Work Sharp Ken Onion edition is FREAKIN' AWESOME! Long Post

Medic1210

Medic1210

Joined
Sep 16, 2002
Messages
1,801
Ok, so the grin stretched across my face as I type this is making my cheeks sore! I received my Ken Onion edition do the Darex Work Sharp knife and tool sharpener today, and as the title suggests, this thing is awesome! This post turned out longer than I planned, so if you wanna skip the intro fluff, the actual review will be in the next comment...

So it's been a while since I've been real active on the forum, but for those not familiar, with me, a little background. I'm no spring chicken when it comes to sharpening knives. I have a plethora of DMT bench stones in grits from XX coarse to 8000 grit XX fine. I even have several of their folding pocket models, as well as an original model Wicked Edge Professional Sharpening system with diamond, ceramic and strops. I also have a Spyderco Sharpmaker and several bench size strops. I can put a nice, hair whittling edge on any knife I own, manually or with the WEPSS. While my edges may not be to the same level as others here, like Ankerson or Cliff (IIRC), my edges are by far sharper than anybody I know locally.

Now, that being said, while I can put an impressive edge on a knife manually, it's not a quick process by any stretch of the imagination. Needless to say, after I spend any real time working on an edge, I don't want to use the knife for anything harder than slicing air, because I hate to mess up what I did. This was the main reason I decided to get the WEPS. To me, it seemed like it would be much easier to set up and use, and make my edges much more consistent than I could achieve manually. I figured I would be more apt to use my pristine edges for what they were designed... Cutting stuff. Compared to manual sharpening, this was definitely the case. Still, it's not exactly quick, when you factor in dragging the setup out from where you put it up, trying to get the knife put back into the clamp exactly the way it was last time so the stones perfectly match the bevel, and then working the dulled edge back to pristine glory. While I could get a great working razor edge in a matter of minutes, I hardly ever stopped there. I would spend several minutes on each ceramic and each strop with progressively finer polishing compounds, followed by several minutes on the bench strops with chromium oxide and .25 micron diamond spray. What should have taken me 5 minutes max turns into an almost obsessive 30 minutes or more. Sheesh! I'm back to not wanting to use my knife again, LOL.

Well, fast forward a few months. I have all my knives sharp as ever, and had to put the sharpener up to get it out of the way. I see some mention of a new device called a work sharp tool sharpener. I watch the commercials, and I'm intrigued, albeit torn. On one side, I see a little belt sander that is supposed to put sweet convex edges on any knife quickly. On the other side, I see something that screams made for TV Infomercial that should have Billy Mays or Ron Popeil pushing. It looked cheap. Moving on. Clearly too good to be true...

Well, fast forward even longer to now, and I'm getting the sharpening bug again. I actually start looking for a cheap belt grinder with adjustable speed so I could start convexing my edges, and I come across the Work Sharp again. By this time, I see there are some pretty good reviews and even some good videos on YouTube. Starting to think I may have prematurely written off a decent tool. So I start researching it more. Lo and behold, it looks like they've come out with a new, improved model, and gotten legendary knife designer Ken Onion to endorse it. Since it's so new, there aren't too many reviews, but the specs look really nice. 3/4 inch belt, beefier motor, variable speed, adjustable angles, and some pretty cool attachments in the works. What the heck, I think I'll order one... Placed my order on Amazon and bought one through Northern Tools on Tuesday. It came while I was at work yesterday, so I didn't get to mess with it until today.
 
Sorry for the ridiculously long winded intro. Let's get into why I'm still grinning... This little tool came neatly packaged in a nice box full of photos and descriptions. If I saw it on the shelf, it would have sold me right there. Anyway, I took it out, and within a couple minutes, I had it set up and ready to go. I dialed the speed down to a slow/med speed to minimize heat buildup and also minimize the chances of me eating up my blade. I highly recommend others do this as well, because the coarse belts remove metal FAST! I figured it would take several passes to reprofile my V edge to convex. Nope. Within a few strokes, I had a burr down the full length of the edge. A few more strokes on the other side, and the burr was flipped back over. Changing the belt was very quick, as was my progression through the belts. Within about an hour, I had reprofiled and sharpened 3 Zwilling JA Henckel kitchen knives (chef, santoku, and small utility/pairing), my small Insingo Sebbie, small 21 Sebbie and large 21 Sebbie, my ESSE Izula, my Benchmade Kulgera, AFCK D2, and BM 710 D2. That's 10 knives reprofiled and polished down to hair-whittling, newspaper push cutting sharp convex edges in about an hour. WOW!

