Home Forums Gear Knives and Blades Lansky System

Does anyone actually like these things?

I bought one a long time ago, used it once or twice and went back to hand stoning.

Saw it under the cabinet the other day while looking for a missing rasp and decided to give it another try on my Wenger Swiss Army knife.

It is OK but too me has way to much slop at the end of the rods that are supposed to control angle.

What says the Fire?



Mike

I've found it to be functional. I started using a set in the early 90's and have sharpened a buncha knives with it. If I keep very slight downward pressure on the rod, it diminishes any sloppiness on the end where the rod goes through the guide. I reckon' some of the newer systems are better in every way though.

That's the method I used as well. I will try it on a few more and see if I can refine the technique.

Mike

The Lansky will give consistent bevels on each side of the blade at a given point, but will not do such for the length of the blade...

Used a Gatco system (very similar to the lansky)for years. They work very well! Hell a monkey can sharpen a knife with one.Straight forward and simple.

I've used Lasky diamond sharpner for years with good success. Got my first one when I realized I couldn't sharpen an old Gerber knife enough by hand to cut butter.

On longer knives I put little marks where I mount the clamp so I can get it back in the same places every time. That greatly reduces resharpening time. Getting that proper consistent angle keeps the knives sharper a lot longer too. Something I just can't seem to do free hand.

I bought my first sometime between 82-88, they work great. The angle of the cut is fine too, keep the guide rod pushed up in the slot with the hand holding the clamp. It's a hell of lot more precise that hand honing on a bench stone.

Also, don't use the thumb screw to tighten the clamp, use it to preset the two sides of the clamp parallel to the blade and then tighten the clamp with a screwdriver. This is real important when using the tip of the clamp to hold a small blade.

I switched to diamond hones a long time ago and they work well too.

this part of the 'fire says ditch the Lansky, and go with an EdgePro

They do make a lot of sense for guys who spend a lot of money and time waiting for a good knife, but who do not have the skills or experience necessary to sharpen it, nor the time to learn those skills. You don't want to screw up a good blade and if it takes a gadget to help sharpen it correctly, then get a gadget to help and be happy you did. But I'll bet after you use it awhile, you can do without it and get good results.

Free skilled hand sharpening will only match semi skilled fixture sharpening on rare occasions and by the either lucky or highly skilled.

Free hand can be best finished with a buffing wheel of some sort to match fixture finished.

Just my 60+ years of sharpening and what works or does not work for me will not be the same for everyone.

You gotta just get after it till you find what you are happy with.

Strop on.
Tim

Another thing I did with the lanky was to take a file and square up and slightly deepen the recesses in the clamp that hold the blade.

I am thinking of buying a real strop, I, like my Dad before me, have always used the back of a belt.

I did my Buck 119 the other night as a second test and it did a decent job.

There is only 1 really good place to affix the blade in the system so right in the belly of the blade the angles got so out of kilter that it isn't as sharp as the rest of the blade. I would likely free hand sharpen that particular spot if it was my primary knife.

I am going to free hand sharpen a Case tonight and compare time spent.

One big difference is using 3 different coarseness' with the Lansky versus usually 2 for me on the regular stones. I typically use coarse and medium the first time to get my edge on them, then medium and fine on later sharpening.

Mike

No doubt a blade can be honed razor sharp on a bench stone but the bevels will be more consistent using a Lansky, Galco or Edge Pro.

You can bore a 3/8" hole through a piece of 3/8" x 2" steel plate clamping it with your boot on a 4x4 with a hand drill, or step it up a notch and hold the drill with two hands while a vise holds the plate...I will use a drill press.


I picked up a bag of leather form hobby lobby and a 1x4x24 piece of Red Oak, glued brown, white, gray and green leather to the boards and have strops for any rouge I will every use.

I like the Lansky.

A lot.

You guys "really" need a goniometer...

I prefer the KME to the Lansky.

http://www.kmesharp.com/index.html

I have a Lansky kit and used it for years. Then I got an Edge Pro and the Lansky kit went into a tote box and hasn't been used since.

Once one experiences the cut from truly uniform geometry it's hard to go back...

Once one experiences the performance of truly uniform geometry it is hard to go back...