Work sharp ken onion edition knife sharpener review

leo123

If there are any more Canadian's out there beside Little Steven. I have seen the reviews and orderd one from elitetools.ca. They are from Qubec and have the item for $69, and free shipping for orders over $75. 

 So I orderd the replacement belts for $11.95 which alowed me free shipping.

  This is  the best price that I have found with free shipping.

  I have been following the forum from some time and only posted a couple of times. This forum I have found to be much helpfull.

  Many thanks to RR

CANMAN1976

 

leo123 said:

If there are any more Canadian's out there beside Little Steven. I have seen the reviews and orderd one from elitetools.ca. They are from Qubec and have the item for $69, and free shipping for orders over $75. 

 So I orderd the replacement belts for $11.95 which alowed me free shipping.

  This is  the best price that I have found with free shipping.

  I have been following the forum from some time and only posted a couple of times. This forum I have found to be much helpfull.

  Many thanks to RR

Thats not the ken onion version though?

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Eggcelsior said:

Well crap, Cen Tex. I just noticed that this bad boy does 15 degrees. Might have to consider it. 

it does indeed. 

The Cen-Tex Smoker

shadowcaster said:

Ordering mine from Cabelas today. with gift cards and points its going to cost me $36.01. now I'm pumped

score. You'll love it. 

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Lit said:

This looks really cool and simple but a 1000/6000 stone and 30 minutes of watching how to videos will give you more control and just as sharp if not sharper knives and save you $100. Once you know how to use a stone it takes a couple minutes a knife tops to get it razor sharp. The knife in the link below is a $15 knife from TJ maxx and its sharp enough to shave your arm. http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hYGKhwx315A This is my $70 Tojiro that people recommend on the forum to others alot. This is stropped to 60000 grit and is sharper than a knife should be. http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2D7_10cIY7w

This is way better for me.  I tried for months and the stone was a total PITA. if you can hold a perfect angle on 2 sides for 100's of freehand strokes, you are a better man than me. Plus, after much reading, I really prefer the convex edge you get with this over a stone.

 I don't think stones are going away any time soon though, I wish I were better with them

double

My biggest stone issue is holding the angle. That's why this appeals to me.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

JohnH12 said:

Just curious. Why is this better than a plain belt sander other than the attached angle guide? I've been using a belt sander with various grit belts and never had a problem getting a super sharp edge.

no difference. it's a belt sander for guys like me who don't know what they are doing. he says the belts are custom to match what he uses on his large machines in his knife shop but that's probably BS.  I'm sure you can get very similar belts for any sander. 

Lit

@eggcelsior yeah I use the hone America kit to strop. I got it from chef knives to go but I can't find it on their site anymore. You can buy different surface materials for it that have a magnet on the back so they stick to the hone America base. There are different grit pastes you can buy to load the strop and progress to a mirror finish. I have 2 balsa pads that I load with .5 and 1 micron paste which is 30000 and 60000 grit. The final strop is a bovine leather pad. If you watch the tutorials on chefkvivestogo he uses this system. You don't need all that though its a pricey option. Before I had that I got like 3"*12" leather pad and glued it to a 12" piece of 3"*3" and it worked fine. You can also use the leather strop between uses to hone or keep the Bur from folding over so you won't have to sharpen often.

CANMAN1976

I have a question? I tried ordering from various US stores and was told it was restricted for shipment to Canada (only the new version) then how is it that Cabelas Canada has it and I bought it from them?

Do large chains have privileges a single individual/buyer does not??

Jamie.

morgaj1

Lit said:

@eggcelsior yeah I use the hone America kit to strop. I got it from chef knives to go but I can't find it on their site anymore. You can buy different surface materials for it that have a magnet on the back so they stick to the hone America base. There are different grit pastes you can buy to load the strop and progress to a mirror finish. I have 2 balsa pads that I load with .5 and 1 micron paste which is 30000 and 60000 grit. The final strop is a bovine leather pad. If you watch the tutorials on chefkvivestogo he uses this system. You don't need all that though its a pricey option. Before I had that I got like 3"*12" leather pad and glued it to a 12" piece of 3"*3" and it worked fine. You can also use the leather strop between uses to hone or keep the Bur from folding over so you won't have to sharpen often.

