I’ve had my Work Sharp sharpener for a couple of weeks now, and I think it is a terrific tool. At some point, I’d like to organize all the helpful info. on it I’ve gotten from reading this and other forum threads, from other websites and reviews, and from Kyle at Darex. But, I’m still learning and working out my own technique with the WS, and so that will have to wait. I really appreciate the wealth of Work Sharp knowledge that has been posted here by the guys who have had theirs a while and become quite expert with it.
I’m going to start by saying that Kyle, Betsy, Harmony, and everyone at Darex (the manufacturer) I’ve dealt with have been great. They are responsive to e-mail and phone calls, and seem to place a high value on excellent customer service. Kyle really knows this little machine, and has been very helpful with tips and advice.
My situation is that I am somewhere between an”advanced beginner” and “low intermediate” sharpener. I have used a Sharpmaker for beveled edges and sandpaper and hones for convexed edges. I have not owned an EdgePro or a WEPS, and I’ve never had or used a belt sander. So, in other words, I am familiar with basic hand tools, have an idea about judging angles, use a loupe and a Sharpie to check my results, etc. I also know how frustrating and tedious it can be to try to re-profile a knife, especially one with harder steel, with hand tools.
I spend more time convex sharpening and honing than with sharpening beveled edges because I am a dedicated Bark River fan. The next step for me would ordinarily be a belt sander, but the WS caught my attention because I don’t have a shop and so do my sharpening indoors, where space and noise are concerns. The price was very reasonable, even if a bit more than the cheapest belt sanders, and I was reassured to learn that a nice variety of additional grit belts are available from Micro-Mesh, and now from Work Sharp as well.
The WS is a powerful little tool, and that is both its beauty and its danger---it is pretty easy when just starting with it to take off too much metal, and in the wrong places, making a mess of a knife (don’t ask me how I know). All the good advice previously written applies---start with “junk” knives; start with finer belts rather than coarser ones; use a light touch; inspect the knife after every pass or two to see what you are doing to it (a loupe or magnifying glass can also help here); use a sharpie to make sure you are hitting the edge and being consistent on both sides; and be especially careful with smaller knives---much less margin of error and your mistakes are magnified!
It has been a big help to me in all this to have a good selection of belts. I now have a total of 8 grit levels (including the orig. 3 included in the kit). It is so helpful to size up a knife you want to sharpen, and based on how much it needs, start with the right belt. This allows you to minimize the chance that using an aggressive belt, like the included P220, will overdo it. I likewise found Micro-Mesh to be customer friendly, and Debbie there has been very responsive and helpful.
As has been said so often here, the biggest danger is with rounding the tip. I would say it is a big enough problem that, at first anyway, you may want to really take it easy on the tip and if it doesn’t get sharp enough, you can do the last quarter inch or so by hand. As with most here, what is working best for me is to hold the intermittent switch with my left hand and shut off the power as I’m getting to the tip. Also, be sure to not pull the tip past about 1/3 of the width of the belt, to avoid wrapping it around the tip.
As likewise stated by others, it is important to lift the handle as you come into the belly portion of a blade, so that the edge remains approximately perpendicular to the belt.
Finally, a couple of people have mentioned that you also need to move the butt of the handle out to the side a bit right as you get to the tip. This is because the blade narrows at the tip and so you have to move the knife a tad in order to keep the tip hitting the belt at a consistent angle. Obviously, this “fine point” (sorry) is almost impossible to pull off when using the guides. In any event, trying to master a smooth “combo move” of progressively lifting the handle as I’m moving through the belly, followed by the quick kick-the-butt-out move at the very tip, is a bit of a challenge for me, but I’m working on it.
Update (9-10-11): After playing around with the guides a little more, I need to correct what I said here. Both the "closed" kitchen guide and the "open" outdoor guides, even the 20/40 one, do give you enough room to move the butt out a bit as you reach the tip. Sorry I jumped the gun on that.
Another issue is the very first part of the blade. If you let the knife stay there too long before beginning your stroke, you’ll remove too much metal at that point, and have an instant “recurve”. If you find you’re not getting that area sharp enough, a couple of additional “false start” (short) passes there, done quickly, are preferable to letting the blade linger there.
