Ken Onion Work Sharp BGA tips from a new user

[adx442]

Long time lurker, rare poster.

So, after Christmas, I figured a few of you have received a Work Sharp Ken Onion edition, and if you're like me, you immediately bought the Blade Grinding Attachment to go with it. I've been sharpening for many years, and my go-to was always my KME system. It does a great job. However, even with diamond stones, I was really tired of spending 30-60 minutes on any of the super steel knives we have. I don't find it meditative, as we have a 6 year old, and a free hour of time is hard to find. I've learned to freehand sharpen this year, and I've gotten decent at it, but it still takes a lot of time.

There's plenty of posts and YouTube videos about the WSKO and BGA, so I won't re-hash any of that, but I wanted to post my findings as a new user with plenty of "normal" sharpening experience.

• First, everyone will tell you to start on a beater knife or two until you get your footing with the system. This is critical, but I'll add a couple of tips. Make sure your beater matches the stock type of what you'll mostly be doing. If you're doing folders, use a gas station folder. If you're doing kitchen knives, use a Wal-Mart Tramontina or something. Like for like.
• Don't use the slowest speed. The motor can overheat, as it's not drawing in enough air to keep itself cool. A lot of the failures you'll read about are due to this.
• Light touch. Just enough to contact the belt. I've found that the less you can deflect the belt, the faster it works. I use a forefinger-thumb grip near the tip of the blade, and as close to the heel of the blade with the other hand. Guide it gently with both hands to follow the shape of the blade.
• I find it easiest to be looking directly down at where the belt and blade are meeting. Looking straight down also helps you hold the knife straight.
• Don't pull the tip past the mid-point of the belt, just lift it away as it gets to the belt center. Common knowledge, but bears repeating. You'll also usually need to angle the rear of the handle fairly far away from the center to actually sharpen the tip. Probably more than you initially think. You'll hear the tone of the belt change if you go a millimeter too far.
• When feeling for a burr, remember that different steels create different burrs. I find the burr on M4 to be very easy to see and feel, but M390 is finer and requires me to use a light source to check for it.
• Smooth and fast. I think 1 second per inch is a bit slow. I tend to do more passes at a half second per inch.
• My best results have come from raising the burr on the coarse belt (same side passes until that happens uniformly), the same number of passes that took on the other side, then 3-4 alternating passes. Move to Medium, and just do alternating passes. Same with Fine and the Strop.
• You can add compound to the strop whenever you want. It's 12000 grit to start with, I added green compound to mine to coarsen it up somewhat.
• Use a belt cleaning stick from Menard's or Lowes to clean your belts (not the strop belt, though) every sharpening. It only takes a second, and they'll last a lot longer and work better.
• Don't pause. Ever. Blade is contacting belt, your hands are moving.

Anyway, I hope this helps a couple of new users out. I've been having great success in 10 minute sharpenings with M4, M390, and D2 steels. Here's my Benchmade Super Freek in M4 that I did today (user knife, but it still got close to a mirror finish). This was its first sharpening since I bought it 6 months ago, it's only been stropped.

https://imgur.com/q2L0z1K

https://imgur.com/vqilZq8

I've really enjoyed the system, and having some freehand experience helps, but that flat reference plate is terrific for getting yourself straighted out every pass.

 

[adx442]

Sorry, guys, I can't seem to get the IMGUR links to work right.

 

[c7m2p3]

Good stuff. One other thing I would add to the list is to use the sharpie trick here as the angle guide on the back is more of a rough suggestion rather than hard and fast angles. The stock of the knife, curve, etc are going to affect the final angle. Its going to be easiest to just color the edge in with a sharpie, throw on the strop belt, and find the angle where the sharpie is being removed and then going to the course grit. Starting out with course at too low and angle (too acute) can result in some overly wide bevels or worse, marring on the blade face (something I found out the hard way trying to go well below 20 degrees).

 

[adx442]

Good stuff. One other thing I would add to the list is to use the sharpie trick here as the angle guide on the back is more of a rough suggestion rather than hard and fast angles. The stock of the knife, curve, etc are going to affect the final angle. Its going to be easiest to just color the edge in with a sharpie, throw on the strop belt, and find the angle where the sharpie is being removed and then going to the course grit. Starting out with course at too low and angle (too acute) can result in some overly wide bevels or worse, marring on the blade face (something I found out the hard way trying to go well below 20 degrees).

