New Work Sharp Ken Onion Mk2 Knife and tool sharpener?
- Thread starter Quarter Horse
- Start date
I'm not sure which one I have I will have to double check but after having it I wouldn't go back. I use to use diamond stones and I could sharpen a knife great then I would suck so on and so on now everything is consistent and razor sharp. I use from kitchen k over to my butcher knoves hunting and edc knives.
I just bought locally a lightly used KO sharpener and learning to use it. 3d printed a shelf system to get the blades at the right angle, that should help a lot but if anyone has a good video to show their process or steps or that helped them learn to use the thing, post it up..
I have a KO with a lot of spare varying grit belts. Mine has 2 different sharpening angle shelf options iirc. It makes quick work when you have a lot of knives to sharpen. You do need to take care not to use too much pressure and trust the speed (which is variable) and grit to do the work. Too much pressure will grind too much area on the blade. Start with less important knives to get used to it. There’s YT vids to watch.
I love the thing.
I love the thing.
Mine has like 4 different angle settings. There is a roll bar in back to help with the shape of the blade. It's actually pretty easy once you get the feel for it. Just drag backwards at the same speed and stop the blade about halfway in middle of belt.
I would get the elite that comes with the blade grinding attachment.
I have the previous gen Ken Onion with blade grinding attachment, and it's an awesome sharpening tool.
I have the previous gen Ken Onion with blade grinding attachment, and it's an awesome sharpening tool.
Thanks for your responses. I've decided to stick with the Ken Onion Sharpener with the "blade grinding attachment". I started with, I believe, WorkSharps' original powered tool which was their original Knife and Tool Sharpener. I gathered about thirty kitchen and outdoors knives and went to work. About halfway through it ceased working. Called WorkSharp the next day and got the general offices. I could hear a number of women in the background..
The conversation went something like this. "Hey Mildred. Yeah. Remember the guy last week who destroyed his Knife and Tool Sharpener in one sitting. Yup. I've got another one. O.K. I'll go and get you the part." Back to me. Sir, we'll get you the part in the mail either this afternoon or tomorrow morning. Me. Ma'am. I'm perfectly willing to pay for the part and any attendant costs. Her. Not necessary, enjoy your WorkSharp and tell your friends."
That, guys and gals, is how you get a customer for life. How long did it take me to reciprocate? Probably a couple of decades or more. I've used everything from large synthetic stones in lubricant baths to hard Arkansas stones smaller than a credit card and made most every stop in-between. WorkSharp was simply my choice when I was in a position to buy anything I wanted. In addition there is a Tac-Ops Rifle. Thank you Mike R. Also a Randall #1-7 with a Border Patrol Grip.
I am going to end this post. There is a well known book "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" and I have done every one of those and been paid to do it.
A last thought. When I was around
I have the WorkSharp KO MK.2, love it. I don't have the expansion attachment yet (they call it Blade Grinding). The thing makes short work of sharpening everything from kitchen knives to pocket folders - it'll even do scissors. Haven't tried it on mower blades and axes yet.
I have the older version, from what I've seen the new one really doesn't bring anything significant to the table that old one didn't. I'm not a fan of the blade grinding attachment for knives you want to put a keen edge on, but great for axes, etc. They need to come up with a design that allows you to use the "shelf" as a rest to guide the knife blade while sharpening, not just as a reference point you then have to freehand. Even in their own videos you can see how much they vary the blade angle while sharpening. Definitely practice on some cheap junk kitchen knives first, it's really easy to hog off way too much material or round off tips when you start.
If I was buying a new one I'd probably buy the mk2 of course, it has a few nice additions like detent selectable angles, and I could see where the digital speed settings could be handy.
Where these shine is speed, you can get a pretty good edge, really fast and if you want to hog off material to set a new angle on a blade it's easy/fast. However, I get sharper more consistent edges on manual angle guide systems. There are some inherently downsides to their setup. For example when you switch sides, the direction of the belt to the blade edge reverses, also if you pay attention to the belt flex, one side gets more flex than the other (probably due to leverage on the tensioner). Also because of the belt flex these make "apple seed" convex grind edges that are thicker behind the edge which is good for durability but hurt slicing ability some. The other annoyance I've found over the years is once you have a groove in the little black spacer the edge rides on, if you make a large angle adjustment for a different knife, you end up fighting the guide. I now rotate that "roller" shelf out of the way now on almost every knife. It seems to do better with blades that do not have a lot of "belly" at least for me, my guess is it's harder to maintain the angle if you have to rotate the knife upward a lot, or if you decide not to rotate the knife upward, the angle the belt takes on the belly of the blade to the tip changes drastically.
I don't use it for pocket/hunting knives anymore, I really only use it for quickly sharpening really dull abused kitchen knives, or setting a new blade angle on a new/abused knife. I'll get them 90% of the way there, and finish on a spyderco sharpmaker and maintain using that. That way I really only have to use the ken onion about twice a year. If I want something really sharp, I'll dust off the wicked edge.
If I was buying a new one I'd probably buy the mk2 of course, it has a few nice additions like detent selectable angles, and I could see where the digital speed settings could be handy.
Where these shine is speed, you can get a pretty good edge, really fast and if you want to hog off material to set a new angle on a blade it's easy/fast. However, I get sharper more consistent edges on manual angle guide systems. There are some inherently downsides to their setup. For example when you switch sides, the direction of the belt to the blade edge reverses, also if you pay attention to the belt flex, one side gets more flex than the other (probably due to leverage on the tensioner). Also because of the belt flex these make "apple seed" convex grind edges that are thicker behind the edge which is good for durability but hurt slicing ability some. The other annoyance I've found over the years is once you have a groove in the little black spacer the edge rides on, if you make a large angle adjustment for a different knife, you end up fighting the guide. I now rotate that "roller" shelf out of the way now on almost every knife. It seems to do better with blades that do not have a lot of "belly" at least for me, my guess is it's harder to maintain the angle if you have to rotate the knife upward a lot, or if you decide not to rotate the knife upward, the angle the belt takes on the belly of the blade to the tip changes drastically.
I don't use it for pocket/hunting knives anymore, I really only use it for quickly sharpening really dull abused kitchen knives, or setting a new blade angle on a new/abused knife. I'll get them 90% of the way there, and finish on a spyderco sharpmaker and maintain using that. That way I really only have to use the ken onion about twice a year. If I want something really sharp, I'll dust off the wicked edge.
