Would you sharpen your 3" folder to 15° on a Chef's Choice electric sharpener?

marcinek said:
Then pick up one of their paring knives or something! "I love the sharpener so much I bought a new knife for it!" ;)
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Dude that's good thinking actually, good looking out! I'm gonna look on YouTube and see what else ATK tells me to buy. Butcher steel.. are those those steel rods that they use on tv? Honestly though, even if I didn't get an appliance to do it I'd still like some kind of guided system for now and I do want a 30 incl. probably. Sharp enough to easily protect myself if I had to slash and I don't want to spend forever learning how to finally get it there. I'll have to look into it further. Thanks for all the tips from everyone though. I had a feeling no one would approve lol.
 
There is nothing wrong with a honing steel if used properly with the right blade steels. I use a honing steel all the time with softer (under 60 HRC) knives with great success. It does a fine job of realigning edges and fixing minor rolling. You just have to use the right technique (which is virtually identical to the technique you use on stones, but the rod is vertical vs. horizontal for stones).
 
marcinek said:
....And dont use one of those butcher's steels! Unless you got a thin, pro type butcher knife, they don't do anything other than make you look cool doing doing the "shing shing shing" sharpening routine. It does nothing.
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I have to disagree. I use one often and have very good luck with it. Tried it on a Benchmade Volli (bought used) and went from dull to arm hair shaving sharp in very short order. Works well with my Vic/Wenger knives too. Steels really do seem to be better on kitchen knives though. I agree with you there.

Actually, I have found that not all steels are created equal. I own three. My favorite is one my father used before me. I have no clue as to it's age except that it is older than I am. Another is about twenty years of age and made by Gerber for their Balance Plus series of kitchen knives. Not real impressed with that one; don't use it much. Too short for my liking. Last is my Analon diamond impregnated steel. I don't use it much, either.
 
I tried sharpening a folding knife on one of these machines once. I found that not all of the blade could be sharpened because the scales got in the way.

You may have better luck.
 
Like everyone else has said... No! No! No! The 15 dps angle is OK if you're not doing anything more than slicing tape and envelopes, but my daily carries see a wider variety of uses than that. At any rate, I wouldn't use an electric sharpener on the Barrage. Save it for your kitchen knives and use it on them when your lady is watching... so she sees you using it.

Then sharpen your Barrage on a different system or send it to one of our BF sharpeners. They'll get it far beyond factory sharp and return it to you PDQ.
 
15-dps (degrees per side) is fine for most folks on a EDC knife.

Without regard for should you do it ...,
1. take a look at where the stones in that sharpener make optimal contact with a blade in the sharpening position (somewhere forward of the outside edge most likely).
2. measure, or estimate how far from the front edge of the sharpener that location is.
3. measure, or estimate the distance from the sharpened edge on your knife to the front of the handle.
4. estimate how far from the handle the sharpener would effectively sharpen your prized pocket knife.
5. ask yourself "Would you think twice about running your edc through it for any particular reason other than a preference for manual sharpening?"

I believe you will see inside that powered sharpener that there are round wheels that apex (point of contact with blade) somewhere near the mid-point of the sharpener (or at least some distance from the front of the sharpener and the guide). With consideration for the ricasso and the handle on your mini Barrage, it would be my guess there would be a fair amount of unsharpened edge just forward of the handle. I suppose you could take the blade out of the handle to sharpen ..., but then there are just too many other simpler, better options that come to mind.

Kitchen knives typically do not have a ricasso and/or handle that interferes with a sharpener like this. Additionally, most cooks/chefs would not really have an issue if a small length of the blade just forward of the ricasso is not sharpened (unlike most of us ... with our smaller folders).

If you are still on board, with regard to thinking about doing so and/or using this sharpener for other knives ...,

Consider the primary grind angle and how that indexes in that Chef's Choice Sharpener. The side of the blade (the primary grind) indexes (lays against the guide) at an angle (unknown, presumably 15-degrees ???). Effectively, the primary angle (of the knife being sharpened) must be added to the angle of the guide (plus any additional angle the stone might be offset) to determine the actual sharpening angle of the stones or the effective secondary bevel. So the actual or effective secondary bevel is dependant on the primary bevel.

I just measured the primary grind on one of my wife's medium chef's blades at 2-degrees inclusive (1-dps). So that sharpener would effectively put a 15+1-dps or 16-dps secondary on this knife.

While I do not currently have a Benchmade mini barrage, I do have a Mel Pardue 5000 to use as illustrative. It measures 10-degrees inclusive (5-dps). So that sharpener would effectively put a 15+5-dps or 20-dps secondary on this knife.

I only bring this second point up, as I believe many folks potentially forget to factor in how a knife is indexed when sharpening, and assume this may play a part in your sharpening future.

I have a friend who sharpens his knives on a machine like this, and he I pleased with the results. Everybody has variable criteria for their own needs and uses.