That's a really good point. I use the Sharpie with the KME all the time, I don't know why I didn't consider it with the WS system.

 

[ksmoker2]

ADX44
Are you achieving the same level of sharpness as with your KME? I've been having the KOWS with BGA for a couple months now and I'm wanting a guided system for my more expensive folders. While learning I nicked the handle on an EDC and the thumb studs on one. Just have to take your time. It works fantastic on the kitchen knives. My Menchmade mini bugout in S30V never seems to come out as sharp as my Kershaw in S35VN.

 

[adx442]

ADX44
Are you achieving the same level of sharpness as with your KME? I've been having the KOWS with BGA for a couple months now and I'm wanting a guided system for my more expensive folders. While learning I nicked the handle on an EDC and the thumb studs on one. Just have to take your time. It works fantastic on the kitchen knives. My Menchmade mini bugout in S30V never seems to come out as sharp as my Kershaw in S35VN.

I'm sure there are better people than me with the KME (using diamond stones and a hand strop to finish), but yes, I'm getting to as good or better results with the KOWS. I use a very light touch on the KOWS, and I feel like I'm going to be able to do touch-ups with just the strop belt (adding compound if needed) or Fine and then strop. I'd say 5 minutes on the KOWS is equal to 45 minutes on the KME for me.

My general sharpness test is shaving hair and being able to push cut a "weekly shopper" newspaper page at all points along the edge without a slicing motion. All of mine are user knives, so that's as sharp as I'll ever need anything.

 

[ksmoker2]

Thanks

I'm sure there are better people than me with the KME (using diamond stones and a hand strop to finish), but yes, I'm getting to as good or better results with the KOWS. I use a very light touch on the KOWS, and I feel like I'm going to be able to do touch-ups with just the strop belt (adding compound if needed) or Fine and then strop. I'd say 5 minutes on the KOWS is equal to 45 minutes on the KME for me.

My general sharpness test is shaving hair and being able to push cut a "weekly shopper" newspaper page at all points along the edge without a slicing motion. All of mine are user knives, so that's as sharp as I'll ever need anything.

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Peregrin]

A adx442
I enjoyed reading your review of you Work Sharp Ken Onion Edition with the Blade Grinder attachment. Your bulleted points are all good. My experience is very similar. I was even able to bring nice points back to a couple of my older kitchen knives. I was really pleased that I got the knack for using this setup so quickly.
I made a couple of posts in the Lounge of the Traditional Forum that might be of value here.
_________________________________________________________________________
I've been using Lansky and KME guided rod systems for years and keeping the families' knives sharp. My youngest son and his wife brought a couple of Shun kitchen knives for me to sharpen. The blades were so chipped and dinged up it took me forever to get them usable again. I decided I needed a better tool.

My wife was looking for ideas on what I'd like for Christmas, a new knife perhaps? I told her I'd prefer a new knife sharpener, and I knew just what I wanted and would order it.

So the Work Sharp Ken Onion Elite arrived a few days before Christmas, and I was advised I should let her wrap it for the 25th. My response was, at 70 years old I shouldn't have to wait to use a new toy, you just never know what might happen.... It worked.

I set it up and used the blade grinding attachment (the Elite includes the Ken Onion Work Sharp and the blade grinding attachment, at a substantial discount over purchasing them separately) to sharpen an old Utica Cutlery Chefs knife I had laying around my work area. I gotta say this thing is the bees knees! I spent 20 minutes or so on it, using three belts, the 220, 1,000 and 3,000 grit, following the included instructions. I took it upstairs to show my bride. She was making a sandwich for lunch, and proceeded to test it out on a tomato. Son of a gun did it slice a tomato! I got a nice even 20 degree grind on the edge. It was shaving sharp, and it looked like I knew what I was doing! I'm impressed!
Merry Christmas to me!

I've been using my Christmas present with good results, so far.
I'd been holding off on sharpening this 6" Santoku. A 440C blade, handled with some Rosewood that came from Tony Bose. A great cutter that I really enjoy using. I'm really happy with the results.

