Wish I had tried free handing a long time ago.

That's really nice of you to say. I try to be open minded here and treat people well. Glad someone appreciates it. :)

Well Brian, On limited experience and much enthusiasm, I have ordered the attachment. I have a collection of working and mint condition knives of various designs and materials. I never wanted to make them but always wanted to learn to sharpen them. I have struggled with hand sharpening on Japanese whetstones for years and never could get the "bur" development right. I was fascinated that you probably spent half your time on the video looking for the bur and evening it out. I think this is where the machine comes in better than sharpening by hand. One of the sharpest knives I have was a hand made tanto from a US knife maker. When I enquired how he got the knife so sharp he said he did the sharpening on a large belt sander using a worn belt that had been used for knife making. So I am interested to hear another video from you on belts and large belt sanders. I am in Australia, so many of these things ares expensive to import. I had to spend the same price as the WS Knife Sharpener to buy a transformer to run it on our current.

The key to getting good results with this and almost any other sharpening system is to create a burr, full length, on both sides of the blade, and then remove it. You probably noticed I was checking for a burr over and over again. It's important. :) I don't use a leather belt with this machine at all. I have used the purple "6000" belt several times and it produces a very polished edge that mows hair off of your arm and does other fine cutting tasks very, very well. However, the vast majority of blades won't support that fine of an edge for very long if they are being used for real cutting. Sure they will shave the hair off of your arm, but the first time you open a cardboard box the edge will crumple. I find that for most working edges, like you'd use in a kitchen for example, the X22 belt is as far as you need to go, and in fact these edges hold much, much longer in the kitchen than a more refined edge. Just my experience. Good luck!

I don't normally deburr between belts. In your example of moving to X22 after X65, the first pass or two on the X22 should remove the burr raised by the X65. Continuing to grind with the X22 will then raise a burr on the opposite side, smaller, as it came from a finer grit, the X22. I really only worry about deburring once I'm at the final belt I'm going to use. At that point I turn the speed down to it's lowest and try to use light pressure and faster motions across the belt. Even then, I find I need the cork or wood to strip off burr remenants. I think if you want a VERY clean edge, you have to use something else after your last belt. I've also experimented with stropping on the last belt with the machine turned off, but I didn't have good results from that.

superbarnie Yes, if you grind only on one side until a burr is formed, you're likely to make the edge off center. How off center it is, is based on how dull the blade was to start with and how much grinding you do. It's probably not a big deal for a blade that's not too dull, but I'd avoid it if possible. I try to grind fairly equally on both sides. I usually do no more than 6 or 7 passes on one side before changing to the other side. I keep going back and forth, checking for a burr as I go, until a burr forms on one side or the other. Then after a full length burr on one side, I switch to the other side and form a full length burr there too. As for shaving sharp, you can get there with a little practice. It's easier to get a shaving edge from the finer grit belts. The X4 is very capable of making a shaving edge, and the purple "5000" belt will make a hair popping edge. The edge probably won't last with most steels, but it's impressive to play with and show off. :) Good luck to you! Brian.

Brian Gentry Thanks for the response! I understand now. For some reason, I had misunderstood and thought the blade was supposed to be grinded on the same side until the burr was formed. Well, I'll try again soon and hopefully with some more practice I can get it shaving sharp.

For several years I really wanted the Blade Grinding Attachment. I almost bought it a few times. But every time I added up the price of the BGA and the additional belts I wanted, I stopped. I always thought I should be putting that money towards a real bench top sander. I finally got some space to put a bench top tool and bought one. I haven't used the WSKO in a while now because the 1x42" sander that I bought works so well. I still think the BGA is a neat tool. I think it would be fun to have one for mobile purposes: Taking to a friend or relatives house to sharpen their knives and that kind of thing.

1. See my comments below to tak2w and bigwhey. 2. With the level of skill I have now (which isn't all that exceptional) I'm confident with just about any blade on the WSKO. Would I use it on a $200 plus folder? I'd hesitate for sure. I'd use the same care I'd use with bench stones, trying to be very careful about every aspect of blade shaping and polishing. This tool will let you be as precise as you want to be. It's just much faster than doing it by hand. The lowest speed is really very slow and allows you to be pretty darned careful if you are so inclined. I hope that helps.

Brian Gentry Thanks for your reply. I noticed your comments regarding my first Q after I made my post. Sorry 'bout that. If I end up getting a WSKO I'll be sure to practice on my kitchen cutlery first. I'm relatively new to knives, still learning, and I guess what constitutes a good or even acceptable sharpening job varies from person to person. I watch vids where some guys are perfectly happy with a few swipes through the WS and others who spend hours creating a mirror polished, hair-whittling edge using their $600+ Wicked Edge setup.

