Work sharp ken onion edition knife sharpener review

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Had my first chance to use my Ken Onion Work Sharp today and I am sold. This thing is awesome. I sharpened 2 mid-(crap) grade Hinkels and my Shun chefs knife. I did the full edge reset on all 3 to get them insanely sharp. I've always had trouble with the Hinkels keeping an edge so hope this works for them. The shun is dangerously sharp. It cuts through tomatoes and oranges like the are not even there. One of the Hinkels is very similar and one has some tug to it about half way through. That is the cheapest blade of the 3. I'll rework that one tomorrow and I'm sure it will come up to snuff with the others.

Here are a few after pics- didn't think about during pics until it was too late. I think the coolest thing is that my Shun had a pit in the blade about 3/4 back and i was able to repair it like it was never there. I'm not sure I will take it this sharp again- have it hidden at the moment. Nice to know I can though with very little effort.





Here is an orange that I sliced almost translucently thin. Like it wasn't even there:

lakewade

Awesome!  Now how does it work?

The Cen-Tex Smoker

lakewade said:

Awesome!  Now how does it work?

didn't you get one too? I'll come down there tomorrow if you promise there is no bourbon in your home. It's really easy. it has blade guides and simple instructions so it's hard to do damage..........on second thought, better let me come down and show you ). It's belt sander with 6 different grits, from super course all the way down to strop grade polishing belts

travisstrick

I've used one. They rock. 

Biggreenpharmacist

I just got one last week. Awesome!!!

krobertsmsn

Does it scratch the blade? I took my new ones in once (after some use)and they scratched the heck out them. I made them replace one of them that was really bad.

jls9595

Ok, that looks cool.  Should I send my Cutco knives off to have them sharpened or get one of thees? I have a ceramic honing rod I use every time but they could use sharpening.  

CANMAN1976

Wicked !! I was pissed my misuno ux10 knives were dull forever now would it work for double beveled knives???

yzzi

Cen-tex what's your address for me to ship to?

CANMAN1976

Seriously considering this the only thing is my misono ux10 is doubled beveled with angles of 20 deg on the right and 10-12 deg on the left and the sharpener ranges from 15-30 deg so would this still be ok for my knife??

The Cen-Tex Smoker

CANMAN1976 said:

Seriously considering this the only thing is my misono ux10 is doubled beveled with angles of 20 deg on the right and 10-12 deg on the left and the sharpener ranges from 15-30 deg so would this still be ok for my knife??

No clue if it's good for your specific knife but it's my understanding that it will double bevel.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

jls9595 said:

Ok, that looks cool.  Should I send my Cutco knives off to have them sharpened or get one of thees? I have a ceramic honing rod I use every time but they could use sharpening.  

This is way beyond any honing rod. You would not need to send your knives in to be sharpened if you had this.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

krobertsmsn said:

Does it scratch the blade? I took my new ones in once (after some use)and they scratched the heck out them. I made them replace one of them that was really bad.

No. It polishes the blade like a mirror.

henapple

It's smaller than the slicer you had

The Cen-Tex Smoker

henapple said:

It's smaller than the slicer you had

And smaller than the new slicer I have too

tksmoke

Caught in the vortex - I'm being sucked in again.  I guess I coulda spent the money on scotch.  Wait, I already did!  OK, I surrender.  I need one.  Amazon just makes it wayyyyy too easy.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

@tksmoke- this place is dangerous. Hide your wallet.

tksmoke

No doubt - yesterday I was thinking that $40 for the Smokeware cap was real reasonable.  In aviation, we have the AMU (aviation monetary unit), which is roughly $1000.  Everything for the airplane/pilot is a minimum of 1 AMU - most are multiples.  My BGE experience, though limited, fixes the QMU at about $300.  So I guess I could look at the WSKO as only half a QMU.  But then there were a couple other items I needed, and so we are back to pushing a whole QMU.  It could be far worse....

shadowcaster

I am buying one here soon. Sae it at a gun and knife show last weekend and was sold. Thanks for the review, I am glad others are happy with it.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

tksmoke said:

No doubt - yesterday I was thinking that $40 for the Smokeware cap was real reasonable.  In aviation, we have the AMU (aviation monetary unit), which is roughly $1000.  Everything for the airplane/pilot is a minimum of 1 AMU - most are multiples.  My BGE experience, though limited, fixes the QMU at about $300.  So I guess I could look at the WSKO as only half a QMU.  But then there were a couple other items I needed, and so we are back to pushing a whole QMU.  It could be far worse....

you have it all figured out,  $300 is the number. Anything less is essentially free (or at least perceived to be a steal). 

The Cen-Tex Smoker

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:


@canman:

You got me curious on this so I have been looking around to see if I could better understand what you were talking about. The discussion below is very informative about knives, bevels and sharpening. Essentially all knives that are sharpened on both sides (no matter the angles) are double beveled. a single bevel is a chisel edge (only sharpened on one side). the only difference in your blade and a standard knife blade is that the angle on one side is different that the other. This is apparently very common in Japanese knives. They say below that the actual angle is insignificant but it's the ratio of the angles that matter if you want this type of edge. So if all this is true, then this machine would work perfectly to create the type of edge you are looking for. The degree of the angle may not be exactly what it was from the factory (say 15 degrees instead of the 10-12) but you could maintain a very similar ratio by using the edge guides. 

