Lansky system thoughts.

Gets your knife sharp, but isn't very comfortable in doing so.
Save up a bit more money and get a better system.

I should have done that :rolleyes:
 
Probably fine for a pocket knife providing the spine has a flat portion for the clamp to grip.

No so much for a large fixed blade.

What are you intending to sharpen?
 
I have a Lansky diamond set and have used it for years. These days I mostly sharpen freehand but use the Lansky set for very dull or abused knives. I sharpen for friends and family and sometimes encounter some knives badly in need of TLC. I sharpen both fixed blades and folders on the Lansky.
The Lansky is an old concept and some do turn up their noses as evidenced by this thread. No need to count out the Lansky sets, they are excellent for both novices and trained to use. At the very least, the Lansky offers a great way to learn about angles for sharpening (though some dont get along with the Lansky angles). Some think it a bother to use the clamp in light of more modern sharpening sets. Lansky sets work and are dirt cheap compared to the competition.
As for alternatives, look at the Spyderco Sharpmaker.
 
The Lansky system will get your knife sharp. But if you need more precise angles and to get those angles more easily, you may want to look elsewhere
 
I had a Lansky and hated it,it's pain as far as how the clamp works.

Look at a KME before the Lansky for sure or look at a Hapstone they are an even better choice because the stones are longer because they use the edge pro format stones and the longer stones make sharpening a breeze for speed plus stone selection is much much better over the KME.

If you are wanting to sharpen pocket knifes and if you don't care about time then a KME will work but it can really slow going on steels like M4 M390 S30V and S110V and other wear resistant steels.
If you don't have a lot of knifes to sharpen then you may want to look at the KME system,if you plan on getting a bunch of knifes then I would look at the Hapstone sharpeners or something that use's edge pro blanks.
 
Standardizing on systems works for anything including free hand. I buy KME and sharpmaker bits n pieces as I go along, which fits my modest budget. There are quite a few 3rd party parts for KME and Sharpmaker that increase there utility. And believe it or not some interesting ideas from the Chinese ripoffs of the KME, that could be useful for fabrication state side, eg. re-purposing Ron's axe tool to make a +8 inch kitchen blade sharpener "sliding bar"). Supplimenting my KME diamond and natural stone set, I bought a used Gritomatic silicon carbide stone set kit and 1st gen Venev bonded diamond set that are great.
I have a 30 buck KME Edgepro/sharpmaker rod universal stone holder from Jesse Stroup
(Jesse s&w on utube) that I have not used yet. And Gritomatic has a sweet but more expensive version that I will get if Jesse's unit proves useful. I'm thinking Jesse's holder will get a winter workout as most "supersteel" blades are holding edges incredibly well (BM-940 20cv only needing a sharpmaker rod every 6 months or so for a quick touchup). Thingiverse, very cool place, has a 3d printable KME stone holder I'm hoping a son will print up at school.
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3457566
Additionally, KME's small knife clamps, axe sharpening attachment, and angle compensater are demonstrable evidence that Ron is building flexibility into his system. And finally, I am thinking that a KME advanced alignment guide like the one from Wicked Edge, with a fold and slot for quick repeatable clamp alignments would be useful if it is not rube goldberg.
 
The lansky is too fiddly and slow for me, being used to bench stones.
If I were to get another guided sharpener, it won't be a clamp type.
 
I've owned a Lansky for years. As said, it works, but isn't comfortable or a lot of fun. They're cheap enough. Try one. It may help you figure out what you want when you're ready to spend $$$$.
 
I started out on the Lansky and still use it for pocketknives with smaller blades such as my Swiss Army knives. For larger blades I invested in the basic Edge Pro kit which I love. For kitchen knives I freehand on whetstones.

The Lansky is not a bad place to start if you only want to do shorter blades, just be sure to get the mounting base or the c clamp base, it makes it significantly easier to use!
 
the major limiting factor to the lansky is blade length, in my opinion. anything over about 4 or 4.5" starts to get awkward.

otherwise, it will work. I'd recommend the diamond stones and the mounting base.
it was my first system, really helped me to understand sharpening (along with lots of reading here) - and I still use it when i need to reset an edge.
 
The thing I didn't like about my Lansky is how the guide rod goes threw the system itself and if you go to fast it bounce's around and the stones can tip over if you go to fast as well.
 
I have used my Lansky for 25-28 years???

I had not used it in a long long time (I usually freehand, or use a belt sander if I need to move some steel).

I reprofiled a CPM3V, with just the standard coarse stone. Took a long time!

I jacked up the ricasso/plunge grind to edge transition. I cant see how to fix it without a primary regrind. On a custom kwaiken from Ben Tendic.

The Lansky makes it easier to do this. Because it is clamp, put rod in holes and grind. Pretty mindless.

I've sharpened that darned edge for nearly a year with ceramic, and diamond stones freehand without screwing it up. I only pulled out the Lansky because I needed a new diamond stone, and was not sure when I would get it.

Mistake.

Now, I have sharpened a lot of knives over the years with it, and have certainly gotten my money's worth out of it. You can keep consistent angles, and get knives very sharp with the. The upside is lower cost. The downside is they are a bit messy and cumbersome.

I have poked my fingers a lot, and lost a good bit of blood using Lansky sharpener.