A full sized belt sander is more powerful than the WSKO. For me it's a balance. The WSKO is medium priced, very portable, relatively quiet, and fairly fast to grind metal. A 1x30, 1x42, or 2x72" belt sander is bigger, heavier, not portable, and faster to grind metal than the WSKO. None of those have variable speed motors except for the WSKO. You can add variable speed to the big belt sanders, but it increases the cost dramatically. Both are good systems. It's all about the mix of features, performance, and price that you are after.

I think you mean how I move the blade as I go through the curve at the front of the blade. If so, you should watch this video by Ken Schwartz (RIP Ken!), who explains it extremely well. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/gKyYiLuYvrmUf6c.html If you mean something else, please link to a time range in the video so I can try to address your question. Thanks, Brian.

@@briangentry3118 yes Brian, you understand what i am asking. He says at 4:52 that it is much more convenient when the belt is at an ANGLE to keep the blade in a horizontal position instead making a lift when the belt is in a HORIZONTAL position. When the belt is in a horizontal position he says that you have to lift the handle (or the knife as he says) when grinding the tip of the blade (2:35). You see him actually lifting the handle when the belt is horizontal at 4:09. He says that you do not lift the handle when the belt is at an angle. At 4:25 he positions the belt at a 45 degree angle as he demonstates this.

@@thegrindizreal4401 Ken does it correctly to maintain the same actual blade angle throughout the curvature of the blade. The tangent line is the important thing to look at. The "lifting the handle" isn't an accurate way to describe this process. Just watch the contact patch between the blade and the belt. I've also found that putting my fingers near the edge of the blade let's me feel when the edge bevel is touching the belt "flat". This can be very helpful when sharpening near the tip. It takes practice and time to develop a feel for this and to intuitively understand the process. Play around with it and you will gain knowledge and skill. :) Brian.

This is confusing to me. I assume that at a totally horizontal position of the belt you have to lift a lot, at a 45 degree angle you don't lift at all and at a 90 degree angle (verticle belt) you would have to do the inverse (drop the handle as you sharpen the tip).

@@thegrindizreal4401 Thinking about the handle is confusing, but we can go with that for now. What you actually want to do is maintain a flat plane at the ANGLE of the EDGE. The reason 45 works in Ken's video is because his fake blade has a 45 degree edge bevel. With a regular blade, you would be maintaining a 15 degree or 20, or 12 or whatever the blade edge is ground at. I hope that helps some.

Sure, that knife took a while. I certainly took more time since I was explaining what I was doing as I went along and checked for the burr frequently. Perhaps too frequently. :) I also run the machine rather slowly compared to top speed. At top speed it cuts at least twice as fast, if not 3x. I like the slower speed for more control, less heat, and most importantly, less noise. I'm glad you like your Lansky, but I wonder if you've ever tried to sharpen a blade as dull as this one was?

yes,I've had to sharpen a knife that was real dull before. But with the lansky system it did take long. But remember I have to move the stone up&down left to right with my hand on both sides of the blade its a manual system, compared to the motor sharping system as urs. But u did awesome. And I will be getting a sharping system like urs in a couple months :)

Really? It's selling $140 right now.

Amazon had a box opened and sold it for $114. Looked New to me. Also ordered the blade grinder.

Gary Mayo I see. Nice.

There's no platen, but you can grind somewhat flat by holding the work piece close to the roller where the belt will flex less. There's also no tool rest, but you can use your hand/fingers as a rest if you are careful. I've done this for major blade reshaping on a few knives. Good luck with your projects!

Brian Gentry Thanks for the reply and encouragement. I'm currently investigating my options for sharpeners. Quite some time ago I tried my hand at sharpening and was awful at it. I decided to try again today and appear to still be awful at it. I don't know whether it is poor technique on my part, or if the knife I'm attempting to sharpen just wont take a decent edge, so I'm looking for something reasonably idiot proof to settle the matter (I'd use the sharpener for more than just proving my own incompetence, but I want to learn free hand too). I'm using a DMT Diafold and am struggling. Think I'd have been better off with bench stones or simply cutting to the chase and admitting defeat straight away and buy a machine or system (like Lansky or similar).

napalmhardcore The WorkSharp Ken Onion is a VERY powerful sharpening tool. It can certainly get the job done on just about any blade. With some practice and attention you will almost certainly have good results. With the guides it's probably easier than the way I do it, but I want more control. So the guides might be good for you. Regarding sharpening in general, what I find with most people is that they simply stop too soon and don't make the edge bevels meet in the middle for form a sharply apexed edge. The DMT stones are good, but the diafolds are rather small, so they work slower than a larger stone. I can understand how they might limit your progress to start with. There is endless discussion about all of this on bladeforums. There are some really great people that are VERY good at sharpening in the Maintenance Tinkering and Embellishment sub-forum. Here's a link if you want to check out the discussion and/or add to it: www.bladeforums.com/forums/forumdisplay.php/794-Maintenance-Tinkering-amp-Embellishment Good luck. Brian.

