Lansky 3 stone system? - Help me spend $25 gift card at Bass Pro

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danez71

danez71

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I have a $25 gift card for Bass Pro Shops.

I was thinking of getting a Lansky 3 stone standard system @ $24.99
http://www.basspro.com/Lansky-Sharpening-System-Standard-Kit/product/41168/71370 (not pictured correctly)

http://lansky.com/index.php/products/std-3-stone-system/


I Currently have a Chef Choice 130 electric sharpener. http://www.cutleryandmore.com/chefs...fessional-electric-sharpening-station-p114102


I want something better and more versatile as it only has one angle.

I want to use it for everything I own such as Wusthof Santoku 6.5" blade to pocket knives to some type of 'bayonet' I bought at a Army surplus store 25-30 yrs ago thats probably 8" long. (Lannsky system not to be used for axes etc)

Is the Lansky fairly easy enough to use for this range of lengths?

Is it better than the Chefs Choice electric mentioned above?

Is this a good choice for me?

I have an old dual sided stone in the camping gear but since I dont use it much Im looking for some thing a little more fool proof with the varying degrees etc.

Thanks for any input.
 
I never could use the Lansky, but I'm fine with a Spyderco Sharpmaker.

I wouldn't use any electric method. If you are unable to get a Sharpmaker, I'd also go with a flat stone. For 25 bucks you can get a decent one, and everyone should have one.
 
I have a similar sharpener made by Smiths sharpening system. It works well for small pocket knives, for a long knife you have to re position the clamp a few time to maintain a consistent sharpening angle.
 
The Lanskey is slow but precise. It allows you to select the proper angle for your blade. I have one and recomend it.
 
I've had good luck with mine, but it's a poor choice for double edged blades. other than that, it's the best I could suggest in that price range.
 
Thanks for all of the comments.


I dont mind spending a little more. The electric Chefs Choice 130 is at $100+ but to be honest...I'm not wanting to spend that much again.... at least at this time.

As I mentioned, I have an old stone with the camping gear and I used to be fairly good with it.


The chefs choice electric puts a decent edge on but not happy with it overall.

I have a few fixed angle manual sharpeners from Wusthof and Henkel in both ceramic and steel.



Here's the nutshell summary:

Neither of the above seem to get an edge quiet as sharp as factory and the edge doesnt seem to hold as long as the factory edge either. And I'm looking for something a little more fool proof in regards to angles as compared to free handing on a stone. And of course, the cheaper the better.

Anything out there thats better than the Lansky system in those regards keeping in mind balancing price?
 
I have never had luck getting a sharp edge with my Chefs Chioce sharpener.

Bass pro doesn't sell this, but on a whim, I bought the Work Sharp knife sharpener from Amazon. I can't believe how good it works. It's relatively quick and sharpens good knives to the pint where you can easily shave the hair off your arms.

Try it, it's easy.
 
I've always had good results with the Lansky setup, you just have to remember to use the right angle guide for the application.
 
quartermaster said:
I have never had luck getting a sharp edge with my Chefs Chioce sharpener.

Bass pro doesn't sell this, but on a whim, I bought the Work Sharp knife sharpener from Amazon. I can't believe how good it works. It's relatively quick and sharpens good knives to the pint where you can easily shave the hair off your arms.

Try it, it's easy.
Click to expand...


I saw that at a Turners Sporting Goods and kind of forgot about it. It comes with 6000 grit :what:

Heres what I'm getting from the replies.

Lansky is pretty good overall.
* Kind of slow.
* Longer knives may/will require repositioning.
* Totally portable / no electricity.
* Several angles to choose from.
* Inexpensive - $25 to get started


Work Shop Knife & Tool:
* Much faster
* Length of blade doesnt matter much.
* Needs electricity.
* Couple angles to choose from but its the 2 angles I need most.
* $80 to get started - not too bad especially when I spent ~ $120 for the Chefs Choice a couple yrs ago.

Yeee Hawww. Bass Pro does have it!!

Not only do I have a $25 gift card for Bass Pro... I also have another $25 visa gift card (b-day presents from the in-laws) so that could bring it down to $30 out of pocket for the Work Sharp.


Any one else have experience with it?

Other than needing electricity and not as portable, Id really like to know what are the down sides to the Work Sharp electric as compared to a Lansky system?


Heres my choices:
Lanksy plus a little bit of ammo for essentially $0.00 out of pocket.
Or
Workshop knife sharpener for ~ $30 out of pocket.


Thanks everyone.
 
Different knives are sharpened at different angles. The lanskey will allow you to sharpen your knife at the proper angle.
 
There's a lot to be said for the Lansky or Gatco systems as long as you know what bevel you're starting with or going to.

The limitations on your current Chief's Choice is the ability to deal with a wide enough basic bevels. A Smith's 50281 will allow changing the angles to match or create different edge geometries.

