Work Sharp Ken Onion Knife Sharpener Tool - Adjustable Knife Sharpening System - For Knives, Scissors, Serrated Blades, & Tools

Bought this to bring back the life to our kitchen knives and touch up our pocketknives. The instructions are extremely easy, this is possibly why people are making mistakes and feel they can just gloss over them. I would say there are 3 sets of instructions on how you can sharpen a blade; I prefer the ones located on the cardboard table. This system has already paid for itself since my husband and I did not need to buy new kitchen knives and or take them in on occasion. The construction is very solid and can turn the most novice knife sharpener into a pro if judging the blade edge. If you want to have razor sharp knifes on a moments notice this will exceed your expectations. Only thing I warn is yes the old saying is correct “A dull knife is more dangerous than a sharp one”. However, I would add a razor sharp blade is not as forgiving as a sharpened blade. After sharpening with this system be very careful your knives, they will be scary (in a pleasant way) sharp; more so than from the factory!Some tips below I've picked up that have helped me sharpen my blades quick, precise and without mishap:1. Tape the Blade Up: I place some masking tape on then peel it carefully over the edge to cut a silhouette 1x per side. I peel off then place it aside then with both silhouettes I place them back on just revealing the blade where is will make contact with the belt. This protects the blade while learning efficiently without having to fatting up the knife with tape.2. Practice With a Cheap Knife: The real skill is when to let go of the trigger so that is does not grind more on the tip of the blade than the recommended "1 inch per second" and following the contour of the knife edge while maintaining proper contact with the belt.3. It Can Make a Mess: After sharpening 8 or so blades I noticed my dining table (live in an studio so no man cave garage here) covered in shavings and whatnot. I later noticed it was all to the right of the sharpener. So I placed it to the left of my kitchen sink after making sure there was no water and whatnot on my counter. This made most of the shavings fall in the sink making for easy cleanup.4. Wear Eye Protection: I noticed (thankfully while wearing eye pro) that left grind shoots debris shoots straight up in your face if you're like me watching closely if the knife is properly being inserted and pulled. It would really suck to get that in your eyes and looking back after sharpening 14+ knives. I also wished I had a face mask for the first marathon since you will be looking and making excuses to sharpen every blade in the house to make it pass the paper test.5. Master the Marathon: I noticed that the main difference between say a kitchen knife and pocket knife is the angle since they both use the same main 3 belt grits (coarse, medium and fine). If I’m going to have a sharpening marathon I separate my kitchen and pocket knifes yet use the same belts instead changing the belts per group of knives. The only thing I change is the angle degree. This helps speed up the process instead of changing everything out for each pile or worse per knife.6. Check For Crooked Burrs While Keeping Count: I’ve noticed the best way to ruin your edge is losing count or what side went in last, thus causing an annoying crooked burr. My method is the right side is “odd” numbers while the left is “even” to help with remembering where to start. I count to the total number of strokes ie if it calls for 10 I count to 20 total. This also means I go to right to left until I reach 10 which would be 5 per side and good time to check for burrs. Then 10 more starting at 11 so the “right” side of the system. With this method I have yet to notice burrs ever occurring thus speeding through the process precisely.Thank you I hope this helped, I wouldn’t have spent the time to write this if I didn’t feel this Worksharp didn’t impress me as it did.

