Benchmade Edge Maintenance Tool

Petunia D. Feeble

I sharpen things.
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Jun 30, 2016
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$50 ceramic rod and leather strop in a pocketable, folding setup with angle guides and pocket clip. Thoughts?

I think it's a little overpriced and I'm annoyed that I didn't think of it first.

There are more pocket friendly rods available I think, but the angle guides and onboard strop should make it pretty handy. I'll probably pick one up when they're in stock. I don't do preorders.
 
Benchmade's other WorkSharp product is overpriced. I'm not not willing to pay a 33% premium for a Benchmade-branded WorkSharp Guided Field Sharpener when I can get it direct from WorkSharp for $10 less.

The problems with WorkSharp's guided systems are:
  • they are not acute enough for me, and
  • the ultimate edge angle is a function of the blade grind angle, which can vary from knife to knife.
 
It's a worksharp collab. I own the guided field sharpener and pocket sharpener, as they work good for quick touch ups and for use at work.

For portable worksharps their diamonds are set at 20dps, and the ceramic and strops at 25dps. More obtuse than I like, but considering the abuse I put my knives through it works quite well. Plus even at these angles you can still get them to slice receipt and phone book paper with ease. So acceptable for a work knife for sharpness but edge retention is lacking compared to a proper 15dps edge. But that's a moot point if this is kept handy as touch ups are quick.

I imagine they are using a round ceramic which they advertise as being good with serrations which from my experience their not and are quite useless in that regard. Their good with recurves though and that's about it.

A missed opportunity, it should have had their 320grit diamond plate and strop in my opinion. It would have made a nice combo. Or the 320 diamond and ceramic at the very least but than it would have e been the worksharp pocket sharpener in a different format. As it stands now it is really for maintaining an edge with no real chance of doing any major sharpening if you were ready for the time sink which the others allowed you to do.
 
For portable worksharps their diamonds are set at 20dps, and the ceramic and strops at 25dps. More obtuse than I like ... .

it's worse than that. If the grind on your blade is, say, 5dps, then the edge you are stropping is 30dps -- great angle for an axe, not so good for a pocket knife.
 
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