I couldn't find a good place to put this, so I just started a new thread. To sum up what I've put in bits and pieces in other threads: (1) I learned the basics of knife sharpening about 40 years ago; (2) I never actually did it much and certainly hadn't sharpened a knife in the past 15 years or so; (3) I recently rediscovered my interest in knives; and (4) I wanted to try my hand at sharpening.
First, I bought a waterstone. I like it and hope to do more freehand sharpening, but it's a lot of work for a beginner like me. Maybe I'll eventually master keeping the angle constant, maybe not. At any rate, while I like the water stone (and certainly the idea of freehand sharpening), I decided I wanted something different. I'm not ready to spend $200+ on a sharpening system, so I needed something smaller. That led to . . . . .
Second, I bought a Gatco 10004 Diamond Sharpening system. I bought it for about $40 on eBay, which I realize carries some risk. Still, I think I did well. The set looks brand new, and unless I discover something bad about it, I think I got a good deal. Well, I finally broke it out today, along with some cheap knives that I have been using for sharpening practice.
The set came with Coarse, Medium and Fine hones, as well as one for serrated knives. It also included some sharpening oil, the clamp and two extra screws for the clamp. I found that I didn't care for the screws that came in the clamp, but the extras are a little longer and with a little fiddling, I found a combination that I liked.
To be honest, I'm going to have to rig something up to make the clamp work the way I need it to. Whoever designed it appears to have overlooked the fact that many blades taper towards the point. The clamp would be pretty awesome if they didn't, but they do. Because the interior sides of the clamp are parallel, I wound up with a clamp gripped very firmly on one side, but barely in contact with the blade on the other. It's a perfect setup for having the blade pivot out of the clamp. This problem is partially avoidable, but it requires one to be creative in how you hold the clamp & knife. Going forward, I'm going to look for something very thin and grippy, like maybe some very thin rubber to slide between the blade and clamp. Maybe that will allow a more even fit between the clamp and blade.
So that's the bad news, the clamp. The good news is that when sharpening a knife that had very little taper in its spine (a Dexter Russell Sani-Safe 8" kitchen knife purchased at a restaurant supply place ~25 years ago), the Gatco system did a fine job of helping me get a decent edge back on it. Naturally, I still have some learning to do to properly use the system properly, but I was very happy with a "first outing." This is the same knife that I'd sharpened on the waterstone a few weeks back, so it was somewhat sharper than a brick. With an 8" knife, I found myself wishing that I had two clamps. With the clamp near the middle of the blade, the geometry between blade and hone just felt wrong at the ends of the blade. Now, I'm not a math guy, so there's a very real possibility that there's something here I'm misunderstanding. Still, I kind of felt that if I had two clamps, I'd be better able to reach the ends of the blade for sharpening. A clamp is ~$13 as of this writing, so it's not unthinkable that I'll get another. I took the blade through coarse, medium and fine hones, and came away with a very serviceable edge.
It ain't perfect, but it'll certainly do for now and for the price I paid.
ETA #1: I’m updating this thread for the benefit of future readers. If you’ve just stumbled across this thread, what follows is sort of an accumulation of information learned by me, either by using the Gatco 10004 system, or from the other very helpful THR members in this thread.
The plates are pretty good. The system’s weak point is the clamp. Despite everything I saw on the internet, I could not get the clamp to hold a knife still while I sharpened to save my life. A little friction tape inside the clamp worked wonders. It’s not perfect, but it’s a far sight better than without.
Junk knives take junk edges. I grabbed a few from Goodwill so that I’d have something to practice on without putting good knives at risk. That was fine for learning how to handle the clamp and all. Once I honed a decent knife, though, it was easy to see how it took and held an edge better than my junk knives.
Get a few sharpies. Use them to mark: (a) the blade edge that you’ll be sharpening; and (b) the flat of the blade where you put the clamp. The first will be helpful in seeing what’s going on at the blade’s edge. The second will be helpful if you take the knife out of the clamp to test it, only to find it needs more work. Having marked the blade where the clamp should be will help you get it back in the same way it was before the test. I also found that I can see a bright magenta sharpie on the edge better than I can black. Don't worry. The sharpie cleans off of the blade easily with a little rubbing alcohol or nail polish remover.
As you should imagine, the coarse diamond hone is good for setting a new bevel angle on a blade, or for grinding out nicks in the edge. For simple touch-up work, it’s too much.
As of this edit, I can get my edges sharp, but they still feel a bit crude to me. If you really want your knife to be razor sharp with that mirror edge, you may need to move on from the fine hone in this set to something finer. As of this writing, I think I need to, but that may be a function of my skill level.
ETA #2: Due to some geometry issues that I tested last night, you may not be able to get low angles on smaller blades. For example, I was unable to put a 15* angle on a Benchmade Sequel, which measures about 3/4" from spine to edge at the blade's widest point. The problem is that the guide rod hits the set screw closest to the bend in the clamp before you can get the hone down on the blade. In other cases, you'll find that you will wind up honing the clamp itself, and cannot reach the blade's edge.
ETA #3: After a couple of months of using this system, I think I'm getting close to the limits of what is allowed by this system (and my patience). I could probably get better with this thing, but I think it would require even further modification and a lot of time practicing. I've mounted the clamp handle to a cutting board with screws, so that's nice and secure, but I also need to clamp the cutting board to something (or permanently mount it) to keep that from sliding around. I will also need to find a way to keep the clamp from wiggling in the handle, maybe with some shims. Otherwise, there's just a certain amount of 'slop' inherent in its construction.
