WORK SHARPKen Onion Knife Sharpener Tool - Adjustable Knife Sharpening System - For Knives, Scissors, Serrated Blades, & Tools

Been looking for sharpening tools or or services for a while, after watching on-line videos on the product and having a chance to use it - I have to say I picked the right tool. I do recommend their videos on best practices as they're much easier to understand than just the manual.With the right technique, which took a little to learn, it works great. I managed to put a top quality sharp edge on an almost ruined kitchen knife, and once i did that I moved on to our more expensive knives. My wife was very impressed with the restored sharpness of our entire knife set, and I too am happy to once again be able to cook with truly sharp knives.I moved on to sharpening some other tools and knives (some of which were never sharp) and it continued to work great.The adjustability and options to fine tune the sharpening angle on this model are great. The sharpener seems well built, and easy to use evn if it takes a little practice to get right. If you use your knives and tools a lot - this is a great way to extend thier usefull life, improve their performance - the tool is a great value.

I support the other reviewers: this machine is sturdy and it works very well, with no problem with continuous use in sharpening/honing a dozen less-sharp but not severely dull blades in a single session. Personally, my eye-hand coordination has always been a problem so maintaining the edge, even on a fine knife made from great steels has always been a problem for me. (You craftsmen out there can quit snickering...)I do a lot of knife work in an active kitchen and do some skinning and breaking down of carcasses if I 'get lucky' during hunting season. I have more than enough high quality/custom quality knives in my rack. Finally I 'wised up.' I didn't need more fine knives...I needed sharp knives.I tried a series of whetstones but my physical challenges led to that not working. Carbide sharpeners used up way too much metal and left coarse edges that dulled quickly. Angled and guided diamond hone machines were just okay...until the wheels plugged up with old metal filings. They are not designed to be cleaned. My spending on moderately-priced sharpening systems was adding up to serious money. So...I plunged for a Tormek grinding wheel that would do any craftsman proud. It proved too much for me to keep the stone 'trued' and to follow the blade-inking system for determining the correct angle...and then I only had one grit to work with.The knives I use every day were edged on a belt grinder and it made sense that they should be re-edged on a belt grinder. I agree with other reviewers that the 3/4 inch band set is best for kitchen and hunting knives, when compared to the half-inch bands on the earlier Work Sharp system. I still use the Tormek for heavy-duty items like axes and pruning shears. The Work Sharp system will work but your need for belts will build up.Speaking of the need for belts: at first you will have a rack or (heaven forbid, you keep them banging around in a drawer) of knives to work on. Naturally, the coarsest belts will show signs of wear after that initial flurry of use, reestablishing the bevel and beginning the sharpening process. After twelve or so kitchen and steak knife blades, I noticed that it was taking longer to remove stock than it had when the belt was 'fresh'. Work Sharp advises that the belt still has lots of use left but that more time and patience will be required to get the rapid benefit given by a fresh belt. My experience confirms their advice. Don't give up on a belt too soon, especially if you are working with knife edges that are not badly dulled or damaged. There are also measurable advantages to improving edges by using the recommended sequence of belts provided with the sharpener for each knife. Read the booklet that comes with the kit and look at the 'quick start' heavy cardboard 'how to' guide that ships with the kit. I learned that 'toothy' edges (professional description of a degree of sharpness)are more useful than finer, more easily damaged 'super sharp' edges for many tasks.The machine itself is easy to set up and easy to adjust and comfortable in the hand to use. The design is stable on a work bench or counter top. The 'continuous pressure' drive switch and variable speed control give a very useful degree of control over sharpening and polishing operations. PLUS the set comes with a fine CD of instructional advice (and it is mirrored on the company web site.) If you wonder how you might use/like this tool, visit the company web address and check out the videos for the earlier, light-duty product and for this 'Ken Onion' edition, heavier duty model. They helped me to decide which machine to purchase: I need to maintain or resharpen a good number of knives and a couple of models of kitchen shears on a regular basis. (The system works amazingly well for scissors, too). If you have fewer knives or just collect pocket knives, the Ken Onion system may be 'over-kill'...but I still would seriously consider the less expensive and lighter duty Work Sharp system for your needs. These tools are much faster and likely will be more precise than eye-hand-guided sharpening systems such as stones.I still use a diamond hone steel for touch ups because of its convenience: I don't keep the Ken Onion sharpening out on the countertop, equipped with a polishing band.But...after decades of looking, this is the VERY BEST SYSTEM for maintaining blades at home that I have found.