Like I said, this thing is FREAKIN' AMAZING! While the included belts do a really good job, and while the number of grits is improved over the standard work sharp, I still feel the steps between grits would be better if they weren't so wide. The kit includes a 120 grit extra coarse, 65 micron coarse that should be equivalent to 200 grit, 22 micron fine which should equate to about a 475 grit, a 4 micron which should equal maybe 2000 grit wet/dry or 8000 aluminum oxide, and also the purple polishing 2 micron belt that is included with the original model. Best I can tell that would equate to a 12000 mesh aluminum oxide grit. All belts are 3/4 " except the purple, which remains 1/2". For me, I feel the finer belts have to work too hard to remove the scratch patterns from the previous belt.

I have seen others mention using aftermarket belts from Micro-surface, so I checked that site out. They have a pretty good selection of 12 inch belts, but only in 1/2 or 1". They don't offer the MX belts in 3/4" x 12", but do offer custom sizes. I contacted them this afternoon, and spoke with a very nice lady about order minimums and price for custom 3/4 x 12 belts, and she said the min order was 8 each and the price went from $0.59 to $0.90 each. Not too bad, but if they offered the 3/4" as a standard, they would be $.59 just like the others. I mentioned the work sharp tool sharpener, and how some folks have been using the 1/2" belts from their company, and told her they should consider offering the 3/4" as well since the new model has been released. She was very pleasant, and was aware of the original work sharp, but wasn't aware of the newer model. I spoke highly of it, and told her there would soon be a demand for the larger width belts. She sounded receptive, and indicated she could possibly add those within a week if there appeared to be any interest.

Ok, back to the sharpener... The unit seems to be very well built. The variable speed is nice, and it even has lock-on feature, though I found it easier to start manually because the speed would slow down when the trigger lock is used since the trigger releases slightly. Also, I preferred to do as the instructions said, and place the blade against the belt prior to squeezing the trigger. That just seemed to work better for me. Also, while the edge angle guide is a nice feature, I preferred to remove it and just use the sharpener like you would a Spyderco Sharpmaker. If you are familiar with using one of those, you would be fine with free handing this device. Based on my android level and protractor app, I found the angle of the belt to be right around 17.3 degrees which would equate to a 34.6 degree inclusive edge if you just held the knife straight like a Sharpmaker. I can only imagine that the actual angle at the edge will be slightly more obtuse given the way the belt bends into the convex profile. Whatever the angle actually ends up being, it's fine with me. Obviously you can change your angle of hold slightly if you prefer a narrower or more obtuse edge.

As others have mentioned with the original model, just like can happen on the Sharpmaker, you can blunt the tip if you aren't careful. You really need to go slow and make sure you don't pull the tip all the way across the belt. I actually found that starting near the choil and moving the blade just to the tip, and pushing back to the choil in a sawing motion worked really good and protected the tip. I also found I preferred to maintain a trailing edge pass with the belt, just like using a strop. In other words, I only used the side where the belt was moving down, away from the edge. I got a small nick in my polishing belt from using it the other way. For me, to keep the belt trailing away from my edge, I simply switched to a reverse grip on the knife. This allowed me to keep it in my right hand so I could maintain trigge control with my left hand. This may sound odd, or difficult to maintain my hold angle, it was really quite easy, and effective.

So, long story longer, I absolutely LOVE this sharpener. I am no longer worried about using my knife, because I know that I can restore it to hair whittling sharp in literally less than 3 minutes. No more clamping the knife into a vise. Don't get me wrong, the WEPSS is a great system. It will put a beautiful V edge on your knife, but it isn't nearly as fast, nor is it as good at sharpening recurve blades like my BM 710. I believe I will be looking to find it a new home.

If you are on the fence with this sharpener, do yourself a favor any just buy it.
 
Great review, thanks.

I got mine over a week ago and I've been tinkering with it since it arrived. I am a neophyte sharpener, having used only crappy stones and a Lansky Pro system that drove me nuts. So I'm taking my time learning it. The only real issue I have with the WS is that I'm a lefty and the device is definitely right hand only. So I've had to (slowly) train myself to make good, constant angle draws against the belt. I'm not yet confident enough to freehand although that's one of my goals.