So while I do have a small knife collection, I'm not a fanatic... just a dabbler. I initially bought the Sypderco Sharpmaker to sharpen my knives. It's a good sharpening system but I realize that mainly it's good for maintenance and for softer steels. If you're trying to take a knife, especially with harder steels, from dull to hair-poppin', paper slicing sharp - IT WILL TAKE FOREVER! For me, specifically I had a very difficult time with my kitchen knives. I could not re-profile them, let alone sharpen them satisfactorily.Heard alot of good things about the speed and convenience of the KO Worksharp. Just tried it out last night and it's pretty amazing with how fast and sharp the results you get. My Henkel was dull , only slightly better than a butter knife. And the Wusthof was only slightly better than that. After about 5-10 minutes (I was going slow to be careful), I had hair-poppin, paper slicing sharp kitchen knives with a strong convex edge. It's an edge I could never get from using Sharpmaker for 30-40 minutes.BUT there is a a very slight learning curve and some tips to follow to get EXCELLENT, consistent results:- Read the directions in the booklet as it covers tips - like to avoid rounding off your tip you must stop the sharpener when tip is at mid belt.- Then use the cardboard insert for the recommended sharpening recipe to follow.- Try it out on a dummy knife first before you use on expensive knives - All it took me was one try with a dummy knife to get the hang of it- Worried about marring or scratching the side of your blade? - Technically if you follow directions and are careful, this should never happen BUT you can use masking/blue painters tape to tape of the sides. I did this just in case but to be honest the next time I sharpen, I know how to use the tool properly to avoid scratching the blade.- You must start and stop the sharpener between sharpenings. Insert blade first and start. Stop the sharperner first before you pull the knife all the way through. What goes against this is that this version of sharpener has a trigger lock to keep the sharpener on. It's tempting for the lazy/efficient to just leave it on and do your strokes. DON'T DO THIS! For example, if you insert the blade with the sharpener running, you'll create a recurve on your blade. And if you leave the sharpener running and pull your knife all the way thorugh, you'll round off your tips. The trigger lock, IMO, should only be use for special functions like using with the accessory free-hand knife grinder attachment (sold separately) or as a blade grinder for axes/mower blades where the blade is in a fixed position (like in a vice) and you're moving the sharpener on the blade.- ONLY use the weight of the knife. You DO NOT need any extra downward force to press the knife into the guide slot. Because the belt is moving downward, it will, along with the weight of the blade, naturally "pull" the blade downward as it sharpens.- Understand the imperative of establishing a "burr" on one side before moving to the other side. This was a concept that I didn't understand well when using the Spyderco. The Spyderco stones aren't coarse enough to really create a very well defined "burr" such that an inexperienced person would know/feel. When you use the top two coarsest belts with the KO Worksharp, you should easily establish a "burr" that you can feel. The objective is to establish that "burr" along the whole edge and you keep making as many passes as it takes to get that burr consistently along the whole edge. There was a situation with my Henkels where after the recommended 4 passes, I still had spots along the edge where the burr was not established yet... so I kept going until I got one consistent burr along the length of the edge.- Ensure equal strokes on each side no matter what to ensure you are balancing/centering the edge. If you short stroke one side, you can create an off-centered/asymmetrical edge on your knife. Only do this if you're intending to have an asymmetrical edge.- Because it's a belt sharpener, understand that you are creating a "convex" edge" (vs. flat edge or any other edges). Convex is a good edge, btw. This really only matters more to people who know what they want to sharpen and what edge they need. This is why the booklet to this tool will disclaim that it's is not good for sharpening chisels or tools that require a special edge grind like hollow/concave. Some people prefer flat edge which is what you'd get with a sharpening stone. So just be aware.- It will generate ALOT of steel dust after use. So it's recommended to use this in a workshop, garage, or outside. I wouldn't use this tool in the kitchen or on a kitchen table.- Because of the above point use safety glasses just to be safe. I don't know about you but I'd rather not get steel dust in my eye.By the third knife I had gotten the hang of using it and was able to go quicker. This tool is great for general purpose sharpening. Because of the nice coarser belts and speed of the tool, re-profiling knife edges was a breeze. Lastly, I didn't try the 6000 grit belt to try to get that mirror, polish edge... figure I do that on one of my EDC knives and not waste it on a kitchen knife.Recommended for most general sharpening purposes. Just be aware of the tools purpose and limitations. It's not a one stop shop for ALL sharpening. For example, I'll still likely use my Sharpmaker for maintenance of smaller knives or serrated edge knives, etc.

Been looking for sharpening tools or or services for a while, after watching on-line videos on the product and having a chance to use it - I have to say I picked the right tool. I do recommend their videos on best practices as they're much easier to understand than just the manual.With the right technique, which took a little to learn, it works great. I managed to put a top quality sharp edge on an almost ruined kitchen knife, and once i did that I moved on to our more expensive knives. My wife was very impressed with the restored sharpness of our entire knife set, and I too am happy to once again be able to cook with truly sharp knives.I moved on to sharpening some other tools and knives (some of which were never sharp) and it continued to work great.The adjustability and options to fine tune the sharpening angle on this model are great. The sharpener seems well built, and easy to use evn if it takes a little practice to get right. If you use your knives and tools a lot - this is a great way to extend thier usefull life, improve their performance - the tool is a great value.

I got my 15 year old tool working. This new one is excellent. The only thing I like better about the old one is that you can vary the belt speed with the trigger. You can't do that with the new one. The speed is fixed by the selecter.