Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Work Sharp or Sharpmaker?

Cabela's has the Work Sharp on sale, but I'm not sure I can go 'lectric.

What do you like - the WorkSharp or the Syderco Sharpmaker? I have a few S30V and plan to get some D2 so may need to buy diamond rods, if that's a factor in the equation.

Wet stones

Work Sharp is made by the same people that make the Drill Doctor, they also have manual sharpeners...

Link


Phil

I like their field sharpener.

I have a work sharp. I buy a lot of old carbon steel knives and I like the work sharp for getting the edge cleaned up. After that it’s a whetstone. Use a knife you don’t care about to practice with.. you can do a lot of damage in a hurry if you don’t know what you’re doing.

Get good whetstones. I bought Shaptons last summer and they cut like crazy.. after I get better with them I can see not using anything else. Worksharp just speeds up the process.

I had a work sharp. Tossed it in the trash.

I've had good luck with the Spyderco Sharpmaker over the past 3 to 4 years. Buy the diamond sticks to go with it.

Start off with Diamond sticks, then brown coarse sticks in the initial narrow setting. Then the brown coarse sticks followed by white fine sticks in the wide finish position. Use a black magic marker in place of dykem to insure I get the initial edge all the way out to the edge. Touch up just brown and white sticks in the finish position.

I have the Ken Onion WorkSharp and really like it. I'm one of those people that could never sharpen a knife properly. Give me a knife and a wet stone and after about 30 min that knife would be just a little duller than when I started. I think sharpening a knife is like spitting chewing tabacco. It's a skill you have to develop at a young age.

With the Work Sharp I can easily sharpen my knives now.

Work sharp is great for what it is. It’s great for utility knives and knives that have been abused and need rehab.

The belt flexes do you get a convex grind. Don’t think it’s the tool for high dollar customs.

I like the Sharpmaker. I purchased the boron and ultra fine stones. If you let s30v or d2 get dull, you’ll be glad you have the boron or diamond stone. It’s a great kit to throw in the hunting bag for quick touchups

I have the Ken Onion version and can say that for me, I can finally get a knife razor sharp. But, as others have said, practice with knives you don't mind hurting.

Same here.

I have a sharpmaker and it works very well. You can use it for a variety of sharpening tasks including serrated edges. Spyderco makes good stuff.

I have tried a lot of different sharpeners, but I've settled on the Gatco kit If I want help sharpening. However, what I have finally done is to teach myself how to use stones. Now I mostly sharpen the old fashion way. If I can do it anyone can learn to do it.

I use my Sharpmaker a lot. Really like it.

Not really impressed with the WS from what I seen. I'd use it on cheap knives, kitchen knives, etc... though

Sharpmaker works for me

Get a Sharpmaker, Lansky, Gatco.
Learn to use it.
Then get a wetstone.
After using the jig systems, you will catch on to the wetstone faster.
At least that is what happened for me, knives and chainsaws.

Also, people talk all kind of crap about angles, and exactly which.
Like everything, it's usually a fart noise from an a--hole not
doing anything worthwhile.


Angles matter. But, if you get 12 degrees instead of 10,
If one side is 15 and on is 12... is it perfect? No!
Will it cut? Hell yeah!

The important thing is you hold the angle flat.
You can't roll in the spine to edge axis. That will
keep you from acquiring the acute edge you need,
And never get sharp.

I have seen many butcher's use knives that vary in angle from side to side,
It hard to get that right. But you can get it right enough to
shave hair, or cut meat.


Same with chainsaws, angles and loggers.

i have a worksharp and use it primarily to sharpen the wife's scissors as she has many. also use it for knives on occasion. it does fine. for my pocket and hunting knives i use a large norton multi-oilstone.

Worksharp is a truly awesome tool but with 2 tricks.
1. You need to learn how to use it, not particularly difficult. As a rule, once a good knife is sharpened it should require only a little "touch up" from time to time. Not for the heavy handed.
2. You need to go on line and get some better belts than the factory offers. You can get a box full of really good belts, in finer grades, for a fraction of the cost of the factory stuff.
I use mine on custom knives made of O1. A properly sharpened knife is good for processing 7 or 8 deer between honings. Nothing faster.