The stones are too narrow, and tip over while sharpening more than other systems. I have also found the stones to be easy to chip course, medium, fine, sapphire ultra fine, all seem, at some point to suffer a chip).

They are also not great for longer/heavier blades.
I have reprofiled a convex Trailmaster (before I learned how to sharpen a convex properly).

Long, hard work!!

I use a Spyderco sharpmaker in combination with a medium and coarse diamond stone to profile and maintain my edges. I use them freehand, almost exclusively. But the sharpmaker system is pretty handy. I just would not recommend the basic two grit set for heavy reprofiling. You would want to buy the extra coarse and coarse diamond rods stones for that.

There are a lot of guided systems that are fine.

Again, it is a cost to benefit analysis.

I used the Lansky for years and years before moving over to a cheap diamond Smith kit that had the stone in a holder, and two ceramic rods for refining.

I did not use it as much as a fixed system (meaning I did not sharpen too much using the ceramic rods in the v holder) rather I tend to hold the ceramic rod in the hand and sharpen the knife while holding the rod. This allows me to look and feel the angle. Takes a bit of practice, and care not to cut fingers. But works for me, and I don't have to hunch over a table. I can watch tv etc In a comfortable chair.

The diamond stonesz I tend to hand hold them too.

I completely wore out my last diamond stone, and bought new coarse and medium
 
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I for one have not used a Lansky but a Gatco sharpener which offers 6 sharpening angle instead of the 4. The sharpening hone are also wider. Can anyone explain why a Lansky is better?

Not saying that the lansky is better the KME.Something to consider with these system is some blades are asymmetrical edge bevels that is why I'm considering getting a WE. The latest knife sharpened was a HK 14715 which has a 22 degree bevel on one side and the other 25.
 
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The KME is better because you have a few more stone options then the Lansky and Gatco plus the jaws work 100 times better and you can adjust the angle to whatever you want it to be.

With the Wicked Edge from what I understand you are still going to get uneven bevels because the curve in the blade and nothing is going to change that,that's why I a clamp based system like the TSProf or KME because you can re-position the knife every so often and fix uneven bevel's.

I could be wrong about the Wicked Edge but I'm pretty uneven bevels are something you will have to live with.

razorburn said:
I for one have not used a Lansky but a Gatco sharpener which offers 6 sharpening angle instead of the 4. The sharpening hone are also wider. Can anyone explain why a Lansky is better?

Not saying that the lansky is better the KME.Something to consider with these system is some blades are asymmetrical edge bevels that is why I'm considering getting a WE. The latest knife sharpened was a HK 14715 which has a 22 degree bevel on one side and the other 25.
Click to expand...
 
I've had my lansky for a while and I like it. I do want to upgrade to a kme or similar system, but I only ever use the lansky for initial sharpening on a knife with an obtuse bevel (zt or similar) and then use my sharpmaker for everything else. Get a 15 dps edge or close to it, then use the sharpmaker for the microbevel and when necessary use it to thin down the edge at 15 dps with the diamond rods.

Whittles hair, slices through paper towels pretty cleanly... So yea, gets sharp enough for me!
 
I bought the Lansky system last August after years of struggling to sharpen freehand and using pull-through carbide and ceramic sharpeners and Lansky Crock sticks. I like the consistent angle that the Lansky system gives my knives, but I agree with most of the points of criticism mentioned above: it's messy; the stones are too narrow and gouge easily, and it's uncomfortable to use for longer periods (I have yet to buy that little stand that the clamps mount onto). In addition, I have a few other problems with it.

For one, most of the knives I sharpen are pocket knives (SAK, Opinel, and Case), as well as a few Mora knives. All of my pocket knives have angled grinds up to the spine, with no flat parallel surfaces for the clamp to grip really securely. This means that the knife will tend to tilt to one side or the other if it's not clamped just right. Sometimes I will clamp at the very edge of the ricasso, but this is also risky because most of my SAK blades are asymmetrically ground in order to fit between the other tools in the knife.

The Lansky's pre-set angles, however, make it impossible to sharpen a Mora knife and maintain the single bevel of the Scandi grind; the grind angle is just too shallow for the Lansky system.

In addition, I'm having trouble with the beginning of the blade edge, just above the sharpening notch. The stones seem to wear down an area about a millimeter above the notch faster than the rest of the blade, leaving a tiny area that is almost concave rather than straight, and eventually giving the blade a "recurve" just above the ricasso.

My final criticism is the fact that the end and side surfaces of the stones are partially uncovered by the plastic handle. Inevitably, I'll be nearly finished sharpening a knife, when my attention (or hand) slips, and one of two things happens:

1. The stone drops off the knife blade, and I, without realizing this, begin the next stroke...and push the flat end surface of the stone right into the blade edge, rollin or flattening a section of the blade, or

2. At the end of a stroke, the stone drops off of the blade and the side surface of the stone hits the blade tip, flattening it.

Despite these criticisms, I have to say that the Lansky is the best investment in knife sharpening gear that I've made so far.
 
I have the diamond kit. I like it and it works, but as others have said it's slow and not the most comfortable thing to use. I'd hate to try to sharpen a large knife with it. You could do a whole lot worse for the price.
 
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