
http://www.worksharptools.com/knife...ener/work-sharp-knife-and-tool-sharpener.html
I've seen these for the past couple of years at BLADE show and was impressed by their performance, but I didn't "need" one and didn't need to pay the $80 for it to find out.
Advance to this year.
I needed presents for the BILs (grrrrr) and I found the Worksharp knife sharpeners at a tolerable price so I got "some".
I, of course, wanted to be able to demo them to the recipients so I had to have a test set to train myself to show the guys how to use theirs.
Easy DVD and manual instructions were included and they were intelligible and straightforward enough to follow. I'd seen them at Blade and they bear a resemblance to miniature knife grinding machines with quick change features so it took no time to get the hang of changing and even aligning (after intentionally misaligning) the little belts.
The guides drop right into place and mount solidly without having to tighten anything.
The controls have a triggered or continuous on switch.
The ergonomics are good and the head rotates through a full rotation with several locked detent stops so you can orient the head for the most logical position.
There are 3 grades of belts, coarse, medium and polish.
How's it work? Great!
I sharpened a BIL's kitchen knives that were an embarrassment for any kitchen. The knives were DULL and not suitable for use in a kitchen. A couple of runs through the guides on the coarse and the blades were usable again. A couple more on the medium and they were pretty darn good. A few on the polish belt had them rather smooth and shiny.
BIL commented to SIL, with considerable excitement, that the knives were sharper than when new. SIL made a crack about cutting a potato in mid air while I was peeling a potato in a nice continuous ribbon. I thought, "what the heck?", and tossed the potato into the air and used my best rope cut technique. The tater fell into 2 neat portions with a perfect cut and no ragged edges. Even I was impressed.
I'll need to play with my test set a bit, but it sure brought some crappy kitchen knives (including a serrated) up to real usability in just a few minutes.
Note that the system puts a convex edge in place since the system is a mini belt grinder. I'm excited to see how it works on some tough use knives and blades (glad it will work on mower blades as spring looms on the horizon).