Sharpening machines

[talcum]

Hi, I'm a free hander with king and glass stones, but I don't use them enough and I get frustrated at times that I can't make scary sharp edges every time. I've tried the Apex and it requires as much practice as the water stones to really get scary sharp. Is there something better?
Talc

 

[jacko9]

I have seen those clip on aids with ceramic pads that allow you to keep a fixed angle (kinda like training wheels). You will need to use blue painters tape to keep from marking up the soft cladding.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00I6H92BC/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

[gic]

There's a machine from Workshop that gets good reviews, can't speak to its efficacy personally.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EJ9CQKA/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Or, what about buying a clip like this: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00H8XPWEG/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Will hold your knives at a 15 degree angle more or less..

 

[talcum]

Hi, I'm a free hander with king and glass stones, but I don't use them enough and I get frustrated at times that I can't make scary sharp edges every time. I've tried the Apex and it requires as much practice as the water stones to really get scary sharp. Is there something better?
Talc

There's a machine from Workshop that gets good reviews, can't speak to its efficacy personally.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EJ9CQKA/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Or, what about buying a clip like this: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00H8XPWEG/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Will hold your knives at a 15 degree angle more or less..

I can hold a 15 degree angle more or less. I want something that will give me that edge you don't want to test with your fingers every time.
Apex is close but it requires the same muscle memory the free stones take.

 

[talcum]

And it needs to work with all steels from watanane blue to haslinger SS.

 

[Pensacola Tiger]

No machine or jig will do what you are looking for.

I've found that once you develop the skill (muscle memory) to get a scary sharp edge, that it will remain with you even without frequent practice, just like riding a bicycle. The hard part is developing the skill, which can take several months.

You may want to look into getting a knife with a wide bevel (Heiji, Tanaka Ginsanko, Kagikiyo) that you can sharpen to what is improperly called a "zero grind" - just flatten the bevels so that an apex is formed. Since you are using the bevel itself as a guide, there is no problem holding a steady angle. The downside to this is that the resulting edge angle may be too acute to stand up to hard use.

Or, you can do what many straight razor users who don't care to learn how to hone do - buy two identical knives, and when one goes dull send it out to a professional like Jon Broida for sharpening while you use the second one.

Rick

 

[Benuser]

Use a few corks cut with common angles, say 4, 8, 10, 15, 20 and 30 degree for reference before and after each stroke. After some time you will hardly use them anymore.