Simple & fast sharpening tool for ignorant family members

[Lars DK]

Hi all

The last years i have been gifting old knives and new knives to members of my family - They have been very pleased with this in general, and i have been happy when visiting and doing cooking, slicing etc at their places.
HOWEVER - One in particular likes to sharpen her knife each time prior to slicing meat and such. the tool - A pull through sharpener, that clearly rips of waaaaay to much material and leaves grates on the knife that turns up in the food. Its simply horrible to watch and hear each time, and the knive doesnt even get sharp really. I tell her to get a better sharpener, but she thinks it perfectly fine and efficient.

So - What is the best simple and fast sharpener i can gift her and others this christmas ? Any experiences? I have no experience, but expect the roller thingys to be better than the pull through ones that just rips off metal chunks.

 

[MartinJ]

Hi all

The last years i have been gifting old knives and new knives to members of my family - They have been very pleased with this in general, and i have been happy when visiting and doing cooking, slicing etc at their places.
HOWEVER - One in particular likes to sharpen her knife each time prior to slicing meat and such. the tool - A pull through sharpener, that clearly rips of waaaaay to much material and leaves grates on the knife that turns up in the food. Its simply horrible to watch and hear each time, and the knive doesnt even get sharp really. I tell her to get a better sharpener, but she thinks it perfectly fine and efficient.

So - What is the best simple and fast sharpener i can gift her and others this christmas ? Any experiences? I have no experience, but expect the roller thingys to be better than the pull through ones that just rips off metal chunks.

I gifted a few people a pretty coarse ceramic honing steel that seems to work fairly well and doesnt require any technical knowledge

 

[Benuser]

Frankly, I don't know whether you're prepared to save the knife and spend some money on it. If that were the case, sharpen it, and get him or her a Dickoron Micro. If used correctly, that means with a light touch, it can postpone sharpening of daily used carbons for about a year. Can't tell you about stainless but it won't be shorter. It maintains sharpness at a very decent level: not fresh from the stones, but almost. My guess is a weekly use should do with a home user. Take some time to explain the working. The aim is getting smooth bevels again. It's the only steel I know that doesn't do more harm than good. Only, in your case very relative disadvantage: with the say yearly stone sharpening a bit more than usual fatigued steel has to be removed.

F. Dick - 12" Dickoron Micro Steel, Super Fine Cut, Oval by Friedr Dick Germany https://amzn.eu/d/6eqUHzE

 

[Vertigo]

Frankly, I don't know whether you're prepared to save the knife and spend some money on it. If that were the case, sharpen it, and get him or her a Dickoron Micro. If used correctly, that means with a light touch, it can postpone sharpening of daily used carbons for about a year. Can't tell you about stainless but it won't be shorter. It maintains sharpness at a very decent level: not fresh from the stones, but almost. My guess is a weekly use should do with a home user. Take some time to explain the working. The aim is getting smooth bevels again. It's the only steel I know that doesn't do more harm than good. Only, in your case very relative disadvantage: with the say yearly stone sharpening a bit more than usual fatigued steel has to be removed.

F. Dick - 12" Dickoron Micro Steel, Super Fine Cut, Oval by Friedr Dick Germany https://amzn.eu/d/6eqUHzE

Just gonna +1 on this recommendation, that's a good choice for the scenario you're describing!

 

[Rangen]

Two people I respect have weighed in with the Dickoron Micro recommendation. I'm going to guess that they have not contemplated the depths of possibility. My experience is that a smooth steel will do nothing for the user you describe. Imagine a world in which maybe 1 out of 30 strokes actually does anything remotely like aligning the edge, and 5 times that number of strokes counter any benefit the useful strokes achieved.

I'd go for a diamond steel, and a cheap one. It probably won't help, but at least you didn't spend F. Dick money on it. And maybe, just maybe, it will help. These steels do at least communicate when they are doing something to the edge, for those that have ears to hear it.

 

[HumbleHomeCook]

https://www.amazon.com/Work-Sharp-K...cphy=9033787&hvtargid=pla-1209962028379&psc=1

 

[Rangen]

https://www.amazon.com/Work-Sharp-K...cphy=9033787&hvtargid=pla-1209962028379&psc=1

That's the spirit! Grind the knives into dust and buy some better ones.

Starting to feel as though I'm missing the joke, with people recommending expert-level tools to a pull-through sharpener user. However, I do endorse the ceramic rod recommendation. Even better would be that Spyderco ceramic rod system.

 

[HumbleHomeCook]

That's the spirit! Grind the knives into dust and buy some better ones.

Starting to feel as though I'm missing the joke, with people recommending expert-level tools to a pull-through sharpener user. However, I do endorse the ceramic rod recommendation. Even better would be that Spyderco ceramic rod system.

There's no joke. I've gifted and recommended several of these. These aren't expert level in any way. All you have to be careful of is a fairly quick stroke so you don't induce a recurve and don't snap it to the side and round the tip. A high grit belt helps reduce the risk while you get the hang of it. One or two swipes and you're rolling.

Every single non-knife person I know who has one of these loves it. I can think of five that I've either given to directly or who bought them and only one of them managed to put a slight recurve in one Victorinox knife and he admitted to knowing better. One of my friends actually puts his in a vice in his garage each spring and does his and the neighbors hatchets, mower blades, etc.