An important bonus with the WS is the additional tasks, beyond sharpening the actual edge, that its speed and power allow you to do quickly. One is repairing some of those buggered tips that can happen. I was able to do a pretty decent job of re-shaping a couple of those. Another, which I've really enjoyed, is using the WS to thin behind the edge (thin the edge spine) on a few knives that needed an improvement in slicing ability. I have done that on many knives by hand, with coarse sandpaper on convex blades, and coarse stones on beveled edges, and it sometimes took hours. The WS really makes this job a breeze.
As for the “guide vs. freehand” debate, I am currently in the “have it both ways” camp. I have the standard 40 degree kitchen and 50 degree outdoor guides, as well as the newer 40 degree outdoor (open) guide that WS has added on its website and that Kyle kindly provided me to try out:
http://www.worksharptools.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=146 Some have said they use a guide to set the bevel when first convexing an edge, and thereafter go freehand. That makes sense to me, in that the guide can give you the straightest edge. The weakness of the guides seems to me to be the loss of control and visualization, especially at the tip.
Moreover, my experience has been that the guides work better or worse depending on the size and shape of the particular knife. And sometimes, for reasons I can’t explain, I can simply get a sharper edge on a particular knife with or without a guide. What I mean is, I may be doing a knife freehand and just can’t get that very sharp edge I want. I will switch to a guide and “presto”, I’ve nailed it. Or visa versa when I am not getting there with a guide and so transition to freehand and have success.
I have used both the kitchen (closed) 40 degree guide and the outdoor (open) 40 degree guide. I haven’t used the 50 degree outdoor guide at all yet. I generally prefer the open guide in that I can see better what I’m doing, and it also fits more snugly on the bolts. But with either one, you really have to pay attention to what’s happening to your tip during the very last part of your stroke, since it can jump a little as the bulk of the knife is coming off the guide. In any event, I think the 40 degree outdoor (open) guide is a nice addition. IMHO, it should be offered as an alternative to the 50 degree outdoor guide as part of the original kit.
Speaking of accessories, WS is also now offering a small ceramic pocket hone for touching up a “Work Sharped” knife in the field. At first, as I said to Kyle, that struck me as odd since the WS is a convex sharpening system and there are plenty of small leather pocket hones that would fulfill this role. But, then I remembered that those of us here who enjoy sharpening and learning about it are only a small minority of WS’s customers. WS is trying to make this all easy and simple for people who like using sharp knives but don’t want to spend a lot of time or thought on how to get there. The little WS hone has an angle guide, set at 25/50 degrees, to match the 50 degree outdoor guide, or it can be used freehand. While I doubt many of us here will be getting that, I will say this: on some of my knives I was able to get a nice convex edge set with the WS and get it fairly sharp---but not sharp enough. Even after trying the last step with guide, without, etc., I couldn’t quite get there. Not even a few strokes on my hone with green compound helped. But, I found that a few passes on the ultra-fine Sharpmaker ceramic rods did the trick. So, now I have a few knives that were beveled, became convex edged with the WS, and then got the final touch with a ceramic stone. I guess I’m not a purist, either, because I’m more interested in what works.
I’ll end with a quick pic of most of the knives that I’ve used the WS on so far. (And yes, there were a couple of early casualties that declined the invitation to be photographed). At the top are the requisite cheap kitchen knives. I truly thought these knives would never see action again, but the WS has put a nice convex edge on each of them and they are now all quite sharp and useable.
At the bottom are some better, though still very inexpensive knives: Vic chef’s knives, a tiny Buck lockback, an Opinel #6, and an AGR WoodsWalker. All have much improved edges, thanks to the WS. I am especially pleased with the WoodsWalker---it has a very thin AUS-8 blade, and with its new semi-polished WS convex edge, is now a handy little scalpel.
Finally, in the center are some nice knives that got the WS treatment, although I will admit to being nervous, especially with the Barkies: BRKT PSK, Little Creek, and Woodland Special, GEC Exec. Whittler #89, and a Spydie Urban. They all benefited from the WS, especially the Barkies, which are now the sharpest they have ever been. I am well pleased.
Andrew
. You could probably pop hairs with that finish, though I doubt you could tree-top.