The best way to learn, is through doing.
The best lessons cost time, money, or a combination of both.
If you "do" (sharpen your pocket knife on this machine) please post back the results for others to learn.
 
sabre cat said:
I have to disagree. I use one often and have very good luck with it. Tried it on a Benchmade Volli (bought used) and went from dull to arm hair shaving sharp in very short order. Works well with my Vic/Wenger knives too. Steels really do seem to be better on kitchen knives though. I agree with you there.

Actually, I have found that not all steels are created equal. I own three. My favorite is one my father used before me. I have no clue as to it's age except that it is older than I am. Another is about twenty years of age and made by Gerber for their Balance Plus series of kitchen knives. Not real impressed with that one; don't use it much. Too short for my liking. Last is my Analon diamond impregnated steel. I don't use it much, either.
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"Steels" re-align and/or remove micro-serrations and foil edges that become rolled or folded in use, they have the effect of smoothing out a rough feeling/performing edge. They can also draw the edge out through metal plastic deformation. Diamond impregnated steels are not what I would consider "a steel", but are used to sharpen (remove metal like a stone) an edge. I maintained an SAK (Swiss Champ) for many years with a small steel that lived inside the belt sheat for the knife. Occasionally, sharpened the blades but maintained the edges with the steel.
 
csnack said:
LOL that's the knife I already got and ran through it. It was like $30 at the time. Sounds like I'm all set then. That Work Sharp Ken Onion looks pretty cool.. Is that something worth considering if I just had to have an electric type deal?
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The Ken Onion Worksharp is a very convenient and effective sharpener. I use it on all of my kitchen knives and can sharpen them all in minutes. However, you may want to practice on a few blades with it as it is very easy to round the tip of a blade using it.

For that reason, I use the Wicked Edge on all of my carry knives.
 
dalefuller said:
...or send it to one of our BF sharpeners. They'll get it far beyond factory sharp and return it to you PDQ.
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Thanks again for all the tips guys. I almost didn't even post and was just about to shove my blade through it based mostly on the glowing reviews. Something stopped me though and then I remembered you guys. If I ever did want to send my blade to someone here for sharpening, what does something like that cost and is there anyone(s) in particular here that comes recommended? I mean I can probably find that info on the selling section, but just thought I'd ask. Thanks

P. S. Just to be clear, the consensus is NOT to run the blade through the electric sharpener.. Or to go ahead and do it? Hmm, I'll see what my fiance says. 😁 Thanks again


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You know what - it's not our knife, it's yours. I would love to have someone use (not my knife) to test out that sharpener and come back and report to us. Who knows, it might be wonderful and we are all missing something by wasting our time on stones and such.

I say, take some microscope edge pictures before and after, and take one for the team. Then post up the results. :D
 
Let me add my vice to the consensus. Don't do it. I got a Ken Onion Worksharp for Christmas, still haven't used it.

Currently, I sharpen on an Edge Pro. I also have a Sharpmaker, a Lansky set, and a whopping big Norton stone somewhere. I like sharpening. It's meditative.

Also, let me add that 15 dps is perfectly fine. I've literally chopped down trees with my 0561 sharpened 15 dps with no ill effects. Today, I sharpen 10 dps because honestly, I rarely need to chop down trees with a pocket knife. That said, I admit to having carved 7075-T6 aerospace aluminum with my 0777. Shit happens. The 10 dps cutting geometry is nicer for what I do. YMMV.
 
I wouldn't sharpen an oster kitchen knife headed for the trash can with a chefs choice sharpener.
 
I have a Chef's Choice electric sharpener. I have used it on inexpensive kitchen knives when I was too lazy to use a bench stone. Generally speaking, I have to literally wipe off the dust every time I use it. I used it on an 12" Ontario machete once as I was frustrated with getting the edge like I wanted it. The blade barely fit into the slots.

I got a Ken Onion Work Sharp about a month ago. I spent about 20 minutes or so last year at Blade watching demonstrations, talking to the rep and was impressed overall. But the sad fact is, I've had it for a month and have not even taken it out of its box. The main purpose I got it for was re-profiling fixed blades that have an edge that is too thick.
 
tokerblue said:
The Ken Onion Worksharp is a very convenient and effective sharpener. I use it on all of my kitchen knives and can sharpen them all in minutes. However, you may want to practice on a few blades with it as it is very easy to round the tip of a blade using it.
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It definitely takes some getting used to. I actually bought the blade grinding attachment for mine and it gives far more control. You still have to be careful not to let the tip go past the halfway point on the belt, but it's easier to see and control for me on the attachment. :thumbup:

http://www.worksharptools.com/parts-accessories/ken-onion-edition-kts/blade-grinding-attachment.html
 
I'm surprised nobody has suggested the Spyderco SharpMaker. If you can hold a knife you can sharpen it. I use mine about once every 2 weeks on my EDC, but I'm cutting up plastic bottles and scraping gaskets with my Recon 1. So easy an idiot like myself can use it! It runs $60 to $70 and even comes with an instructional video. Which I promptly threw out because I'm a man and nobody tells me what to do! I probably should have watched it lol, it took some use till I had the proper technique. So like I said, even an idiot can figure it out!
 
The Sharpmaker is a great sharpener, unless you need a different angle other than the set ones. Then you'll be in reprofiling hell.
 
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