[Tyson]

I have a spyderco sharpmaker, but I'm terrible with it.  I've tried free hand on stones, I'm a little better with them, but results are still poor, for me.  So I'm looking at a system that can keep a fixed angle for me and get me a reasonably sharp edge.  Mainly for my Global and Shun kitchen knives, and a few of my Spyderco folders. 

I've been looking at the different systems - Lansky, Wicked Edge, Apex, Work Sharp.  Of these, the WE seems the most flexible for different edge geometries and angles, and seems faster due to working both sides of the blade simultaneously.  But at $275, not cheap.  It's in my amazon cart right now, and reason to NOT get it?

[PeteG]

I like the WE system a lot but there's a leaning curve to it, so start off with some cheap knives.

[Photon46]

Tyson, before going in for an expensive sharpening system, have you tried using sharpening steels and diamond grit coated steels for basic edge maintenance? For decades, I only used traditional Arkansas and Japanese water stones for sharpening. I've always had great results with softer carbon steel blades but the harder stainless blades like my Shuns were more difficult to sharpen and maintain with free hand sharpening on stones. A friend of mine who had experience in a professional kitchen always wondered why I bothered with edge maintenance on stones. He said every chef he ever knew always used steels and only had their knives professionally sharpened on stones a couple times a year or so. On a lark, I picked up Ikea's diamond grit coated sharpening steel for $15 the last time I was in their store. I have to tell you I was extremely surprised a how well this thing works on my stainless Shuns and Chinese cleavers. Four gentle sweeps on each side of the edge and a quick polish with a fine polishing grit & leather strop and they've got an extremely sharp edge restored. Much much easier than stones. There are a number of Youtube videos that demonstrate the proper use of steels. Several of the chefs in the videos also repeat what my friend said regarding the infrequent use of actual sharpening stones by kitchen pros.

[sunnydaze]

http://www.americastestkitchenfeed.com/gadgets-and-gear/2011/11/the-best-electric-knife-sharpener/

Recommended by America's Test Kitchen.  I implicitly trust them for all things around the kitchen.  Also, if you check the web, you will find that many professional chefs use it and rec it.  Kinda foggy on it, but I think I remember reading that there might be some issue with those fancy 16 degree edges,  but for all other "normal"  blades it does a great job.

There are several Chef'sChoice models at various price points.  I bought the slightly cheaper model 120 at Bed Bath and Beyond for about 100 bux.  I think Amazon sells it for about the same.

[Tyson]

PeteG, thanks for the feedback. 

Photon46, I have a steel already, several in fact, that I can re-hone on, so I think I'm covered there.  My main issue is when my knives do need actual re-sharpening, I don't trust taking them to a knife shop, but I'm not that good at doing it myself on the spyderco system or by free hand.  I always end up with one side of the blade at 20 degrees, and the other at 15.  I know that I'm making the mistake, while I make it, and I try to correct it, but I never can.  So I'm giving up, after ruining one knife completely and several others are on the same path.  As Clint Eastwood says "A man's gotta know his limitations". 

[avta]

I have one of the less expensive Chef's Choice models and find it works well. It does take a bit of practice to let the blade rest on the magnets that keep the blade at the correct angle but other than that I've found it very reliable.

[SoCalWJS]

I ended up with the Edge Pro Apex and couldn't be happier with the results (Still got to get better at knifes that have a sharp curve at the tip though  )

Make sure you find out what kind of edge your knifes have before going too far though - many Japanese knives have different angles on the opposite sides of the blade. Some knives are "hollow ground" and have multiple angles to them - that is, the very tip is at one angle and the metal immediately behind it is at a different angle that should also be sharpened to keep the knife in proper condition.

I found the best option is to find a couple of knives that you like fairly well that have a simple, single angle edge on both sides and work with those exclusively until you gain confidence and experience.

