Wicked Edge

[lunchbox]

Has anyone used this or seen it other than on the internet or tv?
From what I see on the videos it looks really easy and good. But for the price ($250) im not sure

[Jon]

Lunchbox. What is it we're talking about?
Jon

[ET]

Jon

I believe he is referring to this knife sharpening tool.

www.wickededgeusa.com/


Ed

[rossman40]

I'll stick with my Lansky, whole lot cheaper.

[lunchbox]

Thank you Ed. It is a knife sharpener that I came across while I was playing around online and watched some of the video demos and it looked really neat and easy. Just wondered if anyone had actually used it to see how easy it really is.

[jeff3680]

I have had one for a little over a year and must say it performs well, almost to well. Your knives will be RAZOR sharp by following the directions. Be careful .... The edge is extremely smooth and doesn't feel near as sharp as it is. My knives stay sharper longer and are easy to touch up with just a couple of swipes with a diamond stick. My buddies now bring their knives to my house before deer season to put new edges on them .........

[Jon]

+1 on the lansky

[cuda]

I will stay with my stones I can shave with knives that I sharpen. I do all of my knives by hand on about 5 different stone. I sharpen a lot of fillet knives in the summer and skinning knives in the fall.

[Richard]

+2 on the Lansky also. Basically does the same thing
Richard

[12ptdroptine]

I used to use lansky also... But I moved to KME knife sharpner's... If your interested do a search. There a well made product.

[lunchbox]

The KME looks pretty easy too. I think I like all the suggestions. Now just which one to pick and try to see if I like it.

[joe21a]

I can buy a lot of fancy stones for that price and my edges are razor sharp and I sharpning by hand with no guide. It does look well made!!

[wilmsmeyer]

The Lansky can't be beat. Wish they made a medium bastard file attachment for knives that need a new angle. Probably could improvise one. It would be nice to be able to move serious metal....Lansky style

[thelefthand]

There's no way I would spend that kind of money on a knife sharpener. I have used Lansky, Gatco, the cheap V things that you buy at the grocery store, course hog steels, fine beef steels, various Arkansas stones, water stones, diamond stones, silicon carbide sandpaper, leather strops , and a belt grinder that I specifically built for making blades. The grinder is VERY similar to a KMG grinder.

The Lansky is the best over the counter system for sharpening a really dull knife. Well worth the money. It doesn't produce the finest edge, but it will easily put an edge on that will shave hair. Anything sharper than that only stays sharper for a short amount of time. The Spyderco is the easiest system by far to maintain an very sharp edge. Notice I said MAINTAIN. The problem with it is that it takes forever to remove enough material to sharpen a really dull knife. This is because even the course ceramic stones are about 600 grit. That's where the lansky comes in. The Lansky and Gatco work well at removing lots of material quickly, and putting a decent edge on a knife. A spyderco works well at turning that decent edge into something you can be proud of and keeping it that way.

Now, if you like using hand held stones, then silicon carbide sandpaper is the way to go. Plainer blades are often sharpened this way. For about $5 you can buy an assortment at your local car parts store and when your done with your knife, it will put the brand new razor blade in your medicine cabinet to shame. You basically hold it on a flat piece of material and use it just like a stone. I use a large binder clip to hold the paper on a piece of 1"x3" red oak. If the knife is dull, you start out with a 320 grit and take about 10 strokes on each side of the blade. No need to alternate sides. Then go to a 400 grit, then 600 grit, then 800 grit, then 1000, then 1500, then 2000 grit. If you do a good job, at 600 grit it will shave hair. If you don't do such a good job, then after 1000 grit it will shave hair. I don't alternate sides until the last grit that I'm going to do. After 1500 grit, you no longer feel the hair. After that, I take a few passes on a leather strop and after that, you can pass the blade above the skin and it still cuts the hair. If you have a hard time holding a consistent angle, use something like a sheet of hard rubber on top of your hard surface, and keep the pressure very light. This method will blend out any definitive lines on the blade, but when I make my blades they have a convex curve to them, so there are no aesthetic lines on the blade.