At the end of the day, I'm much happier with this system than I was when I first wrote this review, but I'm also much better able to recognize its limitations.
First, I bought a waterstone. I like it and hope to do more freehand sharpening, but it's a lot of work for a beginner like me. Maybe I'll eventually master keeping the angle constant, maybe not. At any rate, while I like the water stone (and certainly the idea of freehand sharpening), I decided I wanted something different. I'm not ready to spend $200+ on a sharpening system, so I needed something smaller. That led to . . . . .
Second, I bought a Gatco 10004 Diamond Sharpening system. I bought it for about $40 on eBay, which I realize carries some risk. Still, I think I did well. The set looks brand new, and unless I discover something bad about it, I think I got a good deal. Well, I finally broke it out today, along with some cheap knives that I have been using for sharpening practice.
The set came with Coarse, Medium and Fine hones, as well as one for serrated knives. It also included some sharpening oil, the clamp and two extra screws for the clamp. I found that I didn't care for the screws that came in the clamp, but the extras are a little longer and with a little fiddling, I found a combination that I liked.
To be honest, I'm going to have to rig something up to make the clamp work the way I need it to. Whoever designed it appears to have overlooked the fact that many blades taper towards the point. The clamp would be pretty awesome if they didn't, but they do. Because the interior sides of the clamp are parallel, I wound up with a clamp gripped very firmly on one side, but barely in contact with the blade on the other. It's a perfect setup for having the blade pivot out of the clamp. This problem is partially avoidable, but it requires one to be creative in how you hold the clamp & knife. Going forward, I'm going to look for something very thin and grippy, like maybe some very thin rubber to slide between the blade and clamp. Maybe that will allow a more even fit between the clamp and blade.
So that's the bad news, the clamp. The good news is that when sharpening a knife that had very little taper in its spine (a Dexter Russell Sani-Safe 8" kitchen knife purchased at a restaurant supply place ~25 years ago), the Gatco system did a fine job of helping me get a decent edge back on it. Naturally, I still have some learning to do to properly use the system properly, but I was very happy with a "first outing." This is the same knife that I'd sharpened on the waterstone a few weeks back, so it was somewhat sharper than a brick. With an 8" knife, I found myself wishing that I had two clamps. With the clamp near the middle of the blade, the geometry between blade and hone just felt wrong at the ends of the blade. Now, I'm not a math guy, so there's a very real possibility that there's something here I'm misunderstanding. Still, I kind of felt that if I had two clamps, I'd be better able to reach the ends of the blade for sharpening. A clamp is ~$13 as of this writing, so it's not unthinkable that I'll get another. I took the blade through coarse, medium and fine hones, and came away with a very serviceable edge.
It ain't perfect, but it'll certainly do for now and for the price I paid.
ETA #1: I’m updating this thread for the benefit of future readers. If you’ve just stumbled across this thread, what follows is sort of an accumulation of information learned by me, either by using the Gatco 10004 system, or from the other very helpful THR members in this thread.
The plates are pretty good. The system’s weak point is the clamp. Despite everything I saw on the internet, I could not get the clamp to hold a knife still while I sharpened to save my life. A little friction tape inside the clamp worked wonders. It’s not perfect, but it’s a far sight better than without.
Junk knives take junk edges. I grabbed a few from Goodwill so that I’d have something to practice on without putting good knives at risk. That was fine for learning how to handle the clamp and all. Once I honed a decent knife, though, it was easy to see how it took and held an edge better than my junk knives.
Get a few sharpies. Use them to mark: (a) the blade edge that you’ll be sharpening; and (b) the flat of the blade where you put the clamp. The first will be helpful in seeing what’s going on at the blade’s edge. The second will be helpful if you take the knife out of the clamp to test it, only to find it needs more work. Having marked the blade where the clamp should be will help you get it back in the same way it was before the test. I also found that I can see a bright magenta sharpie on the edge better than I can black. Don't worry. The sharpie cleans off of the blade easily with a little rubbing alcohol or nail polish remover.
As you should imagine, the coarse diamond hone is good for setting a new bevel angle on a blade, or for grinding out nicks in the edge. For simple touch-up work, it’s too much.
As of this edit, I can get my edges sharp, but they still feel a bit crude to me. If you really want your knife to be razor sharp with that mirror edge, you may need to move on from the fine hone in this set to something finer. As of this writing, I think I need to, but that may be a function of my skill level.
ETA #2: Due to some geometry issues that I tested last night, you may not be able to get low angles on smaller blades. For example, I was unable to put a 15* angle on a Benchmade Sequel, which measures about 3/4" from spine to edge at the blade's widest point. The problem is that the guide rod hits the set screw closest to the bend in the clamp before you can get the hone down on the blade. In other cases, you'll find that you will wind up honing the clamp itself, and cannot reach the blade's edge.
ETA #3: After a couple of months of using this system, I think I'm getting close to the limits of what is allowed by this system (and my patience). I could probably get better with this thing, but I think it would require even further modification and a lot of time practicing. I've mounted the clamp handle to a cutting board with screws, so that's nice and secure, but I also need to clamp the cutting board to something (or permanently mount it) to keep that from sliding around. I will also need to find a way to keep the clamp from wiggling in the handle, maybe with some shims. Otherwise, there's just a certain amount of 'slop' inherent in its construction.
At the end of the day, I'm much happier with this system than I was when I first wrote this review, but I'm also much better able to recognize its limitations.
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