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What is a knife used for to spend so much for a sharpening system?

3K views 23 replies 18 participants last post by  Taxed2death 
#1 · (Edited)
I have read most of the post on peoples preference for there knife sharpeners and have learned a lot.
I am interested in what the knife is used for that people would spend $300 plus for a knife sharpening system like the Wicked Edge.
My EDC knives can be kept sharp enough for my needs with a $50.00 Spyderco Sharpmaker and a couple of home made strops using .5 micron diamond spray and green rouge. The knife is sharp enough for the needs of a pocket knife.
I enjoy whittling soft woods like pine, Using the same system my knives are sharp enough..
I am not being cynical or sarcastic, I am looking to learn more from your experience.
Thanks a lot.
 
#2 ·
The better the sharpened edge and truer the angle of an edge the longer a knife will hold that edge. If it's dark, cold, and raining and two deer on the ground to dress a knife that holds it's edge makes a good sharpener worth it's cost.
 
#5 ·
I always used a Case muskrat. You have two identical blades. I have field dressed four deer in a day with that knife no problem. As the one blade starts to go you have another that is the same. Back then I just had a stone my grandfather gave from when he worked in Bethlehem Steel. Nothing special.
 
#7 ·
Y'all will probably laugh at me, but once I have a good edge, a few swipes on my Chicago Cutlery steel does the job.
 
#8 ·
Some like them because for the first time they can actually get a good edge where they never could with freehand. Others like guided systems because they allow you to cut a very even and clean bevel and take sharpness to new levels of refinement. They can also be fairly quick for just getting a good working edge.

I freehanded my carbon and 440/420HC knives for decades on a tri-hone set and could get some nice, sharp knives. However, for D2 and tougher steels that wouldn't cut it. (No pun intended.) I ended up with the KME with both ceramic and diamond stones and four different strops and CBN emulsions. I can knock out a clean, even bevel and go to the 1500 Gold diamond then a strop with CBN 4 micron and have a very nice edge in short order. I can even lean back in the chair with a video playing while I sharpen. That edge alone exceeds my old freehanded edges. When I spend a little more time and go to all the way up to the 0.1 micron stropping then it's really cutting with ease. Add in the waterstones, both for the system and the bench stones, and you can get silly with sharpening and polishing.

It boils down to making things works easier and be easier to understand the principles for some and just having more control and further levels to take it for others.

For my not fancy kitchen knives and some others I just use (carefully use) a Harbor Freight 1x30 belt sander with 2-4 different grits of sharpening belts and a leather stropping belt with compound.

Good steel with a finely refined and polished edge done right can have a bit more longevity and if you cut finer things can simply whisper through a number of materials from cloth to kitchen prep. I usually don't go that far for my EDCs myself.

Ultimately though what you use the knife for defines the edge you need. Even if you only want to go to a 600 - 1500 edge, or even just a 300 grit, a system like the KME or others can let you knock that out quickly with a clean bevel and clean edge stem to stern.
 
#9 ·
I like the Edge Pro. It requires some (for lack of a better expression) "body English" to get a perfectly true edge but I'm able to obtain a far better edge in far less time than I ever got free handing.

Yes, I was able to put a decent edge on a knife, one that would work. I could sometimes get a better edge but the time and effort seemed extraordinary for the return on the effort. Having used the guided system I've become hooked on them as my whole idea of what a dull edge is has changed-what I used to think was serviceable is now a dullness the knives don't get to.

Lastly, having established a true bevel I've found that it is easier and quicker to resharpen any given edge as long as it isn't chipped or something bad like that. In fact if you've got a good bevel it's amazing how a really simple strop will bring the cutting edge back.

Is it worth it to you personally make that kind of investment?

Only you can make that choice...
 
#10 ·
I have a table mount Lansky kit that I have had for 15 years. Still gives me a good edge every time.
 
#11 ·
As a career sailor, I have used knives a lot.

Cutting and splicing eight inch hawsers is a real job. Uniline, Samson double braid, Manila, Kevlar, Mylar. You go and cut this stuff up for hours at a time and it will wear on you. If you do not have a good knife then you are out of luck. All that we ever had available to us was basic stones. Additionally all we generally had available to us in the form of knives were carbon steel or maybe Inox or Solingen steel knives. They served us well.

Some people could get the hang of sharpening them and some people never could. I was fortunate in that I was able to get a pretty good grip on this. You give me a decent made knife of one of the above mentioned steels and a good water stone. Which I always preferred over an oil stone. And I will make that thing to where it would cut thru about anything in fairly short order.

It is important to note that these knives, regardless of where they came from or how much you paid for them were generally eaten up over time. that was just the way of it. Knives are tools and tools wear out.

I have no doubt that some of the knives and sharpening implements that are available today produce a really nice edge for a given period of time. And I say go for it if you are so inclined. But I have spent many, many hours using knives for what knives are made for and I will stick with what works for me.
 
#12 ·
Even though I was a knifemaker I never could sharpen very well so I used the grinder to put on the final edge - freehand. That's great until you try and sharpen it and find there's 12 different angles on each side!

I bought a WE and love it. Have not found a knife I can't sharpen, although a big one I made took me 3 hours to straighten out the bevels!

Some guys can whack a blade on a stone and it's sharp, not me. The WE gives me consistent results and I keep notes on what settings and angles worked for each knife. The high end sharpeners aren't for everyone just like high priced anything is not for anyone but I sold what I had too to get it and have never regretted it once.
 
