Lansky Universal Sharpening System

In my opinion - there's a certain art to sharpening with a stone, and it normally takes a lot of time, FOCUS and patience to do it. While that used to be true - some clever folks, including Lansky, are re-inventing the process. I won't completely give up on my older stones, for some knives I feel they deserve the 'old ways'. For the stainless steel kitchen and general purpose knives I own this set seems just right. Plus - I can be interrupted by my kids, set this down on the workbench to help them, pick it up later and know exactly where I am in the process. Most 'knife sharpening systems' are designed to hone the blade (ceramic rods), or grind way too much off (electric sharpeners). You either don't do enough or you eat away too much steel with the cousin of an electric can opener. This system helped me sharpen my knives quickly, efficiently and still have time to make dinner in the same night. Don't jump the gun, read the instructions first. Really. It's a pretty simple process, but an important one to understand for a consistent edge. Sharpening my first two knives took nearly an hour each as they each had some flat spots on the blade edge that required a lot of work. Since then, I've become more efficient, though some knives require more work to get a consistent angle on the edge. For most knives it's been about 20 minutes each - even if they were relatively sharp when I started. Why? When using this system on a knife for the first time - use *all* the stones *especially* the coarse stone. *Tip #1* mark the cutting edge of a knife with a permanent marker to be sure you are using the system properly and the edge is consistently at the proper angle. Several of mine, with a factory edge, were off in two or three spots. *Tip #2* - use the oil! I heard some reviews complaining about the stones clogging up. This happens more on some knives than others - even with the same steel & brand of knives. The oil 'floats' the steel shavings off the stone so the excess can be wiped off. If your stone is discolored by steel shavings use the oil, rub it a bit with your fingertip, then wipe the excess oil and steel shavings away. If you use a white paper towel you can see just how much steel was on the stone. If you are a hobbyist, want to have very sharp knives and have some blades that need to be re-edged due to regular use or even slight damage or mistreatment - this is enough to do that. You may need additional stones (which are available) or a strop if you want a mirror finish or want to shave with a blade. If you're a professional - I'll let you decide if this is fast enough and accurate enough for you as I am not. What I do know is that I, shamefully, had a few knives that would crush a full sized tomato before 'slicing' it. After a proper sharpening with this kit I could not only slice a sheet of paper into fine ribbons, I could cut about 10-15 perfect tiny slices from a single cherry tomato. My 4 year old now wants tiny tomato sandwiches. In hindsight - I learned you shouldn't do this test with your children watching.

I thought I was all cool sharpening my kitchen knives with a plain old stone. The first couple goes yielded good results, but eventually I came to understand that I had completely destroyed the bevel on my knives. I did not grow up on a farm (like everyone else here, apparently) and so I seem to have no ability to hold a consistent angle while using a stone. As a result I ended up rounding off the bevel on the knives over time. I bought this kit as a last-ditch attempt to save the knives. As such, I wasn't worried about ruining them and was free to following the instructions on the video and experiment as I attempted to cut a new bevel on the knives. I am happy to report that I was successful at creating very nice edges on the blades. Even on the 8" chef I simply mounted the clamp in the middle of the blade. I would guess that the angle of the bevel is "wrong" at the tip and near the handle as a result, but it's still 1000x better than what I was doing, and as long as I'm consistent with clamp placement I should be able to maintain that edge. I added a ceramic ultra fine hone to the kit. In the short term I probably would have been better off with the extra coarse to help me cut the new bevels faster, but in the long run I hope I'll get more use out of the ultra fine hone. Finishing with the ceramic is very satisfying and gives the edge a nicely polished shine. The bit about using oil to clean the hones by "floating" the metal out of the pores was a revelation for me, and certainly seems to work. Clean regularly if you're cutting a new bevel, it'll save you a lot of wasted effort. Probably a well known trick, but while experimenting I found that using an overhead light was the best way to know if I was making progress on the coarse cut. After a few passes you get a new glint for the beginning of the repaired bezel. If you tip the knife farther away from the light you'll pick up other glints for previous bezels, or even a sustained glint for a rounded bezel. Keep going until that's gone. At the very end you'll have a tiny glint that seems to float off the edge of the blade: almost there! Keep going until even that is gone. I suspect this is similar to the advice I've seen to grind until you raise a burr on the other side, but I found it easier to look for the glint than to feel for the burr. Make sure there's only one light above you, or you'll get multiple glints even with a good bevel, one from each light.

The good: It sharpens, it's easier than a plain stone, and it's not terribly expensive. The bad: if your blade isn't very wide you'll bump the sharpening base with your stone if you're going for a 17 degree grind. It was a good half an hour before I noticed this was happening. I had this issue with my Opinel No. 8 which is not by any means a narrow blade. The ugly: Not gonna beat around the bush here, I am the idiot this product is designed for. It still took quite a long time to put a usable edge on my knife, the whole thing is actually rather complicated to use. It takes the margin of error out of using a stone, but as a result makes the actual process more difficult. I'd recommend it as a good product for someone who's really good at following instructions but really awful at precision work. All in all a decent 4-star product.