I completely agree about stropping.  I have some really fine stones, but don't often go that crazy with the polishing.  I find, for most knives, that I go to a 1200 grit and then finish with a strop with .5 micron chromium oxide paste.  This gives me a more toothy edge that I find to my liking.  Here is the strop that I use:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/111005741810?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

Regardless of the method of sharpening, a good strop should be used to finish and maintain the edge between sharpenings.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

Eggcelsior said:

50 degrees is a wide-ass angle for Japanese steel. None of mine are over 34 total. You must have some huge gnats in Texas. You know, everything's bigger and what not.

I'll play with different angles but I like the durability of 25. I mean, I can shave paper like it's not there. how much more do you need?

I don't know what I was thinking but I was at 20- not 25. We are only a few degrees apart. After playing around with it, you can also adjust in between the 5 degree markers so you could do "16"ish if you wanted. As long as they are set the same, you should be fine and can get very close to what you are looking for.

Eggcelsior

Go home Cen Tex, you're drunk.

CANMAN1976

My wine be here in a week or so:) 

How durable are the belts? Will a set last awhile???

Going to order a extra set of belts after new years just in case.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

CANMAN1976 said:

My wine be here in a week or so:) 

How durable are the belts? Will a set last awhile???

Going to order a extra set of belts after new years just in case.

so far so good. I would get the extra set. the ones you will use the most will wear out the fastest(common sense but they are also lighter so they won't take as many uses)

shadowcaster

Just picked up mine from cabelas ttoday and have already sharpened a few knives with it and am very impressed so far. It puts a great edge on the blade and takes very little skill haha

CANMAN1976

Mine is due tomorrow can't wait to sharpen up my knifes:)

I have a delema tho on the best technique for sharpening double beveled asymmetric knives?

They have a cool sharpening attachment now also that allows free hand sharpening from 10-30 degrees.

CANMAN1976

Love mine but are you supposed to get a burr on both sides before moving to a finer belt? I can get a burr on the right side or the downward direction of the belt sharpener but how does one get a burr on the side where the belt goes upward...wouldnt that create less a burrr???

thanks.

Jamie.

shadowcaster

@CANMAN1976 I noticed the same thing on mine. However, the guy that first showed it to me told me to start on the one side and build up a burr along the whole length of the blade and just do the same amount of passes on the opposite side. I don't know if this is because of the belt moving up on one side and down on the other? Either way I have not had a problem with mine at all, I have done close to 20 knives and all of them turned out great! 

One question I do have is how often should you replace belts? Do you do it when you start noticing them not having the same results of after a certain amount time on them?

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Just added new belts for the first time since I bought it. Holy crap it makes a huge difference. Should have changed them out a while back. my Shun 8" chef was just dull and would not sharpen up. Changed the belts and it's like a scalpel in 3 minutes.

When in doubt, change them out!

mahenryak

Hello. Is the instructional video below for the setup you have?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4I4sGdIE27Y

nolaegghead

Thatgrimguy

https://eggheadforum.com/discussion/comment/1439100#Comment_1439100

use the free sharpening. They can do your Double D edges while this can only do the straight edges.

mahenryak

That is a pretty nice looking setup, with case, @nolaegghead . Thank you.

nolaegghead

https://eggheadforum.com/discussion/comment/2422904#Comment_2422904

Sam's had bunch of Pelican clone cases for between $15 and 20 on closeout....I bought a bunch of them (probably a dozen) for stuff like this. Nice too keep systems and sets together.

mahenryak

Very nice.

Mattman3969

I just ordered the 120-leather strop set of belts. Thanks for the reminder CT.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

https://eggheadforum.com/discussion/comment/2422889#Comment_2422889

Yes

mahenryak

Thank you.

nolaegghead

https://eggheadforum.com/discussion/comment/2422929#Comment_2422929

I ordered the leather strope about a week ago. should get it next week.

logchief

https://eggheadforum.com/discussion/comment/2422963#Comment_2422963

What are the dimensions of that pelican case or model #. That's a great setup. I love that K/O sharpener.