 

[Rangen]

There's no joke. I've gifted and recommended several of these. These aren't expert level in any way.

Huh. I guess I will have to chalk this one up to my fear of power tools interacting with fine knives and razors. At least I can say that I came by my fear honestly, through bitter experience.

Now I have to go off and contemplate the apparent fact that most people are better at using power tools on blades than I am.

 

[HumbleHomeCook]

Huh. I guess I will have to chalk this one up to my fear of power tools interacting with fine knives and razors. At least I can say that I came by my fear honestly, through bitter experience.

Now I have to go off and contemplate the apparent fact that most people are better at using power tools on blades than I am.

Well now, let's not get carried away. I didn't say I recommend using one of these on fine knives. But Wusthof and the like, sure. We have a couple members here who have sworn by their WS for those type knives.

 

[Vertigo]

I'm going to guess that they have not contemplated the depths of possibility.

Trippy, man

 

[Lars DK]

Remember who we are dealing with here - A person who thinks its perfectly fine to sharpen using the pull through device that litterally removes long shavings of steel just by one forcefull draw to get it done - Yuck.
The powertool seems a bit overkill for the purpose.

Doing a quick search it seems there is a lot of different tools for this. Most of them looking really poor. One that looked somewhat decent is a Zwilling 'v-edge' - Video here:

That should definately do less harm than the current device i suspect. Reviews are somewhat positive. Surely it cant compete with proper sharpening stones etc, but for day to day touchups it doesnt seem too bad. The angle is not way off - Its not ripping off steel in chunks. There is some spring-system to somewhat handle the max force applied. It does tak up quite some space though.

The ceramic rod would probably be the 'correct' way to go. But then again - We are dealing with individuals that does not give a **** about other things than ease, speed and convenience.

 

[mengwong]

Zwilling 'v-edge'

I like that! The action of a Sharpmaker at double speed, with the convenience of a pull through.

I also have a sharpmaker, and I agree that it's good for maintaining an edge, but attempting to reprofile or thin might cause one to give up completely.

The knife nerd friend might still need to first pare back the shoulders so the tool can actually reach the apex. Honbadzuke.

I see the product description mentions 150 and 360 grit, and I’m guessing the angles are 20 and 15 dps.

 

[Benuser]

How do they perform deburring? Poor deburring is the major cause for poor edge retention, and critical with the Zwilling / Henckel or Wüsthoff standard steel — Krupp's 4116.

 

[Naftoor]

Lansky turn box is what I recommend to everyone looking to sharpen knives who has no interest in being a knife nerd or a sharpening nerd. The average person simply isn’t going to learn to use a sharpening stone, and strops and rods require them to learn angles. Get the one that only has ceramic sticks so they don’t eat the knives with the diamonds, plug the 25 degree holes. 20 degrees is ‘fine’ for non-knife people since it gives them some durability. Cheap enough to be given as gifts, it can get tossed into their junk drawer safely, almost no set up required, and you should only need to show them how to use it once since it’s dead simple to use. Unless they’re trying to massive chip repair, it’s perfectly fine for touching up cheaper stainless steel. Put it to work on Walmart specials and fujiwara fkm many times with no issues.

Spyderco sharp maker is another step up, if you really like them. The angles are better for kitchen knives, but it’s also a bit more expensive

 

[Lars DK]

How do they perform deburring? Poor deburring is the major cause for poor edge retention, and critical with the Zwilling / Henckel or Wüsthoff standard steel — Krupp's 4116.

Deburing is not a thing that is considered if you are using an instrument like that. Logic is that this action is plenty and ready for use. The one she is using is actually even worse and rougher than the one in the video below:

 

[Lars DK]

Lansky turn box is what I recommend to everyone looking to sharpen knives who has no interest in being a knife nerd or a sharpening nerd. The average person simply isn’t going to learn to use a sharpening stone, and strops and rods require them to learn angles. Get the one that only has ceramic sticks so they don’t eat the knives with the diamonds, plug the 25 degree holes. 20 degrees is ‘fine’ for non-knife people since it gives them some durability. Cheap enough to be given as gifts, it can get tossed into their junk drawer safely, almost no set up required, and you should only need to show them how to use it once since it’s dead simple to use. Unless they’re trying to massive chip repair, it’s perfectly fine for touching up cheaper stainless steel. Put it to work on Walmart specials and fujiwara fkm many times with no issues.

Spyderco sharp maker is another step up, if you really like them. The angles are better for kitchen knives, but it’s also a bit more expensive

This looks promising - A budget Spyderco. I think that could work pretty good for the need here.

 

[MartinJ]

I am really interested in this thread as i have encountered this problem a few times.
I'm reading and thinking about all the advices
I tried to get my mum used to a spyderco sharpmaker but she didn't quite achieve to use it efficiently, but she managed to get correct sharpness out of a ceramic rod.
Same for a couple of friends.
No conclusion to be printed on marble after such a few "tests" but i think for some people at least the rod will be more efficient than any kind of "system"

 

[Carbonara]

if you have the funds I would probably recommned the tumbler/horl or whatever its called nowadays

 

[M1k3]

if you have the funds I would probably recommned the tumbler/horl or whatever its called nowadays

That thing doesn't have a long lifetime.