The Worksharp Knife & Tool Sharpener Ken Onion edition...For 7 months I debated w/ myself over and over about "biting the bullet" and getting a power tool to help me sharpen knives more efficently.Im almost 48, and since age 12 I have used my grandfathers' tried and true stone & ceramic methods to put a razors' edge on a cutting tool.And the old methods WORK. Period.But I cant see quite as well as I used to, and if you get off count sharpening and stropping, it causes big problems that you have to be able to SEE the edge to correct.I swore up, down, and sideways never to "go powered".But w/ the WSKTS systems, my edges seem to true up faster...way faster. I chose the WSKTS-KO because of the options it has available over the standard... My personal favorite?? A slow speed mechanism that keeps me from skrewing up a good blade. I can watch the process as it unfolds.Slow on the WorkShap systems is still "jack-rabbits' ass on fire!" fast compared to almost any hand sharpening rigup.I particularly like the medium and fine "white surface" belts. They sharpen and hone like Spyderco ceramics, and still leave the door wide open for me to finish by hand w/ leather strops. They have a "gunmetal" lookin' deposit as you use them, just like a ceramic rod. You can clean them w/ a white gum eraser on slow speed too, or the standard cleaning "stick" widely available for belt abrasives.The angle adjustment guide is a stroke of genius. If the weight of the knife is all the pressure you use, the blade can easily be "leaned back" and hovered past the belt and the sharpness you seek comes faster. Now, "leaned back" sounds like a relaxed term. Thats' the idea. Set the knife into the sharpener, and REST it on the angle guide, using JUST enough pressure to keep it sliding against the guide.The tool motor in and of itself has more than enough power to handle almost any job, if you use the right belts in succesion and TAKE YOUR TIME. This is a great tool for beginners, and a Godsend for experienced sharpeners, but it doesn't possess the power of an angle or bench grinderRemember that sharpening isn't a race, and if you don't feed your family doing it, its far better to proceed SLOWLY and watch what youre doing. Pay Attention. Don't crank this baby to max on your Sebenza, and then give this tool a bad review if you are foolish enuf to do that.You can and WILL RUIN a very expensive knife in a heartbeat!!Read the directions. Watch Youtube. Call Worksharp, ask questions. Read the directions again. Find some old user knives to practice on. NEVER drag the tip of any knife blade more than 1/2 way off the belt. Start w/ tool OFF, set blade into the angle guide, and using the weight of the blade, and GENTLE guidance, manuver the blade toward the tip, following the shape of the blade. If you are using the "crossbar" blade guide, DO NOT press the knife edge into it, that will dull your knife, defeating the purpose. This IS NOT a bench grinder you just turn on, and leave it that way 'till you finish. Its rated for 1hr. before you need to let it cool completely off.Then when you get good, and I mean good enough to feel that edge and say "Damn!, now that's freakin' sharp!", THEN its time to "Dress up your babies for school".In less than 45 minutes, you can turn a butter knife into a razor w/ the WSTKS-KO, and you can bleed easier than you think.Keep the tool clean and free from sharpening residues as much as possible w/ a dry bristle brush, air compressor nozzle etc.The coarser belts will produce loads of fragments that can gum up the sharpening guide, cassette workings etc. This produces scratches on surfaces you don't want them on. Use masking tape if necessary to stop that from occuring. Put the masking tape in a single layer on the guide "sliderpads" too, if you can, stop and clean often.I sharpened a RUSTY old HC steel butcher's knife, started w/ the coarsest belt I could find, established a "working edge", and went from there. That rustbucket Old Hickory will now SHAVE hair.Tnere was rust and metal frags/sanding matl. all over that cassete. KEEP it squeaky clean.If you think that this tool can be mastered in 5 mins. w/ no practice etc. you will need to take your knives to a professional edgemaker!! All belted abrasive tools need time/patience to get good, but it'll be less time than with stones!! The "medium grit" belt is normally used for sharpening a well-cared for blade on occasion as needed, the fine grit for semi-regular honing, where you want something more aggressive than a steel, but less than attempting to adjust a primary grind to facilitate sharpness.EDIT: 2/24/14 I used the 6k purple belt to polish away the tiny imperfections from the back of my Spyderco H1 Salt Pacific, and now it shaves hair! Make sure you polish AWAY FROM the edge if you do that...or you'll cut the belt! Also, if you have a combo edge knife, each portion of the edge must be sharpened INDEPENDENTLY. Sharpen the plain edge parts as normally done and then follow the directions for sharpening the serrated parts the way you would a fully serrated blade.Tantos must be VERY carefully done, because the flat portion on the nose needs to be treated as if it is a seperate small blade, otherwise you will ruin your knife. My suggestion is the Spyderco TSM for these, unless youre REALLY good on the WSKTS-KO.I will update this review as I go along, but as for now, this is a "TD Essential Sharpening Gizmo List" chart-topper. Highly recommended.Edit 6/19/15Still well satisfied----just keeps getting better!....I'm thinking about snagging the Wskts field kit to complete the lineup!.....May consider a 1 by 30 too. Everything comes full circle.