I've sharpened a half dozen or so knives and I'm very comfortable and confident using the Work Sharp.

I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this to anyone that asks. It's really a pleasure to use.

 

[adx442]

Well, thank you, Peregrin ! Much appreciated. I feel your hesitance on the santuko, that was one of the last ones I tried as well. I don't like doing that one on the KME system, though, either.

My wife is a private chef for hire, and I went through all of my favorite knives before I felt confident enough to do her Bradford M390 8" chef's knife (a Christmas gift from me a few years ago when she started her business). It's a beautiful piece of steel, and I was very, very proud to be able to get it done with even bevels and slicing a held paper towel without marring any of the finish. She's more pragmatic than me; if it's sharp, it's good in her opinion ... she's going to put it through 10 pounds of summer squash on Monday in any event. But I would have felt shame for ages. Nice to know I can keep it honed for her now without going through my whole KME setup rigamarole.

Lovely job on your chef knife, very nice bevel!

 

[c7m2p3]

Has anyone tried any aftermarket belts? Replacing belts with the standard worksharp brand is probably the easiest but they are fairly pricy compared to standard abrasive belts. Just wondering if anyone has had some good experience with other brands 1X18 belts. Even if they dont last as long if they are a fraction of the price they would be worth a bulk order.

 

[ksmoker2]

Has anyone tried any aftermarket belts? Replacing belts with the standard worksharp brand is probably the easiest but they are fairly pricy compared to standard abrasive belts. Just wondering if anyone has had some good experience with other brands 1X18 belts. Even if they dont last as long if they are a fraction of the price they would be worth a bulk order.

I have the Super Strop 1x18 ones off amazon. They seem to work just as good as the factory if not better. They come with a leather belt and compound vs the stock ultra fine. But they are close to the price of stock ones. Maybe they have them available in bulk, I didn't really check for that. Just the leather belt is around $13 if i remember rite.

 

[scottc3]

Has anyone tried any aftermarket belts? Replacing belts with the standard worksharp brand is probably the easiest but they are fairly pricy compared to standard abrasive belts. Just wondering if anyone has had some good experience with other brands 1X18 belts. Even if they dont last as long if they are a fraction of the price they would be worth a bulk order.

Bought directly from big river, and used the WSKO sized belts from the 24 pack (4 sets of 6 grits with cutting materials called out for each grit). Waste of like 4 of the 16 bucks spent. One coarse grit belt was cut (or taped wrong) and unusable, another less coarse grit, maybe 240, makes noise on 2 belts tried. Finer belts worked, and I will see how long they last compared to OEM.
Third party WSKO sized 12k stropping belt plus, um something like 0.5 micron in small white stick form is wonderful, bought off bay, and he sells at etsy as well. The regular WSKO kit does not come with 12k belt, but the blade grinding attachment OEM kit belt set comes with a 12k stropping, so this old dog is getting shinny bright mirror edges, which until now, I have never bothered chasing... with just our WSKO kit.
Also have leather belts with green and white compound but have not used.
Trying to get away from using the guide, as I saw BBB demonstrate on a utube with his WSKO. I started by eying knife's belt location and verticality with and then without the guide. Next, I need to shine a laser as a reference on belt, to try and get as consistent a knife position as with the guide, which gave me very consistent bevels for knives that can be used with the guide. I am as impressed with this kit as the OP!

adx442, What kind of service does that 8" m390 Bradford provide your wife, relative to 440 / VG10 blades?

 

[c7m2p3]

I have the Super Strop 1x18 ones off amazon. They seem to work just as good as the factory if not better. They come with a leather belt and compound vs the stock ultra fine. But they are close to the price of stock ones. Maybe they have them available in bulk, I didn't really check for that. Just the leather belt is around $13 if i remember rite.

Yeah I actually have the leather belt as well I was looking for more of a replacement for some of the abrasive belts as those tend to wear out faster.