I agree with you that it's very impressive - fast and effective. It's put edges on my typically average Wustof kitchen knives that they haven't seen since they left the factory. I've also worked on a few of my low end folders and achieved very, very good results. I have no complaints about the function at all. However, I can't shake the feeling that I'm missing something. I don't mean that the Work Sharp is doing anything bad to my blades. I mean I almost feel like I'm cheating. The fact is that I'm not sharpening the knives - it is.

I made the decision some time ago to improve my sharpening skills. I started reading a lot and looking at various natural and manufactured stones and eventually homed in on Shapton Glass Stones. I was about ready to pull the trigger on what would have been about a $350 dollar order when I stumbled across the Ken Onion Edition WS, thought about it for a day, and ordered it. As I say, the results are undeniable: it sharpens better than I do. And that's my problem. I want to learn to sharpen.

I read your post and saw what you wrote about the time it took you using your WEPS and other systems and I get it. You are very adept knife sharpener and have found a device that is giving you excellent results in a fraction of the time. You have an excellent pool of experience to draw on to see how the WS compares to your own handiwork. I'm not a very good knife sharpener and I don't have that experience.

I realize that a lot of people will probably tell me I'm a dope (wouldn't be the first time ;) ) for thinking like this but...I'm not a masochist and I'm not trying to make things hard on myself, but I sort of want to hand-sharpen my knives. I'm actually considering placing that Shapton order again. I feel like if I learned to hand sharpen well, I'd do better regardless of the actual sharpening device/setup/system I use.

Hope I didn't sidetrack the thread.
 
Medic1210, I enjoyed your review and comments. It's great that you contacted Micro-Surface about adding 12" x 3/4" belts. I agree, they are very nice folks. Now if we can just get them to lower their shipping costs, which I seem to recall are about $12-$13 minimum.

sinnyc, I understand what you're saying. But maybe you can satisfy the need to learn freehand with a Norton India combo stone for $20 instead of those nice Shaptons for $350? I say that because I have one of those (Norton combo) sitting on a table waiting for me to come learn how to use it properly. But not right now, because I'm still having too much fun with the Work Sharp KO. :D

Andrew
 
Thanks guys , Glad you like it ! I'm pretty happy to finally have a sharpener on the market that I believe in . I am confident you will find a ton of different reasons to use this little machine. I have used it on fishing hooks , Axes , Lawn mower blades , exacto blades, garden trowels, machetes etc... just to see it it would work well. It hasn't let me down yet . Plus how many sharpeners out there can you use to repair a chipped blade or broken tip?
 
KenOnion said:
Plus how many sharpeners out there can you use to repair a chipped blade or broken tip?
Click to expand...

All of them. :p

Great to see you here Ken.

Op, thanks for the review, it was well written. After using stones and guided systems for years I decided to give my grinder a try. I love the way it sharpens. I don't like the speed, and that's where I see the new WS excelling. That grinder may very well be my next sharpening purchase. Well, I may purchase a few more edge pro stones but I like my grinder enough that I know the WS will be a worthy addition to my kit. I can then retire my little grinder to making scales and doing unrelated projects exclusively. :)
 
sinnyc said:
Great review, thanks.

I got mine over a week ago and I've been tinkering with it since it arrived. I am a neophyte sharpener, having used only crappy stones and a Lansky Pro system that drove me nuts. So I'm taking my time learning it. The only real issue I have with the WS is that I'm a lefty and the device is definitely right hand only. So I've had to (slowly) train myself to make good, constant angle draws against the belt. I'm not yet confident enough to freehand although that's one of my goals.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I can see how using it left handed would be difficult if you're trying to keep the guide in place. As for free handing, all it can say is, it's not as difficult as you might think. Like I said, I measured the angle of the belt, and it's just under 18 degrees. I imagine when light pressure is put on the belt, the actual final edge angle probably gets closer to 20 degrees, 40 degrees inclusive. This means if you can hold your knife edge straight up (like cutting a piece of sausage on a plate) you can free hand most knives. No need to worry about anges for most knives, as this will give you a 35-40 degree edge which will suit most applications. Just set the speed to slow, place your knife on the belt at the choil, squeeze the trigger and pull the knife until the tip reaches the belt. I find with finer abrasives, it is perfectly acceptable to draw the knife blade back and forth like a sawing motion which will prevent you from accidentally pulling the tip all the way across the belt and blunting it. As you get to the tip, your angle doesn't change, but you will need to pull up on the handle as you near the tip. Imagine the motion you would take to keep the edge in contact with an object as the knife nears the tip. The more rounded your knife is at the tip, the more you have to raise the handle to keep the edge in contact with the surface. Hope that description makes sense. Practice on some junkers until you feel confident with the technique. When you get good at keeping your knife edge vertical, you can then try sharpening more obtuse or acute angles by adjusting your hold leaning the edge slightly toward the belt for more acute, or slightly away for more obtuse angles. It's just like using a stone, only vertical. When you are sharpening a 15 degree edge, you keep the knife laying closer to the stone. When sharpening a 25 degree edge, you raise it up further.

