I'm blown away by this thing for $60. I have flat stones and I've practiced and practiced trying to get a consistent edge and I still manage to mess it up. I get it sharp, but not like shaving sharp. This worksharp is like using a cheat code. I watched a SweetKnives YouTube video for a possible upgrade and bought lapping paper with adhesive backing off Amazon (300-60,000 Grit) and cut it into strips that are slightly oversized for the ceramic strip and stick them to the ceramic stone and just pull it towards the apex from behind and it gives a mirror polish and a shaving sharp edge.







ETA- Video explaining lapping technique better.

I like that. How many stones does it come with?

Thanks for sharing the paper trick OP. I'll have to look into that for mine.

It's got a Triangular hone, so the 3 flats are 320 grit/600 grit/ and like a 1000 grit ceramic stone

Honestly I wish they made a hone with much more aggressive grits like 80/120/220, reprofiling can be a pain in the ass if your blade bevels are uneven.

It works amazingly. I've only had 2 knives so far that seem like it didn't work. One of my coworkers handed me 2 cheapo made in china ornamental looking knives and I had a good burr going and they polished up bright but got super dull after the honing. I'm wondering if they're like less than 440 Stainless or something and so soft that the lapping paper is actually taking the edge off that I've built up. I'm going to try to sharpen it again and skip the paper honing so I can at least give him a sharp knife.

One of my other coworkers handed me 2 cheap Ozark trail Walmart knives and they get crazy razor sharp, I have no idea what's going on with the other guy's knives.

ETA- I got the chinese knives shaving sharp. I had to start over and only strop each side 10 times with the different grit lapping papers, I think the lapping paper was removing the edge I had created.

Ordered one. Poor man's wicked edge and I like worksharp stuff. Got one of their pocket sharpener with the ceramic rod and strop in my backpack

It works awesome you'll enjoy it, if you want to extend the life of your stones do the sharpie trick. Mark a spot on your bevel with a sharpie, eyeball what seems to be the right angle and then try to remove the sharpie mark. If most of it comes off then you've got the right bevel angle and just go with that. Most pocket knives are 20 or 25 degrees. Though I did sharpen a 5.11 knife that was a 15 degree bevel, that thing was like a scalpel when I was done.

you can order replacement stones, you'll need them sooner rather than later if you start doing a bunch of blade reprofiling. Sometimes it can't be avoided, if the bevels are uneven from prior sharpening or from the factory, but it will save you some time to match the factory bevel as close as you can. I've sharpened probably 50 knives so far between mine and various coworkers' knives.

Started using mine last week. First try out and the knife was shaving sharp. Its a good, easy to use bit of kit.

How long of a blade can it handle ?

@XM21Nick, I believe 10-12" before you have to re-adjust I'm sure you could do like a machete if you just kept moving the clamp down along the spine. I did 3 co-workers big knives, the stainless chinese Rambo knife was the biggest and heaviest probably about a 12" blade, the Glock knife, and cold steel Leatherneck were slightly smaller. The Leatherneck was a pain in the ass though because it's D2 and the bevels looked like they were free handed with an angle grinder, it was a few hours to get them even, even with diamond stones. My Imgur pictures of the actual knives in the sharpener aren't working for some reason...?

I used mine for the first time yesterday.  It got a 12" Made-In chef's knife (MoV HRC 59) ridiculously sharp.  I could easily get a burr on the opposite side after the first 120 grit shaping pass.  Followed the instructions to flip knife and do the same number of strokes, then flip and move to the 600 grit, repeating the process for the hone.

Another cheap chef's knife I tried (Golden Eagle - Japan) took forever to shape the first burr, but eventually it got pretty sharp as well.  Harder steel I'm guessing.

As for the sharpener... Overall, it's great.

Criticisms:

The clamp could be better - I found the blade moving around a bit, despite having tightened the knurled nut down pretty hard.  Not bad, but enough that I had to pay attention.  Maybe I was putting too much pressure on the stone holder.  I had to keep some pressure on it to keep it flat against the blade.  I'd like to see the stones be twice as wide.

My biggest gripe was with the reversible knife holder itself:  The magnets that hold it into the angle setting riser aren't really strong enough.  I found myself keeping a thumb on the knurled nut to hold it in place.  That put my off hand too close to the blade for comfort.  I'd like to see a redesign to get rid of the magnets and put some sort of locking collar on that part, keeping the push-button rotation in place.  Or they could put an extension that lets you press the holder against the angle setting riser.


Other good points:

The base is plenty sturdy, and on the right surface the grips keep it quite stable.  I found myself holding it down anyway, but I don't think it's necessary if using the right amount of pressure on the stones.

The rubber O-rings on the rod that holds the stones work great.  They let you adjust the back-and-forth travel of the stones to increase/decrease the radius of the stroke depending on blade length.  Another benefit is that you can use the entire surface of the stone, keeping spot wear to a minimum.

The rod has a magnetized pin that sticks into a hole in the riser.  Great idea.  Pull the rod out, rotate the holder, put the rod back in.  Easy peasy.

The overall design holds the angle between the stones and the blade quite well.


Overall, for just a bit over $50, it gets the job done quite well.

I'm going to sharpen my Wusthof steak knives today.

I agree with your criticisms, I just used mine tonight to sharpen some co-workers pocket knives. If the bevel is uneven from the factory it takes FOREVER to get it even, I wish they would come out with a lower grit stone for reprofiling, like an 80-120 grit or something, the 320 just takes too long, I noticed it doing my cheap "Japanese style" kitchen knives, the bevels were all over the place on those. When I'm really hogging on the blade the magnets start to slip, or if I'm sharpening a very heavy knife like a Bowie knife, supposedly according to the manufacturer you shouldn't need to push down hard, but I still find myself doing it. I really like it, it could be better, but for the price I like it, I suck trying to freehand with a whetstone, with the Worksharp and the lapping paper strips I made I can get it seriously shaving sharp with minimal effort.

The only knife I've really had a bitch of a time with was my buddies Zero Tolerance pocket knife that is made from some kind of super steel, it pretty much wore out my diamond plates I had to order more and swap them out. D2 steel can be a PITA too, but as long as the bevels aren't way out of spec it's not nearly as bad as the super steel.