I have to admit, I only sharpen a few of my knives this way, and it's mostly for fun. I keep 320, 600, and 800 grit in my desk at work for my pocket knife (leatherman Surge). The blade is junk, and I don't sharpen it very often. It takes me about 15 min to put a razor edge back on it. For most of other blades (hunting, Kitchen, Butchering) it's just too easy to use the Spyderco while I'm working. When I'm done butchering a deer, or cleaning fish, I hit the knives on the spyderco one last time, and then hit them on the strop and put them away.

When it comes to redoing the angles on a blade, you really need a variable speed belt grinder. Short of that, you're stuck with some 320 grit sand paper and a LOT of elbow grease. A file shouldn't be able to remove steel from a finished knife blade because the blade should be almost as hard, if not harder than a file. For increasing the secondary angle, a lansky works fine. It does take a little time, but it's not too bad if you're only doing one or two blades. Sandpaper works well also. I cheat and I have an angle marked on my belt grinder for it. I turn the speed all the way down, and put on a micron belt. Took me 15 min to do all of my knives this year, including the kitchen knives Then again, I have $300 in cold rolled steel and bearings, $200 in a motor, and about 30 hours on the mill and lathe to build the darn thing A lot faster at making a knife blade than my 1x42 combo sander though.

[artjr338wm]

No disrespect meant, but how does this $250 sharpener do the job better than say a $40-$80 Lansky or Gatco?

I personally use a Gatco and my Spyderco to sharpen all my knives, and IMHO these two combined get my knives no BS scarry sharp. A knife made of good steel and even better heat treat will go a looooong way in helping you get it hair popping sharp.

[boarhog]

I have a Lansky, and it works great on general purpose knives, but for skinning I like a more tapered edge than the least degree guide puts on a blade. If I have the time, I use 3 grades of Arkansas stones on my Buck 120, and Gerber Gator. I also have several knife sharpening boards at work, that make it easy to follow Thelefthand's method. The boards are about 14-16" long, by 2.5" wide, by 3/8" thick with a handle area sawed on one end. We keep rolls of emory cloth of various grits in the shop, to staple on one side of the board when the cloth wears out. If we want finer grit for a razor edge, we cut a strip of 600, 1000, or crocus cloth. All of the boards have a strip of leather glued to the flip side. Basically, these boards are used like a razor strop. I will gladly post a pic of these boards tomorrow.

I would NOT consider buying a $250.00 sharpening rig!
Boarhog

[lunchbox]

there is alot of ways to sharpen knives and by my fault im still learning. I am the only one in my family that hunts or is outdoorish. So forgive me for asking some silly ?'s sometimes but at 32 I feel I really know nothing about the woods, hunting or anything that comes with it. All I know is what I read and then go out and try.
I am really glad I have found a place that I can go to and ask ?'s now. The only bad part is I cant meet everyone and pick your brains and have you show me how some stuff is done.
But thank you for helping in any way you can

[Jon]

If it is rough I use a belt sander otherwise a Lansky.
Jon

[youp50]

As I look at the Wicked Edge as pictured, I doubt it would produce a satisfactory edge. The blade clamping mechanism is very similar to a Lansky or a Smith's. I have owned and used both.

The knife is a tanto style blade which offers quite a bit of parallel blade edge to grasp by the clamp. It is important that the blade be held firmly, no wobble or shift. This is accomplished by having the jaws of the clamp parallel to the portion of the blade being clamped. If the blade is held as pictured it will shift when stroked with the stone. The screws on the clamp are used to properly adjust the angle of jaws to parallel the blade steel. No rocking that way.

[thelefthand]

Lunchbox - the only silly question is one that you already know the answer to and are only asking to try to show off. I'm not on here much, but I keep coming back from time to time because the folks on here are good folks and do a good job of answering questions from simple to nearly impossible.

[tar12]

We use the Accusharp here. Nothing puts a edge on faster on the bench or in the field! Carry it your coat pocket and it takes mere seconds for a very sharp edge.Wont leave home with out it.My son and I do a lot of coon and squirrel and deer hunting and home butchering and will carry several knives in the field.There is no time to fool with something that requires a bench or several minutes of your time.We have unique needs in a sharpener but for super fast results the Accusharp is hard to beat!