The Cutlery Corner

Mark Twain:

Rating

I have had a Lansky for a couple years, this one was a gift. They are without a doubt the best sharpener I have used. They take all the guess work out of it. Highly recommended.

R. Palmer:

Rating

Thought I would write a review to point out a few issues that you need to address BEFORE you begin using this system to actually sharpen a knife. This type of system is capable of producing a consistent angle, but it must be adjusted FIRST. There are two thing you have to do. The first is to insert the rods from the bottom into the hole with the thumb screw, the bottom being the side with the stone, then you need to use a very level surface and bend and adjust the rod until it lays level with the stone surface. The angle of the stone should extend all the way up the length of the rod. This is critical as the rods are all over the place out of the box. The next thing you need to do is check the angle of the clamp itself. The angle of the part with the angle holes needs to be at exactly 90 degrees to the part where you clamp the knife. This needs to be checked on both sides. I did this using a playing card. This wasn’t as far off as the rods, but still wasn’t correct. You also need to re-check the rods ever so ofter and make sure you don’t apply any real downward pressure when using them or the rod will bow slightly and cause the angle to change.

Joshua G. Feldman:

Rating

I’ve owned the Lansky system for almost 20 years and have been very happy with it. It enables me to get fantastically sharp knives every time with a bit of elbow grease but without having much actual skill. Lansky’s system is a brilliant arrangement of a knife clamp with sets of holes that ensure consistent grinding angle for the stones that have long steel guides. This solves the problem of how to hold the stone to the knife at a consistent angle. Using stones to sharpen your knives gives you total control and allows you to achieve the finest edge (much finer than using a chef’s choice, motorized bench grinder (which can overheat the blade ruining the temper), or any of those ceramic wheel/rod dohickeys). The available angle choices are 17 degrees (for Asian knives), 20 and 25 (for Western knives) and 30 degrees (for hatchets). Lansky offers various different stones (from natural Arkansas stones, to diamond abrasive). This particular set includes their entire line of synthetic stones – extra coarse, coarse, medium, fine, and extra fine. The stones are of good quality. You’ll only use the extra coarse the first time you sharpen a given knife it cuts very quickly). The fine is fine enough to get your blades shaving sharp, but the extra fine really puts the last bit of super sharpness. They also give you a bottle of sharpening oil to help carry away the metal shavings to keep the stones cutting. I don’t like using oil so I keep a wet paper towel handy when sharpening and wipe the metal off the stones and blade periodically while sharpening that that works fine for me.

To use the Lansky the process is simple – clamp the blade into the clamp – then scrub the blade against the stone with a consistent angle until you feel a burr (a thin raised seam) along the edge. The burr is your cue to flip the blade over and do the other side. When you get burr on the other side, move onto the next stone. By the time you get to the final fine grade polishing stone and get burr on the last side, then flip and give slight touch with the stone on the other side (to remove the burr but not raise another one) and you’ll find your knife is literally shaving sharp (will cut the hairs off your arm).

Is Lansky the perfect sharpening system? For medium and small knives it probably is. Knives over 6″-7″ long, however, require you to sharpen 1/2 the knife and then move the clamp and sharpen the other half because the edge angle changes too much if you attempt to sharpen too far from the guide hole. The stones themselves are pretty small (about as wide as your middle finger and as long as your hand) so it can take a long time to do a big knife. I can do a 5″ utility knife in about 5-10 minutes, but an 8″ Chef’s knife can take more than double that – which starts to become a bit of a big project. If you do a lot of big knives you’ll probably want to spring for an Edge Pro Apex (same mechanical concept, bigger size for much much more money). If you only periodically sharpen then this can be lived with. You shouldn’t sharpen your knives more than once or twice a year (or they wear out too quickly) since sharpening removes metal. You should use a honing steel frequently in between sharpenings to keep your knives sharp.

Lansky’s system is the best way for normal regular people (non fanatics) to sharpen their knives. It’s pretty easy, fun, satisfying, and extremely effective.

David Rosen:

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I purchased this item about two weeks ago and have sharpened a couple of my pocket knives with it so far.

The Lansky system is very easy to use. The instructions are straight forward and there’s an instructional video on the Lansky website (http://www.lanskysharpeners.com/video.php) too.

The first knife I sharpened was old and abused, so I started out with the extra-course stone and worked my way up. I ended up with a decently sharp blade after my first attempt.

The second knife I tried was newer and only recently dull. I started out with the Medium stone and worked through to the Ultra-fine. This produced a blade sharp enough to shave arm hairs without too much effort.

J. G. Halenza III:

Rating

First off, Im not a professional chef. I was lucky enough to work under a great chef when I was in college and learned to value a sharp edged knife. I have purchased a lot of knives over the years. I have good german knives (F Dick) and good japanese knives (Misono, Hattori and Shun) I have never been able to put a good edge on a knife consistently. Ive gotten to the point that I rotate and send out my knives to be professionally sharpened…and wrecked.

Ah…The Lansky System. it is a system…it works, its fairly easy and it consistently puts a great edge on my knives. I practiced on some NSF junk I keep to put out for the inlaws when they house sit and they edge it put on the pitted and chunked edge was great. if you buy it get the universal mount because it can be awkward w/o it.