4/5 convenience 5/5 effectiveness I only docked one star off the convenience factor because I'd like to able to resharpen a blade in the field, but the kit as a whole is a little bulky, and is defintely something you want to sit down and setup... not as quick as a pocket sharpener, though still FAR more effective. if you have a little time to sit down with it, it is actually very easy to use, an almost idiot-proof way to a professional edge. I've tried just about every way to sharpen a knife, and I'll never use anything but this kit again. It's simple, safe for the steel, and incredibly effective. Anything motorized is harsh on steel. Heating up the steel risks changing the tempering, making the edge less durable and ruining the blade. The other small handheld devices out there, with the v-shaped notches... some work OK for a little while. But even the better ones wear out quickly and soon become totally useless. Using a set of stones is by far the best way. Finding the right angle is difficult by hand though, and keeping that angle consistent from one stroke to the next is all but impossible. The simple bracket design built into the Lansky set makes keeping the right angle pretty much idiot-proof. For a badly dulled blade, you may need to step through all stones, from coarse to fine. A better edge may just need a touch up with the fine stone. If I had to name a con for the review, it'd definitely be the serrated stone. It seemed like a great idea to be able to touch up all those half-serrated pocket knives, but the angled shape doesn't match the countour of any serrations I've seen. Trying to use a sharp corner to work a small round notch... think round hole, square peg.

This is so much better than by hand. Set-up is simple: insert blade, tighten screw, tighten the knob. Choose the grit, insert the guide rod and tighten the thumb-screw. Insert the guide rod in the slot for the angle you want to sharpen to. Then start moving the stone back and forth. Even I did a good job. My pocket knife, and my wife's kitchen knives were so bad, (from the bad sharpening job I did by hand)that it took a bit longer than normal to get them where they should have been. They are now as sharp as when new. The whole thing fits in the box, and there's an extra slot for if you buy another stone, which I did, the "Very Fine". The only problem I found was with my mini "Swiss"; the blade is only a quarter inch wide, and the stone ground on the frame instead of the blade.If it were another 1/16th or so wider, the system would work on it. Overall, I am extremely pleased with the system.

Will indeed put a very good if not quite razor/shaving edge on most knives. For my use the serrated edge stone is of minimal use, and another kit may be a better choice if you do not intend sharpen sawtooth edge knives. You will need to get the c-clamp or pedestal for sharpening larger knives such as hunting or chef's. This is a good value for standard carbon steel knives but the newer/harder stainless or Japanese knives will require upgraded stones in the coarser grits for use on nicked edges or to re-bevel. The finer stones seem to work fine on all the steels I have. This kit will generate very adequate edges but for super sharp (shaving) edges you will want to get the extra fine and sapphire stones. If you have never used one of these kits before, search YouTube on Lansky for demos and hints.

I have this expensive chef's knife, a Wusthof Trident Classic. I simply could not relegate this thing to a machine sharpener (yikes), but alas, I was afraid to get a set of sharpening stones and do it myself. You need SKILLS for this sort of thing! Along comes the Lansky System. Now, I'll admit that I was a bit skeptical, but there's a certain person on Youtube (whose name I shall not mention, or this review won't pass muster) whose own review convinced me to give it a try. Trust me on this: This is great stuff. I sharpened my beloved Wusthof, and couldn't stop, so I sharpened everything else in the drawer. It works, and it works VERY well. Read the directions. It's actually quite simple. You will not regret this purchase.

The Lansky sharpening tool does exactly what it is described to do. The only problem I have with it is, I have all double edged dagger knives. It is difficult to sharpen these knife blades with the Lansky tool. For single edged knives, it is great and will put a razor sharp edge on them with little or no trouble at all.

It seemed like a straight forward sharpening system for a person who has never successfully sharpens knifes in the past. So far the result have been excellent. All the knife, including the aerated knife have a good cutting edge on them again. All the knives I have sharpened before have thanked me for getting this.

Good seller

I'm still learning how to use these but I have already created some frighteningly sharp knives with it. Produces a consistent edge to the blade.

Muy buen producto, otorga excelente filo. Solo hay que tener cuidado cuando el ángulo del cuchillo es muy robusto, se tiene que dar infinitas pasadas para eliminar y crear un ángulo más agudo, las piedras son pequeñas, recomiendo usarlo solo cuando es un cuchillo ya con algo de filo.

A good guided sharpening system which is very efficient for some pre set angle such as 17, 20, 25 and 30 degrees respectively. But getting to any exact bevel is a complicated task. This instrument needed much improvement particularly in the holder gaps where you can feel the wobble when you operate the stones. More over, it's made in the U.S. but fit and finish hasn't been properly taken care of. The plastic box they provided, doesn't close as it should be. It remains open. I have to attach two para cords to keep it close. That's annoying. It's not a cheap tool as per INR and even in India, small plastic container boxes have a snappy lock ! The metal rods (I think they are made of aluminum) are very soft and you have to align them every time you fix with the stones. Perfect for small pocket edc knives but longer kitchen knives or bigger knives cannot be sharpen using this tool properly. Stones are very thin and would erode out sooner than you have expected. Luckily I don't sharpen my knives very often 😅