All I have is a steel, and it keeps my Victorinox sharp enough for me. Never did any paper tests or whatnot, but it works good on foodstuffs! 

All I have is a steel, and it keeps my Victorinox sharp enough for me. Never did any paper tests or whatnot, but it works good on foodstuffs! 

A steel is not used for sharpening but to re-align the edge so it's straight.  Depending on the knife a good steel in most cases are enough.  if you have pits or gouges on your blade a stone or belt sharpening is needed to re form your edge.

I have the the Ken Onion too.  Used a bunch of time...when I first got it.  Havent touched it in a while becasue there really isnt a need to remake an edge very often

Years ago, I would buy every knife sharpening gadget I would see... ones promising to hold the perfect angle and such...  My problem in general is I would work to hard to get the knife sharper, and next thing I would know I had some massive change in the basic shape of the blade. Such as rounding the tip from allowing it to  linger too long on the surface of the sharpening device, etc...  Eventually , like over the course of about 15 years, I actually taught myself to hold a good angle while using a stone, and also determined that less is often more when it comes to sharpening knifes.

   I must say that I've never really gotten into 'butchers steel'...  I may have to give it a try, just because...  because I've never really tried it.   

   In general, I can sharpen most any knife I have in my drawer in about 30 seconds or less now, and will do it whenever I determine the knife I just pulled out of the drawer isn't very sharp.  For the most part, I just own cheap knifes, NSF rated ones that I buy at Costco or Sam's Club. I don't really own a pocket knife other then a couple really small ones that I clip on to my disc golf bag, just in case I should need to trim off some stray gouge that just got into my disc after driving it strait into that tree...

   But anyway, if I were to get a Work Sharp, I'd probably whittle my blades down to nothing while trying to figure out how to use it... or once again round the tip of a knife down needlessly.

Mine sits in a box. One weekend I finally opened it and sharpened every knife in my kitchen. It was easy to use and put a nice sharp edge on my knives and scissors. I bought this to replace a chefs choice. I would have to find it to see the model, but it has 3 stones. It sharpened great, but left the ugliest marks down the sides of my knives. After using it the first time I just figured the marks would go away. Nope, can't get rid if them. It never made sense to me because it looks like the side of the knife just slid against  plastic. I need to take a pic and post it.

Are you referring to a Lansky?

Ken Onion

Mine sits in a box. One weekend I finally opened it and sharpened every knife in my kitchen. It was easy to use and put a nice sharp edge on my knives and scissors. I bought this to replace a chefs choice. I would have to find it to see the model, but it has 3 stones. It sharpened great, but left the ugliest marks down the sides of my knives. After using it the first time I just figured the marks would go away. Nope, can't get rid if them. It never made sense to me because it looks like the side of the knife just slid against  plastic. I need to take a pic and post it.

Are you referring to a Lansky?

Ken Onion

I'm not following you.  The Work Sharp Ken Onion doesn't have stones.  It uses belts.  Unless there's another type of Ken Onion sharpener.

I think he means the Chef Choice has 3 stones, my dads old one did I think!  But don't quote me on that!

I am most embarrassed.  Thank you pmillen for sending this unit for this Product Review.  Please forgive this late thank you!

You're welcome, Bentley.  I was happy to do it.  But you thanked me weeks ago in a PM.

Have edge pro and this 1. Edge pro I like more,more time consuming

I have found that its been much easier for me to buy a Havalon Knife that I can buy new blades for cheap and as soon as my blade isn't sharp I can just put a new blade on.  Since I went with Havalon I always have sharp knives when I need them.  At the rate that I have replaced blades it would take 15 to 20 years to get to the price of a decent sharpener.

At the rate that I have replaced blades it would take 15 to 20 years to get to the price of a decent sharpener.

That's axiomatic.  But, somehow, it's not my want, in the same way that I know I could buy a lot of restaurant food for the money my pit cost.  Different strokes...

Had to look up Havalon.  Don't use those kind of knives, so no help for me.

Bump!

I was a beautiful fall day, the temperature hovering around 80°F.  I was sitting on the deck, working on correcting the edge on a particularly hard steel chef's knife (≈61 Rockwell).  I've been working on this knife off and on for two weeks.  It's a stunning Japanese piece and I prefer to true-up its edge carefully, slowly, by hand.

My knife sharpening stones were all soaking as I thought that I'd also touch-up some kitchen knives.

Marcia brought me one of her favorite knives, saying that it isn't as sharp as she remembered it to be.  A quick look proved her to be correct.  I doubt that she could cut herself with it.  She might make a bruise.

The edge was so nicked that it looked like a saw. 


Here it is, sitting on a 320-grit whetstone that I was using on the Japanese knife.  320-grit is a coarse stone for ≈57 Rockwell Chicago Cutlery carbon steel.  It cuts that stuff pretty darn fast.  But after several minutes I could see that headway was slow. *


Then I remembered that I have a Ken Onion Work Sharp Knife Sharpener in a basement cabinet.  Two passes with a coarse belt and the knife edge was clean and amazingly sharp.  Finer belts polished the edge and Marcia had a super sharp knife to, once more, abuse.  I was so happy about that I ran all of her knives through the Ken Onion Work Sharp Sharpener.  It only takes a few minutes and they have a better edge that 99% of the kitchen knives.

I think it's a good investment for someone's moderately priced kitchen, pocket and hunting knives.  If you buy high-end knives—maybe not the best choice.



* I made a mistake, here.  What looked like nicks may have been only serious edge turns.  I might have been able to put the rolled edges back into position had I first burnished the knife on a smooth butcher's steel with a lot of pressure.  But, without considering that, I ground away the rolled edge on the coarse stone, leaving what appeared to be a serious nick or chip.

EDIT:  Corrected high-bit characters' display caused by server update.

If I had it to do again, I would by this over the $200 I spent on the Nirey 280 knife sharpening system!

My neighbor is moving and taking his with him.  They will be living in a travel trailer for a few years and I was hoping he would give his to me.  I had him sharpen one of of my hunting knives and it is back to being razor sharp.  A new stone will be cheaper and I have plenty of time.