What's the best sharpening system

As with many things hobby/knife related things tend to get obsessive at one point or another.
Do yourself a favor and do as recommended and look for a working nicely sharp edge and consistency first, finish later on. Otherwise you might need a lot of patience or become frustrated that you can not get the same results as some of the guys here posting knifeporn and having gone through several hundred of dollars worth of sharpening equipment.

As for best system... Well wicked edge and kme get a lot of votes, edge pro and sharpmaker are good as well. And they all work!

What do you want to do? Reprofile? Just sharpen? Maintenance?
Personally I have used:
Sharpmaker
Lansky
3d printed edge pro with dmt stones
Dmt aligner set
Dmt stones
Various water stones
And I probably forget stuff, still I am not an expert.
My vote?
Get a sharpmaker with maybe uf stones for maintenance and set your knives to either 15 or 20 dps with something like a kme/edge pro or let a pro do it for you.

I mean sure, if money is not an issue, just get the full set of wicked edge, can't go wrong there, even though even that set has its limits.

If you decide to really invest you might consider going the long tedious route of learning free hand. It is rather Zen and definitely more about the whole process than just achieving a working edge efficiently when you aim for a mirror edge free hand.
 
I’d suggest the sharpmaker with the additional UF stones. As long as you don’t let my knives get very dull the sharpmaker is one of the cheapest amd easiest options. The UF stones put a hair popping edge on my CRK’s.
 
Please forgive the dumb question: What are UF stones?

I have a Sharpmaker, by the way. While it’s easy to use, I find the basic, included stones lack grit and feel so smooth that it sometimes feels like I’m not making much progress in taking knives from dull to sharp.
 
I recently got one of those Work Sharp field sharpeners for hunting trip touch ups. But it works surprisingly well. It has diamond plates and ceramic hones. A few strokes on a s35vn folder put it into razor range. It even worked great on a 5 inch fixed blade in S3v, a real hard to sharpen blade.

It is a bit small so probably not as good for larger blades.
 
Spyderco Sharpmaker hands down. It's also what CRK recommends. The sharpmaker and the vintage systems it is based off is all I have used for over 30 years. You can sharpen a blade for years and it still looks like new, unlike many systems that remove too much blade material. But like any system, there is a certain technique that you should use.

I have had individuals ask me for instruction for years and I finally got around to doing a video and shared it on YouTube. In it you will see me share my experience and also explain how to sharpen the sebenza with it. Don't beat me up too bad as it's my first video. If you have any questions, just ask. If you see me fumbling with the sebenza, it's because I was recovering from a broken hand. Enjoy

 
JohnM said:
Please forgive the dumb question: What are UF stones?

I have a Sharpmaker, by the way. While it’s easy to use, I find the basic, included stones lack grit and feel so smooth that it sometimes feels like I’m not making much progress in taking knives from dull to sharp.
Click to expand...

Ultra fine
 
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