALLY needs sharpening.

I have all of the stones (far as I know) for the Gatco system - extra coarse, coarse, medium, fine, extra fine, ultimate. The only one I haven't used yet is the extra coarse. I recommend you get both the yellow and sapphire...probably not completely necessary, but the edge comes out cleaner and more polished.

As a disclaimer, I'm not a HUGE fan of these sharpening systems. One of these days I'm going to pick up a belt sander and learn how to use that.
 
The first sharpening stone I bought was a little Buck Diamond Hone - little more than a glorified rat-tail file, and back then I didn't know the first thing about sharpening.

Needless to say, my lack of results with that stone persuaded me to get a Lansky, and while that system (the same as yours) taught me a lot about how to achieve a fine edge on a knife, you should note (if not notice) that it has a number of serious drawbacks.

The Lansky doesn't really work on any knife - mostly just the ones with a simple and subtle blade geometry. Recurves and more exotic-shaped blades are a little tricky; for instance, a Lansky will sharpen a Kershaw Leek just fine, but using it to sharpen a Kershaw Spec Bump is next to impossibe.

Also, the first time you sharpen a knife on a Lansky, it takes an extra bit of time to basically grind a new edge profile into place. Subsequent sharpenings take only minutes, assuming you place the knife in the Lansky clamp exactly as it was last time.

I'm fairly certain that one of these issues is probably more behind your problem than just your choice of stones. Since I started using the Lansky system I've added the black (extra coarse) and yellow (extra fine) stones to the original compliment of red (coarse), green (medium) and blue (fine), and those extra two stones go mostly unused. The three stones that the system came with are basically all you need to put a hair-splitting hell of an edge on your knife - assuming that the knife's edge is simple enough for the Lansky to work with, and assuming the the stones are actually touching the edge and not just the edge bevel. That second problem is a big one, and tends to go unusually unnoticed. Check the way light reflects off the edge of your knife after using the Lansky for awhile. I often notice that the stones are only partially sharpening the knife, leaving certain bits of the edge untouched, usually at the curve and point.

I know this gets said too often on these forums, but there's a reason for that: invest in a Sharpmaker. The Lansky is just as good (and sometimes better) at putting an edge on certain knives, but the Sharpmaker tends to be more dependable, and more willing to work with complex geometries. I continue to use both.

Edit - Be careful of those yellow lansky stones. I've had several that were warped and cracked, not enough to really notice with the naked eye, but enough to screw up a knife edge real good. If you're sold on the Lansky system, take a look at the diamond-coated hones. They're supposed to work better and last longer.
 
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Re: OP
I've always read that the yellow hone (ultra fine) was finer than the light blue hone (sapphire) but have personally not tried either... when I break out the Lansky, it's because I want a toothy edge. :p

As has been mentioned elsewhere in this thread, be careful that your stones aren't warped, cracked or otherwise not flat. When I inherited my father's old Lansky, I finally understood how he got his convex edge on... his coarse hone had been used to the point that I could pass a nickle through the center if it was laid on a flat surface. I've had good results "truing" these hones up with a lansky medium diamond hone; it's a lot of work... but it's worth it.
 
Dont bother getting the Yellow stone.The Blue one gets it fine enough for me. But do get the Black one (real coarse).
 
my solution to the Lansky problems:

Hold the stones in your hand and use them freehand.

I then moved on to proper bench stones, but the Lanksy stones make good travel sharpening stones.
 
I like the Lansky since I almost always reprofile the cutting edges of my knives. I agree with just about everything said here, including the limits of the system. To get the best use out of the system, you really need to get the pedestal.

I think the responses from cj65 and missin hobo were spot on. It has its limits, but it also has its place. I find it invaluable for smaller pocket knives with traditionally shaped blades. You can whip the edge back into shape with just a few strokes.

It isn't as limited as you might think. I used it to reprofile my Kershaw Shallot (110V blade!) and although I was pretty busy I was able to reprofile the edge perfectly even with the slight recurve.