That said, you can use a Lansky or Gatco to set a secondary bevel on the edge the Chief's Choice establishes.

I'd recommend either the Lansky or the Gatco for guided sharpening.
 
Stabilized Freehand

The basic "secret" of sharpening is establishing and keeping a constant angle through the whole process.

The systems that stabilize the knife and anchor the stone guides so that all the strokes hit the blade at the same angle, stroke after stroke, take a lot of the wasted effort out of the process.

Some of these systems, like the Lansky and Smith systems, have fixed guide points that determine the sharpening angles, and these are generally set to angles that either match, or are close to, the factory bevel on many or most knives.

There are some systems, like the Edge Pro and Edge Pro Apex, that use a stabilized blade bed or clamp and an "infinitely variable" slide with a locking screw of some sort that will let you select exactly the angle you want. There's an old trick for finding that angle involving a felt marker along the bevel surface and adjusting the angle of the stone until it is removing the marker ink from the edge and only the ink. That allows you to establish where to lock the guide rod whenever you're sharpening that particular knife.

Something to keep in mind is that even with a system like that, the bed or clamp will need to be adjusted to account for different blade widths.

Buck Knives now grinds all their regular production edges to 15 degrees per side (30 degrees included angle), but their blades vary all over the place in width and thickness, so a bed/clamp setting that works for a Buck Vantage cannot be expected to work properly with a Buck 501.

Each knife will have its own bed/clamp and guide rod settings. If you have dozens of dissimilar knives, you'd want to keep a chart.

I have never met a power sharpener with which I was comfortable.

I have seen several clamp-and-guide systems I could use.

At home in my kitchen, I will stabilize a blade with a towel or something so that it won't flex (and usually near the edge of the counter top), and then apply the (very fine grit) diamond steel to the edge, taking care to keep the angle constant. For some knives, I will reverse the roles and stabilize the diamond steel and apply the knife edge to it with even, constant angled strokes.

You might call that technique "stabilized freehand" but it gives a more consistent edge than I'd get if I held both the knife and the steel in my hands. It's not entirely unlike using a bench stone. Just a little more awkward at first.

Hope some of this is useful.

 
One issue that hasn't been discussed is if the electric is leaving a wire edge that needs to be stropped off. That will make the knife less sharp than it could be and will make the edge not last as long. Check your edge when sharpening and strop the wire edge off to see if it is sharper than you're used to. Steel your edge before and after use to maintain it without having to sharpen it as often.
 
I have a Lansky and Gatco systems,. While I pretty much free hand my own, I use the Systems to fix some some of the god awful abused knives people bring me and say "Can you sharpen this".

They are good to learn the basics and cetainly better than an eletric.
 
spend the extra money and get the 5 stone set. the Lansky set works well, and takes alot of the thinking out of sharperning a knife.
 
I'd just like to add that the Lansky/Gatco kits are good teaching tools. They show you that different blades come with different grind angles, they re-enforce the proper angle to put on any blade and show you what a properly ground edge is capable of.
Like BikerDoc, I don't use mine much unless I'm grinding out a ding but they are great to show new guys what's going on when you take iron to stone.
A 5x or 10x loupe is another great teaching tool.
 
If you don't know what angle to use on your blade you can black the edge with a marker and make a gentle stroke, just enough to remove the ink and see if you need to adjust. The beauty of the Lanskey system is that it holds the selected angle perfectly throughout the stroke. Very few people are capable of holding an angle free handed. The Lanskey eliminates human error.
 
I've sharpened a lot of knives on the Lansky. I'd say that's how I really learned how to free hand sharpen. Rarely use it now. They are a good system for the price, but some of the stones wear out and get concave kind of quick. At least that's been my experience. I'd say they're a good purchase for the money.

Jason
 
If there's a wire edge it isn't hurting the sharpness any.
Click to expand...

If there's a wire edge it won't be sharp long. A wire edge is easy to check for. Just look at the edge under some light. It will usually glint. You can also drag the blade backwards on your thumb (like you're stropping it) and feel it most of the time. If there's a burr, it will come off with any serious use of the knife, and it will be dull instantly when it happens.

Jason
 
I had a Lansky about 16 years ago and it was very good.I bought another a couple years ago, since the other was long lost.The new one had very soft poor quality stones.

The Large DMT stones are all I use any more,even on the knives I make.
 
Just an update.

I bought the Lansky basic 3 stone standard system at Bass Pro for $24.99 with my b-day gift card.


Afte about 15 minutes of actual use, I was able to bring by Wusthof Santoku kitchen knife back to its original angle and its sharper than the MasterChef 130 ever accomplished.


Ive been using the knife as usual for the past 2 wks and its holding its edge better than ever as compared to after being sharpened witht the Master Chef.


I could still do better than my 1st try of only 15 minutes which included getting the correct angle back but, overall, its well worth the $25 and made me feel like the money spent on the electric was a waste.

Thanks for eveyone input.
 
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