Is the Accusharp the Best Inexpensive Simple Sharpener?

N

Nalapombu

Joined
Oct 26, 2001
Messages
303
Hey all,

A week or 2 ago on another forum I am a member of there was a member talking about how he had found the most wondering small, inexpensive sharpener he had ever seen or used. I thought he was going to talk about the Accusharp, which I have, but he didn't.
I don't know the brand or the name of it, but it had 2 wheels on the front that were mounted flat and the blade passed between them where the edges barely came together. He mentioned about how the AMISH use them or something and that they worked fabulously. The best part was that he bought 3 or 4 of them to give away for gifts for about $4 each.

Do you all have any idea what sharpener he was talking about? If so, have you used it? How did it work for you, if you are familiar with what I am describing?

I have an Accusharp and am wondering whether this new, cheap sharpener is a better tool to sharpen knives with than the ACCUSHARP is.
Can you comment on this?
Is there an inexpensive, portable sharpener that works better than all the others that you can enthusiastically recommend?

What do you think?

Thanks for your help.
Larry
 
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Something like this perhaps. Dmt fine coarse diamond sharpener

Nobody here likes pull through sharpening devices.
 
Especially not $4 ones! I'd suggest the DMT Dia-Fold shown above if you want to go inexpensive. They work well... they just require some freehand sharpening skill.
 
Accusharp is not good at all. Whoever told you that was a nob or trolling you hard.

The two wheels sharpeners are also not good. You want flat sharpening stones or a guided system.
 
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https://hubpages.com/food/Make-your...arp-by-removing-metal-contaminates-from-edges

Have a look at the pictures in this article. You don't have to read it.

Notice the first picture. The scratch pattern is somewhat vertical. That's what you want.
The rest of the pictures the scratch patterns are horizontal. That's what you get with the pull through sharpeners. That's why the edge is never sharp and quickly degrades.
Anyway you slice it, your are better off with poor free hand sharpening, than accusharp. And, you will figure it out eventually and get better.
 
Hey guys and gals.

None of these are the one I am talking about. I already have an ACCUSHARP and it works for me fairly well. I don't claim to be an expert at sharpening....nor anything else for that matter. I am just looking for something easy that works well for someone like me that never learned how to sharpen a knife free hand.

What got me interested in it was comment after comment about how awesome it is. Everyone that bought one said it was awesome. I believe the guy said they were $4 each. If you took a flat piece of aluminum and mounted 2 wheels flat on it and left a tiny space between so you could drag your blade thru it, that's what it looks like. They claimed that it beat the pants off the Accusharp and every other one of these drag thru sharpeners that he has tried over the years. I'll try and find a pic of it and post it later so you all will know more about what I am talking about.

NOT saying anyone here is wrong, just trying to get you all the best info so you know know what I am talking about so you can comment appropriately. That's all.

Back later.

Thank you for your time.
Larry
 
for ease of use and no knowledge necessary ---well very little---try the Spyderco Sharpmaker. Get the diamond stone or simply wrap coarse silicon carbide sand paper around the included stones; now you can touch up, sharpen and re profile too. No disadvantages of the pull thru. You get a properly formed edge and can choose either 15 or 20 degrees per side.
 
Sorry Larry but both that and your accusharp are both terrible. Please do yourself a favor and don't use either.

Best wishes.
 
Fine. I shall assume the role of the Advocatus Diaboli and recommend that you splurge on the Rada and sharpen a few knives with it. Then let us know how it performs against the AccuSharp. Include a maintenance comparison as well. I want to know which of the two to truly avoid.
 
They'll work on Rada knives, but only because they're thin, soft steel that doesn't hold an edge worth beans. I like Rada's aluminum handles, but their blade geometry is awful and their heat treatment is buttery soft so there's nearly no point in even sharpening them. I've used drag-throughs in the past and they give consistently inconsistent edges that aren't very sharp to begin with and deteriorate rapidly. They'll mangle a good blade rapidly. The best results come from using a very light touch, but the drag-through also must have an angle that's not overly thick, and the edge can't have been very far gone to begin with. Anything short of that and it's going to make a real mess of things.
 
Nalapombu said:
What got me interested in it was comment after comment about how awesome it is.
Click to expand...
It is a common practice these days to fill up comment sections with fake comments made either by the seller or people who get paid to write up fake 5-star comments. There is even a web site specifically intended to help spot faked up reviews (Fakespot.com - it's a legit web site).

I looked at the pics you posted and that thing is utter crap. If I were going to use ANY kind of pull-through sharpener, it would have crossed ceramic rods and would be used only for touch-ups in the field or perhaps for deburring off of a coarser stone. Gatco makes a couple like that, as does Accusharp (their SharpNEasy 2-step). Nothing with carbides, though, and I would be leery of diamonds used in a pull-through because of the tendency of diamond to leave deeper scratches. It's still a bad choice, but less bad than others.
 
OP: if you just want validation of your approach using a cheap ineffective sharpener, you may have a hard time getting that on Bladeforums. No offense, just sayin'. ;) If your main concern is for simple, effective, and affordable sharpening that even a non-pro can do, there are a lot better options than the one you are looking at. Folks have already given some here. Here's a mixed list of a few that meet the criteria of simple to use, fairly cheap, and effective. I've used all of these except the Work Sharp, which I've only read good reviews of.

  • Work Sharp guided field sharpening system ($28.99 on Azon)
  • Spyderco Sharpmaker ($45 to $50)
  • DMT pocket 2-side diamond sharpeners (around $30)
  • Dual-side Spyderco ceramic/carbide stone, like the Double-stuff ($30)

Lots of good options out there, but pull-thru isn't one of them. For in the ballpark of $30 to $50, you can get a great easy-to-use sharpener that will get you good results.
 
Thanks for that cool website, jc57 -- Fakespot.com. I looked up the Rada sharpener that the OP is interested in. It gets a grade of B, with 80 percent high-quality reviews.

http://fakespot.com/product/rada-cu...ed-steel-wheels-designed-for-rada-knives-r119

However, it's clear that this is just another cheap pull-through sharpener. It actually looks more poorly made than most. The thing is that people who know little to nothing about knife sharpening (most people) like the convenience and have so little understanding of the sharpening process that poor-performing sharpeners like this can get good reviews, just because the thing is super easy to use and gets the blade reasonably sharp. I had a friend who swore by these things, but his knife edges were horrible. He didn't care.



jc57 said:
It is a common practice these days to fill up comment sections with fake comments made either by the seller or people who get paid to write up fake 5-star comments. There is even a web site specifically intended to help spot faked up reviews (Fakespot.com - it's a legit web site).

I looked at the pics you posted and that thing is utter crap. If I were going to use ANY kind of pull-through sharpener, it would have crossed ceramic rods and would be used only for touch-ups in the field or perhaps for deburring off of a coarser stone. Gatco makes a couple like that, as does Accusharp (their SharpNEasy 2-step). Nothing with carbides, though, and I would be leery of diamonds used in a pull-through because of the tendency of diamond to leave deeper scratches. It's still a bad choice, but less bad than others.
Click to expand...
 
You can go to wallyworld and get a 2 sided smith diamond sharpener similar to the dmt shown for 15 bucks or so...
They work...

Russ
 
Bluntcut had an interesting thread about his own sharpener a while back. He made it a game for people to try to figure it out. In the end he revealed that it was a piece of medium hardness wood that he had drawn a knife through the end grain of. Then he sprinkled abrasive grit into the slot that the blade had cut.

Making a very quick "custom" pull through sharpener with the grit of his choice.

Brian.
 
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