What sharpening system that you own gets used the least?

T. Erdelyi

T. Erdelyi

Joined
Feb 3, 2001
Messages
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I have Arkansas tri hones, Diamond Hones, Wet Stones, Japanese Water Stones, Sharpmaker, Lansky, Clamps, EdgePro, you name it, I've tried it.

Everytime I thought I found the magic sharpening bullet, the one system that would give me hair-poppin', scary sharp blades, and time and time again, I would return to freehand sharpening on my Diamond, and Natural Wet Stones.

The only three "systems" still in use in my house,in the most used order are:

1) Freehand on a large Diamond Fine E-Z Lap, this gets most of the work when it comes to sharpening, it's very quick for touch ups.

2) The Spyderco Sharpmaker gets a lot of kitchen work, it usually sits on the counter and a few swipes when needed is all it takes, once the knives are profiled to Spydercos angle, the Sharpmaker is the quickest way to keep an edge.

3) My EdgePro Apex, this is my heavy hitter, when a knife is so screwed up that even a coarse Diamond Hone would take a while, I set up the Apex and settle into a long night of sharpening, I pull out all the unevenly ground blades, the "needs to be reprofiled knives", and the nice Sunday Knives, and I do 'em all.

My Lansky sits in a box somewhere in this house collecting dust, it was my most dissapointing sharpening system, when I bought it I thought it was the final solution, turned out to be the final paperweight.

We've all tried to find the perfect system, and as many know I'm a big advocate of freehand sharpening, but if I had to pick the top 3 manual systems, they would be listed in the order above.

What system/Systems were you most dissapointed with?
 
I never bought a Lansky, however, I did get a Smith's sharpening system which is basically the same as the Lansky. It just sits collecting dust, I'm thinking about just throwing it away since I don't have any use for it.

I have my Sharpmaker that I take out only if a knife needs to be reprofiled, although that can be time consuming at times. But I usually sharpen freehand with my DMT whetstones, which give me hair poppin' results everytime. :D
 
It's technically not mine, but I have a Lansky that's been in my possession for the past 3-4+ years or so and I tried it out once or twice and never used it again. I had been debating trying it out again since I have a better understanding of how sharpening works now, but probably not after reading this thread. I use a DMT X-Coarse to re-profile with a Sharpmaker to finish. I have a few waterstones lying around that I don't really use since I hate having to soak and cleanup.

edited to add: I am in on the Edgepro passaround so we'll see how long these last...;)
 
Ever since I got my sharpmaker (thanks to the advice on this forum, btw) my Arkansas stones are gathering dust. I picked up a little folding DMT set, fine and ex-fine, it gets the hard cases, all others hit the sharpmaker.
 
I bought the Razor Edge systems guides and I use them when freehand doesn't seem to be working. Mostly I touch up with a translucent Arkansas stone or my Lansky dog-bone sharpener.

edit... I use my Sharpmaker so rarely that I forgot I have one! I ought to sell it. It's useful when you're starting out, but I prefer the strops, HandAmerican ceramic stick, and stones I use now.
 
The Lansky "clamp system"...It's just too much of a hassle to set-up, use, and take back down. I use my Spyderco Sharpmaker or Smith's Tri-Hone the most.
 
I sharpen freehand, have for just about 15yrs now.

I have a 204, use it every 3-4 months on my serrated carry, or to confirm my angles after about 8-10 times on the freehand stones.

I use sandpaper or my 303mf(doublestuff) a lot.
 
I love my lansky;) Ok it's not an edge pro but i can get hair popping and consistent results with it on shorter blades. I did replace the rods which were poorly made with my own 'one' rod of 3.30 mm steel which was more robust and a much tigher fit to the hones. THe blade clamps also needed filing to get them smooth but i think it is a reasonable system.
 
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