[Photon46]

  Photon46, I have a steel already, several in fact, that I can re-hone on, so I think I'm covered there.  My main issue is when my knives do need actual re-sharpening, I don't trust taking them to a knife shop, but I'm not that good at doing it myself on the spyderco system or by free hand.  I always end up with one side of the blade at 20 degrees, and the other at 15.  I know that I'm making the mistake, while I make it, and I try to correct it, but I never can.  So I'm giving up, after ruining one knife completely and several others are on the same path.  As Clint Eastwood says "A man's gotta know his limitations".

Gotcha Tyson, just covering all angles. Like you say, there comes a time when they have to be resharpened on a stone. The multi-angle aspect of some blades can be vexing. I really appreciated a nice packaging touch on the last two Tamahagane knives I bought. Each one's packaging noted the exact angle of the blade for sharpening, no guessing.

[ken]

Have you tried raising this question over at the Spyderco forum?   THere's alot of knowledgeable people over there that could possible give you some advice about the The Sharpmaker, among other things.  I don't own one but it's supposed to be a pretty good sharpening tool and have been thinking about getting one for my Spydies.

[Rob Babcock]

Personally I would go with the Edge Pro Apex but both are good devices.  The WEPS (Wicked Edge Precision Sharpener) does have some virtues.  It's true that sharpening both sides of the blade is a little faster.  But I don't like the clamp for many reasons.  First off I don't think it's 100% safe having the edge straight up.  That's pretty minor though if you're careful.  The main issue is that the WEPS won't go down to super low angles.  Clay Allison, the inventor, has been working on addressing this but so far as I know it still can't do very very low angles like you might want to put on a sujihiki.

Overall the most serious shortcoming is the supplied abrasives.  They're adequate but not outstanding, especially for doing Japanese knives.  Like the EP, you're better off buying some better aftermarket stones.  But with the WEPS this is expensive.  You can get almost all the same stones cut for WEPS and EP, but you need twice as many for the WEPS (disclosure:  A buddy of mine is the one currently supplying the aftermarket stones for both, although CKtG sells stones just for the EP).  Let's say for the moment that you going to get a set of Shapton Pro stones for the WEPS.  Well, if you wanted to run the progression all the way to 30k (admittedly overkill, but for the sake of illustration).  A 2k stone costs $42 and you need a pair.  $50 for the 5k x2, $60 for the 8k x 2.  When  you get to the 30k it's $249 and you need a pair!  Suddenly audio is looking like a cheap hobby!

Many of you know I'm a chef, but I'm also a pretty serious semi-pro sharpener.  I've sharpened for at least a couple folks from AC.  I sharpen freehand on stones and use powered gear including a Kalamazoo belt grinder, but I also have an Edge Pro Professional series.  And I had an Apex before that.  I think the Apex is the best device in the world for the money.  Nothing wrong with the WEPS, but a clamp has some limitations.  Odd shaped knives are hard to clamp firmly.  To get a good hold the WEPS likes to have flat facets to grip.  Knives with a zero convex grind are a little tricky on this device, as are some of the tactical type knives.  Also IIRC the Apex will go lower although it's possible this has been resolved by now.  Also, there's  a practical limit to the length of knife the WEPS can do without moving the knife in the clamp.  Again, going from memory I think Clay told me that was 11.5" but I could be remembering wrong.  I have at least two Japanese knives longer than that.

Lastly I have a quibble on a theoretical basis.  Since the arms are set to pivot from about the middle of the device, it seems to me that the angle isn't going to be as consistent at the extreme ends of the blade.  Perhaps someone better at math can shed some light on this.

Take this with a grain of salt since I'm more of an EP guy.  I will say Clay Allison is a super nice guy and really passionate about sharpening.  He'll address any issue you have and help you out in any way.  Of course, the same can be said of Ben Dale, the inventor of Edge Pro.

Whichever way you go, if you want some serious high performance you'll eventually want to step up to better abrasives.  My favorites are the Chocera series of synthetic stones from Naniwa.  They're amazing!  The Shapton stones, both Pro and GlassStone, are also great.  The Choceras are a bit softer and more forgiving than the Shaptons and leave a great edge.  The Shaptons are a bit harder and leave a brighter polish (visually).