#13 ·
Thank you for the reply to my question "What knives do you have that requires you to own a $300.00 plus sharpening system". Reading the replies it sounds like that the professional knife makers needed a system that could sharpen many kinds of steel for the products they are selling. The other have it because of the verity of knives that they own and the types of steel requires a good system to sharpen their knives. The last is the people that are true knife collectors and as part of their collection is their knife sharpening system.
I have a good understanding now thank you. I have a collection of different things and as a hobbyist in those collection I have spent a lot of money on supporting equipment that made my collection complete and was very satisfying for me. Other people would think I was nuts but that is the fun of having a hobby and the rewards of making it the best it can possibly be. Thank you for your time and replies.
 
#14 ·
Yep, people think it's nuts to spend the $$$ on a WE system plus upgrades but I looked at sharpening knives as a hobby also, something I could really get into since I don't make knives anymore and maybe do for money. I never have done it for money but have sharpened some for free for forum members and it is fun. Just like with reloading - which itself turned into a hobby and I bought the best equipment I could at the time which was all Dillon and then later added a second press (550B). I will spend the bucks if it's something I can really get into.
 
#15 ·
I blame Tourist for mine... lol

For me it was just that I wanted to be able to put a perfect edge on my knife. If the knife itself doesn't give people something to talk about, the edge does. I spent $330 on an edge pro kit to sharpen a $260 Southern Grind bad Monkey. It gives me great pleasure to warn people 3 or 4 times when they use my knife how sharp it is and then end up cutting themselves anyway. lol

I've sharpened a few knives for friends but I doubt I'd ever try to make money at it. If you look around at the guys that are polishing edges on the forums you can just about buy a good sharpening kit for what they charge for a single polish. I knew I wanted to do it to my knives so the purchase was easy for me. It was never about the edge to me... It was about polishing the edge.
 
#16 ·
I am interested in what the knife is used for that people would spend $300 plus for a knife sharpening system like the Wicked Edge.
For me it's not just one knife that justified my investing in a Wicked Edge. The Wicked Edge system was expensive; especially considering all the additional stones and upgrades I've put on mine. I would never have purchased a system like this to sharpen one nice blade.

I bought mine for a number of different reasons. The most important being that I have many many many knives that all need sharpening. Kitchen knives, hunting knives, folding pocket knives, etc.... On top of that, I like consistency. The wicked edge system gives me precise results everytime I use it. I can log the mounting measurements of every knife I sharpen and replicate that exact position for resharpening and touch ups.

I feel the system is worth every penny I've spent on it. :):):)
 
#18 ·
I actually have as much in two bench waterstones, a bench sized 400 Atoma diamond plate, and some bench strops as I do in my KME system.

Being able to create clean and consistent bevels and reprofile at the coarsest levels makes the KME guided system very worth it for me. Also nice to be able to pull it off the stand and lean back and sharpen knives while watching videos, movies, or TV on the computer.

If I only had one or two knives in a basic steel such as 1095 or one of the 440/420HC types for general use then I'd probably do what I did when that was the case. Just drag out the tri-stone set with the corundum and the medium and fine Arkansas on them and freehand. Then strop on some bare leather. However, since it meant dragging the stones out and oiling them up both to sharpen and clean the stones after, I usually let my knife get more dull than I should have before I would do that.

With the guided system I still can reach a much more refined level of edge just with the Gold diamonds and the strops inserts with CBN emulsions. The edges stay sharper longer, touch up quicker, and are a joy to use.
 
#23 · (Edited)
The large professional systems are made for people who sharpen large numbers of large commercial kitchen knives. I did that for a while and if you don't have one you'll spend a lot more time at the bench. A lot of the folks who work in commercial kitchens abuse knives so badly you would not believe it. When they get so dull they will not cut anything they call for a sharpening service to come get them and then you must leave them a spare set until you return theirs. I got around this by offering to pick their knives up when they closed for the day and then I would sharpen late into the night and return when they opened the next morning. They loved it. Buying a pro system to keep only a few personal knives sharp is pretty much overkill. But if you have the money to spend...... Really 2 or 3 large bench stones are all most people really need. The trick is to not wait until they are totally dulled. In my kitchen I have a large block of knives but I never let them get very dull and all I use is a large med./fine diamond stone to bring them back to scary sharp. I use the same stone on my EDC pocket knives and everyone of them will shave.
 
#24 ·
To answer the actual question from the OP:

I have some VERY expensive knives that are also users. Busse, Swamp Rat, others. Some are in excess of $500-$600. I want to keep them not only sharp, but INSANELY sharp since the quality of their steel will allow me to do so and will retain that edge under use. To that, I want the edge to be uniform not just in effect, but also in appearance. I want a consistent angle since I select a particular angle on a particular knife to do a particular job. My Edge Pro Apex allows me to do this in a manner that is much easier and much more consistent than I can achieve with lesser systems or by freehand. It also allows me to re-profile an edge with a high degree of accuracy and consistency. Plus, when I take my stone down to 3000-grit, it gives me an edge that literally WILL split a hair....done it. I want to both, get the most out of my investment in knives, and also protect that investment by putting on a quality edge without removing excessive amounts of steel. The only edge I do by hand anymore is a convex edge, which I employ a mouse pad and fine sandpaper to achieve.
 
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