I agree with you that it's very impressive - fast and effective. It's put edges on my typically average Wustof kitchen knives that they haven't seen since they left the factory. I've also worked on a few of my low end folders and achieved very, very good results. I have no complaints about the function at all. However, I can't shake the feeling that I'm missing something. I don't mean that the Work Sharp is doing anything bad to my blades. I mean I almost feel like I'm cheating. The fact is that I'm not sharpening the knives - it is.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it is almost like cheating, lol, but it's definitely not fool proof. Speed the belt up all the way, and you can quickly mess up your blade. It still takes some user skill if you want a really refined edge.

I made the decision some time ago to improve my sharpening skills. I started reading a lot and looking at various natural and manufactured stones and eventually homed in on Shapton Glass Stones. I was about ready to pull the trigger on what would have been about a $350 dollar order when I stumbled across the Ken Onion Edition WS, thought about it for a day, and ordered it. As I say, the results are undeniable: it sharpens better than I do. And that's my problem. I want to learn to sharpen.

I read your post and saw what you wrote about the time it took you using your WEPS and other systems and I get it. You are very adept knife sharpener and have found a device that is giving you excellent results in a fraction of the time. You have an excellent pool of experience to draw on to see how the WS compares to your own handiwork. I'm not a very good knife sharpener and I don't have that experience.

I realize that a lot of people will probably tell me I'm a dope (wouldn't be the first time ;) ) for thinking like this but...I'm not a masochist and I'm not trying to make things hard on myself, but I sort of want to hand-sharpen my knives. I'm actually considering placing that Shapton order again. I feel like if I learned to hand sharpen well, I'd do better regardless of the actual sharpening device/setup/system I use.

Hope I didn't sidetrack the thread.
Click to expand...

You can still learn to sharpen knives the old fashioned way, and you sure as heck don't need a $350 set of Shaptons to do it. You can go to your local Walmart and buy a Smith tri-hone set for around $20 and put a better than factory edge on just about any knife you own. The reality is, the technique is easy, but it takes many many hours to become consistent. You have to build muscle memory, and that comes with repetition, not the quality of stone you bought. Another thing to remember is, unless you're sharpening knives all the time, you're not gonna stay consistent. Sure, once you get the basic technique, you will be able to sharpen a knife pretty quickly, but when you try to take the edge to perfection, that's when it takes a long time. I like knowing I can put a nice edge on a knife the old fashioned way, but after spending a lot of time on one edge, I don't like not wanting to actually use it. The worksharp is great in that I can put a very nice edge on a knife, drag it across my coarse DMT diamond and completely dull it, and within 3-4 minutes have it right back to where it was before. Try doing that with bench stones or any other sharpening method.

Another benefit to this tool is, I no longer need to come up with excuses when I don't want to sharpen a friend's jacked up $10 knife that he doesn't realize isn't a screwdriver, wire cutter, or concrete saw... Trying to reprofile one of those knives manually takes a lot of time, and knowing that they don't appreciate a good edge enough to not cut things they shouldn't makes me just not want to even mess with it. Now, I can take their jacked up edge and get it reprofiled and sharp in a matter of minutes, and make a few bucks in the process... Win win situation.
 
KenOnion said:
Thanks guys , Glad you like it ! I'm pretty happy to finally have a sharpener on the market that I believe in . I am confident you will find a ton of different reasons to use this little machine. I have used it on fishing hooks , Axes , Lawn mower blades , exacto blades, garden trowels, machetes etc... just to see it it would work well. It hasn't let me down yet . Plus how many sharpeners out there can you use to repair a chipped blade or broken tip?
Click to expand...

Hey Ken, thanks for stopping by. Too cool! Anyway, you should definitely be proud to have your name on this tool. You and Darex have definitely come up with a winner. I can't wait until the new attachments are released.
 
Medic and AFAustin: good advice, thanks. Yup, I hear what your saying - don't worry about the stone, worry about the sharpener!

