I wanted something to speed up my sharpening and repair of very dull blades, but I also wanted something portable and perhaps a bit safer (for blades) than a 1x30 belt sander. The WSKO seemed like it might be just what I was looking for, so I ordered one last week.
It's just about everything I could have asked for. I'm using the tool in a way that the manufacturer probably didn't intend; namely just like you'd use a bench belt grinder. I don't use the guide at all and face the belt towards me, with the belt motion going downward. I sharpen knives with the edge down and thus the belt moving away from the edge. I do one side with the knife handle in my right hand and the other side with the knife handle in my left hand.
I was a little concerned about finding and holding the edge angle. It turns out that's no problem on either front. It's rather easy to find the angle and holding it is very easy. I was also thinking that the low grit belts might take off steel very quickly and allow me to make mistakes quickly. This is where the story gets more interesting.
The variable speed allows you to really regulate the grinding speed, and it varies more than the specs might make you think. Because I'm using the sander in the way I am, I have to use the trigger lock. What's interesting is, the trigger lock doesn't press the trigger all the way in. So, on it's highest speed, the difference between the trigger pressed all the way and where the lock puts it, is just about zero. The motor doesn't slow down enough to hear it and it's QUITE fast. But on the other end of the scale, at the lowest speed setting, the difference between full trigger and where the lock holds it is significant. I'd say it's running roughly half of the advertised speed with the trigger locked on the lowest setting.
There are 14 or 15 total speed settings. I'm usually using speeds 3 - 8. The higher speeds grind much faster I'm sure, but I haven't graduated to those just yet. Plus there's a big intangible with the speed: Up to speed 5 or so, the machine is surprisingly quiet. You can literally have a conversation while using it to sharpen a knife and hear every word spoken without issue. At speed 7 or 8, it starts to get a bit loud. Above that and up to speed 14 it's loud enough to be a little annoying. Not a big deal, but quieter is better for me.
I think I've done 16 knives in the past 2 days. It's taking an average of around 15 minutes per knife, though some take more and some less. Almost every one of these knives was very, very, VERY dull. Blades that have literally been sitting unused for years because they are so dull they aren't effective in the kitchen. One of these had a broken tip leaving a 1/4" wide "tip" behind. That blade took me around 10 minutes to completely reform the tip. The tip got warm to the touch, but never above maybe 105 degrees (F). Just guessing at the temp, but certainly nothing that hurt my fingers or made me think it was hot enough to affect the heat treat.
I got every knife sharp to very sharp. All sliced phonebook paper. Some less cleanly than others. Almost every knife shaved hair. All at least cut a hair or two. I was doing these as a favor, and as a learning tool for myself, but I wasn't going to spend enormous amounts of time on this motley collection of abused, beaten, bent and SO DULL blades. So I opted for "sharp as hell for the average person" as opposed to something that would really impress me. I was still pretty happy with 9 out of 10 of the blades when I was done.
I should mention that the speed difference between this, and even DMT Diasharp 8 x 3 plates is enormous. In the past these beat up knives I've gotten to work on have taken me literally 45 minutes or more to fix. Some needed even more time. Doing a "really bad" one in 20 minutes is a revelation for me. ...and that's with only 2 days of practice *and* me using the machine at 1/2 speed or less most of the time!
Another point worth making is about knife tips. I've read many times about how easy it is to round over tips with this machine and how to avoid it. Because I'm not using the guides, I use two hands to control to blade and I do it very much like when I freehand on stones, stopping the blade motion when I'm at the *very* tip. Doing this has resulted in tips that are much sharper than when I started. I've had no problems at all with rounded tips. Just the opposite. I've reformed one tip completely and made many more much sharper than when they started.
I'm only having a few difficulties so far. Removing the burr, after raising it on both sides, seems difficult when using the same grit. For example, if I raise a burr on both sides with the 120 grit belt and then try to take it off with the 120, it's just about impossible. Sure I can remove it from one side, but it reforms on the other side instantly. Even with very light pressure, I'm still reforming the burr every time. If I run through the grits, I can usually eliminate almost all of the burr with the X4 (3000 grit) belt. It's still not as clean as I like it, but I can get it serviceable with a minute or two of effort.
I've got several other people bringing me boxes of blades to sharpen; I'm going to be busy. So far, I'm pretty thrilled with this tool. Maybe some of the details I've shared here will help someone else out in some way. Thanks for reading.