 

[adx442]

scottc3

The M390 does something vital for her in that she makes a lot of soups, chowders, and (uggh) vegetarian fare for her clients ... lots of root vegetables to cut up. The fibrous nature absolutely wrecks a carbon steel or 440 SS knife edge very quickly and she's not great at using the JewelStik to bring it back from that state (she can maintain nicely, but has a hard time field sharpening). The M390 with all the carbides goes from slicey sharp to toothy sharp and stays there for weeks, with just a stropping. At least, that's what she's found with cutting up many pounds of squash, zuccini, potatoes, and root vegetables in a day. If she was mostly working with meat, I don't think it would make much difference outside of basic edge retention time.

It's really like she goes to work and does sisal rope cut tests half the day.

 

[scottc3]

Thx adx442, good old summer spaghetti squash tries the metal of any knife! I got all excited about adding an m390 kitchen knife but alas lots of searching clarified things, like William Henry, Burl Mnandi's, the ones I found were to rich for my budget. I started thinking maybe a thinned out BM 810-1401's 4 inch blade could serve double duty... love m390.

 

[adx442]

Thx adx442, good old summer spaghetti squash tries the metal of any knife! I got all excited about adding an m390 kitchen knife but alas lots of searching clarified things, like William Henry, Burl Mnandi's, the ones I found were to rich for my budget. I started thinking maybe a thinned out BM 810-1401's 4 inch blade could serve double duty... love m390.

scottc3 Just got an e-mail from Bradford Knives, they're doing another run of the M390 8" Chef's Knife and the matching paring knife ... this weekend, the chef knife is on pre-sale for two hundred instead of two fifty.

 

[zyhano]

thanks adx442. good tips. I've bought one recently and was looking for some user feedback and yours helped too.

I really like the tool, having been (and still am) in the same situation as you where time is getting more and more valuable and freehanding is just too time consuming and frankly, a drag. Once you are able to sharpen a knife adequately, it is a nice skill that you have learned and that you can maintain, but for me (and ymmv) it's not about the sharpening itself, it's about the edge. SInce I've acquired the skill and the XP/level up, i now find that I'm perfectly happy with a more efficient means to reach the goal of a sharp edge. and that includes the sharpmaker and now the WSKO.

 

[Jobor]

Hi, another tip, and a question

Tip: One thing I found helps is manually stropping on rough (denim style) cloth on a board, in between each belt. Just a couple of passes.
Not sure if this is redundant when you get more proficient using the BGA, but right now I seem to get much better results when I do this.

Question: I noticed it seems impossible to sharpen the whole edge of some kitchen knives with 10-15 degree edge angle, without getting the handle in touch with the belt. Luckily I have only tried with some budget knives so far, but it makes me hesitant to try it with more expensive blades. Any ideas, am I missing something?

 

[c7m2p3]

Hi, another tip, and a question

Tip: One thing I found helps is manually stropping on rough (denim style) cloth on a board, in between each belt. Just a couple of passes.
Not sure if this is redundant when you get more proficient using the BGA, but right now I seem to get much better results when I do this.

Question: I noticed it seems impossible to sharpen the whole edge of some kitchen knives with 10-15 degree edge angle, without getting the handle in touch with the belt. Luckily I have only tried with some budget knives so far, but it makes me hesitant to try it with more expensive blades. Any ideas, am I missing something?

To your question, I have noticed this as a limitation of the system with folding knives as well. When trying to get that last part of the heel of the blade in contact with the belt it is very difficult to avoid the handle or even worse, thumb studs from contacting the moving belt.

Something that has helped me some is angling the knife so that the tip is pointing more towards you and that puts the handle almost behind the moving belt if that makes sense. You have to be very conscious of your angle that you are holding the knife at but it reduces the chance that you are going to mar up your handles.

 

[Jobor]

Something that has helped me some is angling the knife so that the tip is pointing more towards you and that puts the handle almost behind the moving belt if that makes sense.

Good to know it is just not me, then.

Regarding angling the handle forward, yes that is the only real solution I can see as well. But I am thinking it could potentially round the heel of the edge, after a number of sessions? Not a big issue for some knives, but an aesthetic issue for blades with a 90 degree heel, and might affect performance for some chefs knives.

Or if it is my own knives, and something not too exclusive, maybe just use the BGA with fine belts to restoring/polishing the scratches away....