For me, the system is of no value in any blade larger than about 4 inches. It also won't hold a full flat ground profile (like my Tenacious) without a lot of adjustment and careful setup.

For all larger blades, flat grinds and sheath knives I use my 600 grit 12" diamond oval rod I purchased at a restaurant supply house and free hand them. The single rod works like a champ for me, but I learned to hold the bevels as a kid when I learned to sharpen on the old Washita and Arkansas soft stones.

Robert
 
I like my Lansky too. I use it to reprofile all my blades too. I've got the diamond hones and the stone hones from black to blue, yellow, and saphire. It seems as if some of the earlier hones are made from finer stone than the current ones. My old blue fine hone is actually finer than the current yellow. And a current fine almost matches an older medium.

But I don't think the hones are your problem. I think you need to take more metal off the edge, I don't think that you've completely reprofiled the edge. So you've got kind of a combo angle edge that is more rounded than a good clean edge. Most people don't realize that the edge must be completely "lanski-ized" before it's really sharp. Keep working on those edges, they'll come around.
 
What rnr said.

It took me a good couple of hours to bring my D4 to Lansky's 20 degree setting. I used the x-coarse all the way through. I then finished with the fine and x-fine hones.

The extra-fine hone is good stuff. I haven't tried the super sapphire though.
I tried going up an angle setting between coarse and medium, medium and fine, fine and X-fine on another knife, and it took a lot less time. You might want to try that as well.

To get narrower angles on that blade, a 3-incher, I clamped at the heel and sharpened the half of the blade further away from me, then I clamped the tip and sharpened the heel. There's no clamp to get in the way of the 17-degree setting.
 
LorenzoL said:
The ultra-fine (yellow) achieves a nicer mirror polish than the blue sapphire.
Click to expand...

I have to respectfully disagree with you.
The blue sapphire stone will give you a crazy mirror polished edge,that you can clearly see yourself in. The ultra fine stone will give you a polished edge,but not as polished as the blue sapphire leaves.
 
I have the Deluxe Lansky set (5 hones). In addition, I purchased ONE of the Lansky diamond hones (the Medium, in the orange holder). My routine has evolved to the point that I now use just 3 of them exclusively, as follows:

I've gotten 'scary sharp' results by starting with the medium diamond hone, to produce the burr on the edge (very important to get the burr before proceeding further), followed by the 'regular' fine hone (purple-ish hone in the blue holder), followed by the 'regular' ultra-fine (white ceramic hone in yellow holder). I finish by stropping on a leather strop block. I use water to lubricate all three of the hones, instead of oil; they clean up quicker that way, with a green Scotch-Brite pad and some Comet cleanser.

I think you could probably get the job done with the regular (non-diamond) set, but I found that starting with the diamond hone gets me there (to the burr) much quicker. That's why I bought the one diamond hone in the first place, because I found the going a bit slow with the 'regular' hones.

I clean my hones after every session. It's much easier that way. I've also noticed, with the finishing stones, it's easier to 'feel' the stone doing it's job when the stone is clean. With some blades, the fine & ultra-fine stones will actually 'squeak' a bit on the edge when I've really reached that scary sharp level. I've come to recognize that squeaky sound as a good indicator that I'm doing it RIGHT. Makes me HAPPY to hear it!

I've found it VERY HELPFUL to mount the Lansky clamp onto a stable base. I use a hobby type vise (Pana-Vise), which itself can be mounted onto a bench, countertop or wherever you want to put it. Just hold one side of the Lansky clamp in the vise, and when you're ready to work on the other side of your blade, just flip it over in the vise. It's a LOT easier to sharpen if absolutely nothing moves in the setup (except the hone, of course). Also saves a lot of fatigue on your hands; you don't have to maintain a death grip on the clamp while trying to 'free hand' the sharpening.

Another tip, use some masking tape on the blade to give the clamp a little more 'grip' on a slippery or smallish blade (which otherwise might tend to slip inside the clamp).