Check this out, I think it will have much of the info you seek regarding your particular edge setup.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

It's blocking me form posing the link.......

http://www.cheftalk.com/t/63443/bevels-double-bevels-angles-im-confused

The Cen-Tex Smoker

That worked. had to cut and paste it to an email then cut and paste that to here

CANMAN1976

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

CANMAN1976 said:

@canman:

You got me curious on this so I have been looking around to see if I could better understand what you were talking about. The discussion below is very informative about knives, bevels and sharpening. Essentially all knives that are sharpened on both sides (no matter the angles) are double beveled. a single bevel is a chisel edge (only sharpened on one side). the only difference in your blade and a standard knife blade is that the angle on one side is different that the other. This is apparently very common in Japanese knives. They say below that the actual angle is insignificant but it's the ratio of the angles that matter if you want this type of edge. So if all this is true, then this machine would work perfectly to create the type of edge you are looking for. The degree of the angle may not be exactly what it was from the factory (say 15 degrees instead of the 10-12) but you could maintain a very similar ratio by using the edge guides. 

Check this out, I think it will have much of the info you seek regarding your particular edge setup.

Wow thanks centex that's good to know thanks for researching it out.
Worse thing now is amazon doesn't ship this item to Canada but cabelas .ca does but it's 179 there:(

May get it anyways just can't tell the wife ....lol

bettysnephew

The chisel edge is also used on Emerson combat knives.  These are used primarily by our special forces guys in places few of us would like to visit let alone do the things they do.  On his website there is a guide as to how to finish sharpening this type of edge.  It would seem to be applicable to the Shun type edge also.  Be aware he is pretty sure of himself and there is a certain amount of mall ninja stuff for sale, but his skill in knife making and design pretty makes up for that.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

BTW- I reset my Shun to a 50/50 double bevel and it has never performed better. I think a lot of this multiple degree edging is really over thinking it. I can cut paper like a scalpel with an 8" chef's knife. I'm OK with that. And I can sharpen it with my eyes closed in 3 minutes

The Cen-Tex Smoker

here are a few pics from a few minutes ago of my 3 Hinkel chef's knives cutting through paper like a scalpel. The first 2 are mid range "fine edge" (their name, not mine) that we bought as part of a set and the last one is the cheapo $39 Target version that someone left here a few years ago. You can see it's got a little tug to it (the edges of the paper are a little torn instead of razor cuts like the others). This knife could not get through an orange peel without sawing before i sharpened it yesterday so it's come a long way. I'll work it over again today and I'm sure it will be just like the others. All of these knives would have torn a piece of paper to shreds before cutting through it before I used the WSKO on them. Even if they had been sharpened on my stone. I really didn't know what sharp was until I bought my Shun. It was insanely scary sharp out of the box and I've been chasing that ever since. Found it

You can see the scratches on these blades from using my stone the past several months but I'll buff those out tonight with the super fine grit bands that came with it.

CANMAN1976

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

BTW- I reset my Shun to a 50/50 double bevel and it has never performed better. I think a lot of this multiple degree edging is really over thinking it. I can cut paper like a scalpel with an 8" chef's knife. I'm OK with that. And I can sharpen it with my eyes closed in 3 minutes

So what angles do you use for your shun centex now that your going 50/50??

Jamie,

The Cen-Tex Smoker

CANMAN1976 said:

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

BTW- I reset my Shun to a 50/50 double bevel and it has never performed better. I think a lot of this multiple degree edging is really over thinking it. I can cut paper like a scalpel with an 8" chef's knife. I'm OK with that. And I can sharpen it with my eyes closed in 3 minutes

So what angles do you use for your shun centex now that your going 50/50??

Jamie,

25 degrees

lakewade

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

lakewade said:

Awesome!  Now how does it work?

didn't you get one too? I'll come down there tomorrow if you promise there is no bourbon in your home. It's really easy. it has blade guides and simple instructions so it's hard to do damage..........on second thought, better let me come down and show you ). It's belt sander with 6 different grits, from super course all the way down to strop grade polishing belts

OK I just sharpened 5 knives.  All old ones to get the hang of it.  I really like this machine.  Later I am going to go for the good knives.  Good recommendation Cen-Tex.  (And that phrase is rarely spoken in my house.)

The Cen-Tex Smoker

lakewade said:

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

lakewade said:

Awesome!  Now how does it work?

didn't you get one too? I'll come down there tomorrow if you promise there is no bourbon in your home. It's really easy. it has blade guides and simple instructions so it's hard to do damage..........on second thought, better let me come down and show you ). It's belt sander with 6 different grits, from super course all the way down to strop grade polishing belts

OK I just sharpened 5 knives.  All old ones to get the hang of it.  I really like this machine.  Later I am going to go for the good knives.  Good recommendation Cen-Tex.  (And that phrase is rarely spoken in my house.)

touche'.