I did get one of HeavyHanded's Washboards and from almost the moment I tried it out I've gotten better results on it than on any of the stones/systems I've ever used. It's great: inexpensive, uses sandpaper and regular bond paper, and produces very fine results. It's designed for an edge trailing (stropping) stroke and I think that makes it much more forgiving for beginners. The only downside is that if you ever needed to reprofile a blade it would take a long time. Having said that, if I ever needed to reprofile I'd probably use the WS :)

Anyway, I'll keep at it on the stones and Washboard and continue trying to train myself to be right-handed on the WS.
 
sinnyc said:
Anyway, I'll keep at it on the stones and Washboard and continue trying to train myself to be right-handed on the WS.
Click to expand...

Much easier to just remove the guide and use your left hand to hold the knife. If you've ever used a Sharpmaker, it's really no different. Practice with a couple cheap knives first so you will see there really isn't anything to the technique.
 
Sinnyc,

Just to help: why the WS is easier is that the hand is only used to hold the angle, almost static while the belt is moving and doing the abrasion.

In free hand sharpening, the hand moves to abrade at the same time holding the angle. This is where most people having trouble with and practice is needed.

Keep this in mind when doing free hand, hope it helps.

Medic,

Thanks for a detailed review. Sorry for the OT.
Do you think it will be a good investment to start a small sharpening service?
 
Chris "Anagarika";12741864 said:
Sinnyc,
Medic,

Thanks for a detailed review. Sorry for the OT.
Do you think it will be a good investment to start a small sharpening service?
Click to expand...

Not sure I would buy one just for that purpose, but if you're buying one for yourself, I can't see any problem offering to sharpen other folks' knives for a fee. I know I have definitely had quite a few folks ask me to make their knives as sharp as mine. In the past, when someone hands me a chipped up $10 or $20 knife, I couldn't see the value in trying to reprofile the edge manually, knowing they wouldn't respect the knife by using it as intended. Now I'm less hesitant to take their request when I know it only requires a couple extra passes on the coarse belt. If you can recoup some of your investment, I say go for it. If you do consider starting a sharpening service, I would also recommend investing in some paper wheels like mentioned in the sticky at the top of this forum.
 
Thanks for the review Medic. Quick question, you said you like to use the machine without the guide, why is this? Would thumb studs or anything else get in the way of using the guides? The reason I ask is because the angle I would use most would be the 15 degree angle on the guide.
 
JoHnYKwSt said:
Thanks for the review Medic. Quick question, you said you like to use the machine without the guide, why is this? Would thumb studs or anything else get in the way of using the guides? The reason I ask is because the angle I would use most would be the 15 degree angle on the guide.
Click to expand...

There are a few reasons. For one, the guide will lean outward if pressure is applied, which isn't too difficult when you're trying to maintain contact with the guide. Also, if you aren't careful, you can scratch the knife blade. As the abrasive rubs off the belt, the dust will coat the blade and the guide. This dust will leave scratch marks on the blade if you don't tape it up. This is the same issue the Edge Pro has with some knives. Lastly, the guide does get in the way of some knives' thumb stud, especially when I sharpen the right edge with my reverse grip hold I mentioned. I prefer to keep the belt moving away from the edge, so I don't use the left side belt. I just reverse the knife in my right hand and sharpen both sides of the knife on the outer belt. The guide prevents me from getting the choil side of the blade on the belt.
 
TacticalAnt said:
Hi Ken,
I want to know if you had any design input into the new version. If so, what did you add?
Click to expand...

Maybe he'll come back and answer, but I would think he most definitely had some input prior to endorsing it. If you think about it, no knife maker had any ties with the original. It was made by a company known for innovative tool sharpening devices, like the drill doctor for sharpening drill bits. I would be surprised if they made all these improvements and just asked Ken for his endorsement. I would imagine a good majority of the upgrades were added because of his knife making expertise. Wider belt, adjustable speed, adjustable angle guide, beefier motor, and the new knife grinding attachment that is soon to be released were likely all heavily influenced by Ken.
 
Great thread. I ordered one because I can no longer sharpen free hand well. I think it has something to do with being a couple of decades over 30. I used to be able to use any combination of coarse and fine steels and or stones and get a shaving edge on 9 out of ten blades I tried. Now I can't seem to hold a consistent angle no matter how hard I try. One knife I've never been able to put an edge back on is an Outdoor Edge Kodi Skinner (That's the one Ted Nugent claimed he used to skin an elephant and could still shave with but mine was pretty dull after skinning 1/2 a moose) Anyway, if the Work Sharp puts a good edge on that one I'll be back singing kits praises.
 
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