I cut & pasted much of the above from my own post(s) in another thread (in the Maintenance, Tinkering and Embellishment sub-forum) regarding the Lansky set. Here's the link to that thread:

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=672589
 
I own both a Lansky Stone Kit (Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, and Saphire) and I have a Lansky Diamond Kit (Gray, Purple, Orange, Gold). While I don't use them to sharpen knives I find them wonderful for reprofiling an edge that is heavily worn or damaged. I don't use them for sharpening for two reasons. The primary reason is that there is no repeatability with the angles. Meaning you may put the clamp on just slightly different every time so your 20 Degree bevel may be in fact 19 or 21. So they're not really consistant enough for me to use as a sharpener. I mostly free hand sharpend everything I use. The second reason is That it's a little time consuming to get a good edge with one. I can spend about 5 minutes with free hand and have my knife shaving. Between setup, use and take down it takes about 30 minutes with the lansky. I also have an edge pro Apex but unless you keep a log book of various knife angles the Edge Pro is often not exact either with keeping the angle. Though it is easier to adjust to get back to nearly the same place if you got a sharpy to highlight where you're removing metal. This is all because I've not taken the plunge into getting set up with a belt grinder. That really should be your ultimate goal. It's fast and effective.
 
Infi-del said:
While I don't use them to sharpen knives I find them wonderful for reprofiling an edge that is heavily worn or damaged.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I don't use my Lansky for everyday sharpening. I do my touch-ups with either a strop (most of the time) or I use a Spyderco ceramic 'Double Stuff' stone freehand.

The real benefit in using a Lansky system (or, I assume, a GATCO or EdgePro) is for re-profiling. Once you get your desired profile on the blade, the everyday touch-ups become that much easier (assuming you re-profile to a more acute edge angle, which I believe is much easier to maintain and well suited for stropping especially).

It does take a little bit of time (30 mins - 1 hour, for me), but that'll improve as you develop a process that works for you. The finished results are well worth the time spent. If you're like me, you'll be THRILLED when you realize you're doing it right and producing that WICKED SHARP edge. It's very satisfying to know that if you don't like the edge your knife came with, you can make it to your liking with a little time & effort. I used to avoid purchasing some knives just because I didn't like the factory edge on 'em, but I don't worry as much about that now. I know I can make it to my own tastes myself. As long as the steel is decent, just about any blade can be vastly improved with the right edge on it. Opens up a whole new world of possibilities...
 
Howdy, like the name! Anyway, I picked up the Lansky system with the extra course, course, medium, and fine...This system will produce a fairly sharp razor edge (works for me anyway). A lot of folks don't sharpen with them...I've never had a problem so far...and my knives will pop hair and shred paper up into confetti using the system...However there is a sense of accomplishment with freehand sharpening that I love as well!
 
I use a Lansky system, nothing else other than a leather strop. I usually get a mirror edge, even my Cold Steel Spartan is scary sharp.
Before the Lansky system I could make a dull knife cut like a dull knife with scratches on the blade. Now people at work bring me knives and ask for them to be sharpened.
The first tip, don't bear down o n the blade, use as little pressure as you can.
Next, when doing any blade the first time, go extra time with an extra coarse and then the coarse hone.
Next, listen to the sound from each stone, when you get as far as you can with each stone the tone will change to a quieter sound.
Replace the regular hones with diamond hones, it cuts your sharpening time dramatically. I added a Diamond Fine, the results were so good I got the other 3, I just finish with the yellow ultra and then the blue sapphire, then the leather stropping hone and then the big strop. I have sharpened small swords with mine, but it was a chore. But blades up to 7 inches are easy, but you may have to do them in half sections.
A recurve takes a different technique, you can do a forward traditional stroke on the front half and a backward stroke on the other half. Lansky also makes/sells hones that are curved just for those blades but I worked it out without buying them, it just takes a little determination.
The Lansky system is a winner to me, I can do everything I require, plus the sharpening part is fun too!
 
As others have mentioned, if you can’t get your knives sharp with the stones you have, buying an ultra fine stone is not going to help your cause I’m afraid
 
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