Brian.
It's just about everything I could have asked for. I'm using the tool in a way that the manufacturer probably didn't intend; namely just like you'd use a bench belt grinder. I don't use the guide at all and face the belt towards me, with the belt motion going downward. I sharpen knives with the edge down and thus the belt moving away from the edge. I do one side with the knife handle in my right hand and the other side with the knife handle in my left hand.
I was a little concerned about finding and holding the edge angle. It turns out that's no problem on either front. It's rather easy to find the angle and holding it is very easy. I was also thinking that the low grit belts might take off steel very quickly and allow me to make mistakes quickly. This is where the story gets more interesting.
The variable speed allows you to really regulate the grinding speed, and it varies more than the specs might make you think. Because I'm using the sander in the way I am, I have to use the trigger lock. What's interesting is, the trigger lock doesn't press the trigger all the way in. So, on it's highest speed, the difference between the trigger pressed all the way and where the lock puts it, is just about zero. The motor doesn't slow down enough to hear it and it's QUITE fast. But on the other end of the scale, at the lowest speed setting, the difference between full trigger and where the lock holds it is significant. I'd say it's running roughly half of the advertised speed with the trigger locked on the lowest setting.
There are 14 or 15 total speed settings. I'm usually using speeds 3 - 8. The higher speeds grind much faster I'm sure, but I haven't graduated to those just yet. Plus there's a big intangible with the speed: Up to speed 5 or so, the machine is surprisingly quiet. You can literally have a conversation while using it to sharpen a knife and hear every word spoken without issue. At speed 7 or 8, it starts to get a bit loud. Above that and up to speed 14 it's loud enough to be a little annoying. Not a big deal, but quieter is better for me.
I think I've done 16 knives in the past 2 days. It's taking an average of around 15 minutes per knife, though some take more and some less. Almost every one of these knives was very, very, VERY dull. Blades that have literally been sitting unused for years because they are so dull they aren't effective in the kitchen. One of these had a broken tip leaving a 1/4" wide "tip" behind. That blade took me around 10 minutes to completely reform the tip. The tip got warm to the touch, but never above maybe 105 degrees (F). Just guessing at the temp, but certainly nothing that hurt my fingers or made me think it was hot enough to affect the heat treat.
I got every knife sharp to very sharp. All sliced phonebook paper. Some less cleanly than others. Almost every knife shaved hair. All at least cut a hair or two. I was doing these as a favor, and as a learning tool for myself, but I wasn't going to spend enormous amounts of time on this motley collection of abused, beaten, bent and SO DULL blades. So I opted for "sharp as hell for the average person" as opposed to something that would really impress me. I was still pretty happy with 9 out of 10 of the blades when I was done.
I should mention that the speed difference between this, and even DMT Diasharp 8 x 3 plates is enormous. In the past these beat up knives I've gotten to work on have taken me literally 45 minutes or more to fix. Some needed even more time. Doing a "really bad" one in 20 minutes is a revelation for me. ...and that's with only 2 days of practice *and* me using the machine at 1/2 speed or less most of the time!
Another point worth making is about knife tips. I've read many times about how easy it is to round over tips with this machine and how to avoid it. Because I'm not using the guides, I use two hands to control to blade and I do it very much like when I freehand on stones, stopping the blade motion when I'm at the *very* tip. Doing this has resulted in tips that are much sharper than when I started. I've had no problems at all with rounded tips. Just the opposite. I've reformed one tip completely and made many more much sharper than when they started.
I'm only having a few difficulties so far. Removing the burr, after raising it on both sides, seems difficult when using the same grit. For example, if I raise a burr on both sides with the 120 grit belt and then try to take it off with the 120, it's just about impossible. Sure I can remove it from one side, but it reforms on the other side instantly. Even with very light pressure, I'm still reforming the burr every time. If I run through the grits, I can usually eliminate almost all of the burr with the X4 (3000 grit) belt. It's still not as clean as I like it, but I can get it serviceable with a minute or two of effort.
I've got several other people bringing me boxes of blades to sharpen; I'm going to be busy. So far, I'm pretty thrilled with this tool. Maybe some of the details I've shared here will help someone else out in some way. Thanks for reading.
Brian.