[Rob Babcock]

Here's a link to some good EP sets.  DISCLOSURE:  I don't work for CKtG but I have in the past done some sharpening work for the company.  Beyond that I'm just a customer and fan.

BTW, I'd stay away from the Work Sharp.  The belts are small and proprietary, and a grinder can ruin a good knife in a heartbeat.  I use a grinder but I've been doing this for decades and know what I'm doing.  Well, with sharpening anyways!

[Rob Babcock]

Here's my EP Pro on a marble pond made for me by Tom from Jende in Taiwan.  It was made for me to my specifications, and while it's not strictly necessary it's very pretty!  Makes sharpening more fun!

[Photon46]

One thing I've found that helps me a lot when sharpening harder steel blades is to use a Nagura stone to make a cutting paste on the water stone. Speeds up the cutting action nicely. The great folks at McClains Printmaking Supplies in Oregon stock small blocks for sale;  http://www.imcclains.com/catalog/whetstones/nagurastone.html

[Mitsuman]

Lansky is all you need. Easy, cheap, fast, and puts an edge on my knives sharp enough to shave with. 

[persisting1]

I just send my Shuns back to the factory for sharpening. It used to be free, but now they just charge around a couple of dollars for each knife. I think it's worth having them do it. I'd rather not damage the edge.

[Rob Babcock]

I'm not real impressed with the Shun factory re-sharpening.  They don't do a stellar job.  With a bit of practice the EP will do a lot better.  It seems to me that Kershaw made a colossal mistake getting rid of the free sharpening.  It couldn't have cost them much and it was a big draw; I know lots of folks who bought Shun because they knew they didn't have to worry about getting them sharp.

The Lansky works better for smaller knives than larger ones.  If you do a large blade you have to move and reclamp.  The big downside for Japanese knives, aside from that, is the actual "stones".  Water stones are best for knives made of VG-10, Aogami, Shirogami, SRS-15, etc.

[Tyson]

Thanks for all the feedback guys, after watching a lot of the sharpening videos for the systems and reading a lot of reviews, and taking in to account the input from here, I decided to go ahead and get the WEPS.  Rob, your feedback was particularly helpful, because it pointed out the weaknesses of the system and let me honestly decide if I could live with those weaknesses, given my goals.  The EP has more stones and cheaper ones, and will probably get ultimately a sharper edge than the WEPS.  Those definitely count against the WEPS. 

On the other hand, the strengths (for me) are a more intuitive use and faster learning curve (it just makes sense to me), and I really want to avoid the flipping process so being able to do both sides at once is a big deal to me.  Lastly, since I am mainly concerned with a functional edge, mainly on my Global knives, I don't mind stopping at the 600 grit and not getting a mirror finish.  I might change my mind in the future, so it's nice that the WEPS has the option of very fine ceramic and leather strops. 

Normally I'd just get the fine ceramic and leather right now, but I just bought a First Watt F5 kit, so need to spend some $$ on putting it together too.  Plus this is my first time building an amp from scratch, so I'll probably screw up at least once 

[Rob Babcock]

I think you'll be happy with the WEPS, Tyson.  I know quite a few guys at Knifeforums.com that have WEPS and it's a good machine.  It should be pretty much a plug-n-play device.  Once you've had a chance to play with it a bit, you should pop over to the Wicked Edge forum and do some research on stones.  If you have Shun and Global knives, a set of diamond paddles for the low end and a few Shapton Pro Stones for polishing will give you stellar results.

[PeteG]

Yes,you should be real happy with it. Two things I like using with it is an angle cube and Clay’s leather strops for a quick touch-up and I strop by hand most of the time (no clamp). 

[Rob Babcock]

The Angle Cube is nice!  Works great on the EP, too.  Pete, have you tried Kangaroo leather paddles?  They're amazing!