Which Lansky should I get?

B Hess

B Hess

Joined
Feb 20, 2006
Messages
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I am shopping for a Lansky sharpening system. My question is should I get the deluxe set or the deluxe diamond set?
 
A lot of people are going to attempt to talk you out of the Lansky and steer you towards the Spyderco Sharpmaker, so let me be the first. Having said that, if you go with the Lansky I would say go with the regular stones. The magic diamond dust or whatever Lansky uses on their stones falls right off after a few uses. I have a medium and fine that are useless.
 
I don't know what the price difference is but I'd say get the cheapest Lansky you can find and then get a DMT clamp system. Use the DMT rod and hones with the Lansky clamp. and that will set you up very nicely.
 
Haven't heard anything good about their diamonds, and a friend had a set crap out on him quickly. Used a regular set for a few years, does well if you take a little time setting it up. Try to set the clamp the same each time, and move the blade when needed. Otherwise you won't sharpen at the same angle each time, and you'll waste a lot of effort cutting steel in the wrong spots.
 
I have found the Lansky extra coarse diamond stones cut really well initially, but they do not last long. I bought the extra coarse diamond stone to aid in reprofiling a 7" blade a number of years ago, and the stone barely lasted long enough to finish what I needed it to do. A lot of the abrasive seemed to be removed from the stone, so it wasn't bad abrasive, but badadhesion to the stone surface.

The standard deluxe kit should serve you well. I actually have 2 Lansky sets and 2 Spyderco Sharpmakers. I use them for different things. However, I do use the Spyderco sharpeners much more. They're more of a maintenance sharpener.
 
The sharpmaker has 30 and 40 degrees. I would like to sharpen to 25 or 20 degrees on some knives. What would be the best way to do this?
 
I've used Lansky systems for years, both the standard and more recently the diamond. Every knife I sharpen is hair popping sharp and I have never noticed too much wear on the stones. If you remember the angle and clamp position you used on a blade you can touch up pretty quickly. I will say that it works best with shorter blades. I'm guessing 4" or less.
 
INFI Kid said:
The sharpmaker has 30 and 40 degrees. I would like to sharpen to 25 or 20 degrees on some knives. What would be the best way to do this?
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Unless you want to do ALOT of grinding with an extra coarse stone for a long time (unless you have thin blades with soft steel), you may not have the option of sharpening at 25 and 20 degrees. I have the deluxe natural set (when I say natural, I mean artificial stones but not diamond) which I love, but if I try to put a finer edge on it, it takes alot of work, and I usually try to stick to the factory edge as much as possible for this reason. I would get the Deluxe natural set, it is worth the extra money, and it would be even more work to regrind an edge without the extra coarse stone, the extra fine gives a very noticeable difference in sharpness, and works very well (best hair-popping sharp I have achieved with anything I have tried yet, although I hope the Sharpmaker will impress me more, it should be here any day now(hopefully tom.)). I have the Deluxe DMT Alligner set also, and used it for four years before getting the Lasky, I like the design of the DMT guide better because it puts the clamp on the same place everytime, the stones held up ok, although they kept getting "finer". I use the Lansky "natural" stones and the DMT guide most of the time with excellent results.
TIP: I put duct tape on the Lansky clamp to keep it from slipping off of the blade and scratching it.
 
In the meat works that I work at, I would say probably 95% of the knife hands use the Lansky system. My opinion of the Lansky diamond hones is fairly low, they are way to coarse when new and have seen quite a few that the diamonds have stripped from them rapidly. Allot of us have changed over to the DMT hones (600, !200, Ceramic) and glued them on the lansky holders. The rods are easily bent if you aren't careful, I have now made more rods out of 1/8 stainless rod, that work well. Good system for the money I think.
 
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