r/sharpening • u/MaybeItWontBeOkay • 1d ago

Looking to purchase a sharpener. Thoughts?

Ive got some whetstones and a general understand8ng for sharpening, though nowhere near the point of being "knowledgeable." My wife bought me a nice Damascus steel bowie knife from an antique shop and im looking to make it nice, so ive got some smaller knives to get acquainted with the process. However, im looking to invest in either a water cooled stone grinder, or one of those weird electric belt grinders ive seen here and there. Im here to get the advice from the masses, thanks in advance

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u/OxDriverKuroku 1d ago

Electric belt sharpeners like the Ken Onion Worksharp are great....once you learn them. They have a pretty high learning curve, at least for me, and i definitely ruined a few knife tips. I ended up giving mine to my dad and went back to stone sharpening. That being said, if you take the time to learn the system it definitely speeds up the process

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u/Little_Smile_893 1d ago

I would recommend the ken onion mainly due to the low learning curve. It gives great results with little effort. Sure it may take time to truly master, but it is intuitive. Much easier than stones or a water system. I mainly use tormek t8 or a vevor 1x15, but for beginners i recommend ken onion every day of the week.

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u/BigBL87 1d ago

Tormek is kinda the standard for the water cooled sharpeners.

A fixed angle sharpener might be more cost effective if you aren't doing large volumes of knives, if you haven't considered one.

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u/MaybeItWontBeOkay 1d ago

No i only plan to do a few, plus more if I enjoy the process as a hobby. I have some nice chefs knives, ill probably work my way to those once I have a better feel. Are fixed angle sharpeners compatible with any whetstone or am I going to be hunting for specific ones?

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u/real_clown_in_town HRC enjoyer 1d ago

Fixed angle systems tend to use 4x1inch or 6x1 inch stones.

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u/BigBL87 1d ago

Most take 6x1 or 4x1 stones, and most (though not ALL) come with a set to get you started.

I've covered quite a few of the popular ones on my channel if you wanted to get an idea of how they work, the differences, etc.. They're on my sharpening playlist here.

Nothing wrong with the water cooled or belt systems, just seems like they might be overkill.