Brian Gentry Thanks very much for the informative reply. I was going for quite some time with the Diafold. In fact I should have taken before and after photos as I'm sure my knife is smaller than it was when I started, lol. The problem I'm having is determining the optimum angle for the bevel. I've tried folding a piece of paper twice at the corner to get a 22.5 degree angle as a reference, but perhaps I deviated from that as the edge still felt dull. I'm registered at British Blades forums (although haven't posted there in quite some time as I have a few interests which I cycle through or discover new ones). When it comes to product recommendations, sometimes US stuff is hard to find or more expensive when sold in Britain, so asking there is a good way to find equivalent products on the British market. I'm currently weighing up options as far as systems go. I'm also looking at bench stones too as I still would like to learn to sharpen by hand. I'll have to consider budget vs the amount of use they'll get. Again thanks :)

The blade I'm demonstrating with in this video is extremely dull and reflected light back from the entire edge, indicating that the edge has been completely flattened by over use. It needed a good bit of steel removed to restore the sharp apex. I pay a lot of attention to the condition of the blade and only take off as much metal as necessary. Sometimes, you've got to really grind the bevels to make them correct again. This blade actually isn't as bad as a lot I've seen. You should see some of the knives I get to work on! :)

Brian Gentry Thanks for the quick reply! So if my blade is not very bad (such as a factory edge) , then should I start on the finer grit? X65 maybe? Also, how much pressure do you put on the blade?

superbarnie Sure, start with the X65 and see what kind of results you get. If you don't get a burr in a reasonable amount of time (maybe 15 passes on each side), you might switch to the more coarse belt. They key is to get a full length burr on both sides. Pressure should be sorta light, but not feather light. Maybe 2 or 3 pounds? Kind of like the weight of your hands, but of course the pressure isn't straight down, it's into the belt. The more pressure you use, the more the belt will wrap around the blade, which makes hitting the edge harder at the higher grits. BTW, I've switched to the new stiff precision belts and they are fantastic. The X200 belt is even more abrasive than the P120 and makes working on more abused and damaged blades much easier. Good luck to you!

Brian Gentry Thanks! Also, can you explain why you use a faster speed for coarse grit and then lower speed for fine grit? On Bladeforums, another person said to do the opposite (slow on coarse, and faster on fine grit). Sorry for asking so many questions.

superbarnie I'm on Blade Forums a lot. Lots of good information there. I use medium speed for almost all of my grinding. I only switch to the lowest speed when doing deburring. Because removing the burr requires very little abrasion, so we want to keep the speed as low as possible. But the real thing to focus on here is establishing that first set of full length burrs with the coarse grit belts. That's really the basis for the edge and if you don't get that part right, the rest of the belts don't matter. I call the first part shaping the edge; making it correct so it meets at an apex. The belts after the coarse belts the polishing stage. They remove a bit of metal, but their real job is to polish the bevels to a finer level. You'll see that it only takes a small number of passes with each finer belt. I usually limit it to less than 5 passes per side on the fine belts. As long as you did the proper work with the coarse belts, you'll work through the rest of them very quickly. Just enough to raise new smaller burrs, and successively polish the bevels.

Seems you have really got the speed cranking on that. Any reason? I see most usually going at a slower rpm. Just curious your thoughts

Briefly: For more control of the the grinding. This includes being able to grind different parts of the blade more (where it is needed) without over grinding other parts. It also allows me to work on just the point for example. There are other reasons which I can detail if you'd like. :)

Brian Gentry I would like to know the other reasons. I just got mine in today and I'm pretty happy with it but I couldnt get any of my knives as sharp as my Buck brand guthook knife came out of the box. It will shave a patch on my arm in one swipe....are you able to get your knives razor sharp or even past it like it talks about in the manual? Thanks

bigwhey well, i wrote that right before i saw you shaving your arm like that. Have you done any using the guides yet? Any feedback on that?

bigwhey The other reasons are mainly two things: First, with the guide, grit and metal shavings can build up as you sharpen, which can scratch the sides of the blade. Second, when freehanding there is actually an element of "feel". I can sense when the bevel is touching the belt correctly by the way it feels. With the guide, you'd just be guessing, which is fine; you'll still get a sharp blade.

bigwhey Haven't used the guides yet and don't plan to, but you never know! :)

say what?

Yes sir, do I. The "bench" I'm sharpening on in this video is the kitchen table so.... can't do that. :)

@@briangentry3118 lol. I guess not. !

Accurate enough for good cutting performance? Yes. For good looking edge bevels? Yes. For maintaining a specific angle? No. For absolutely perfect looking even bevels like a master? No. I can't do that last one on stones either. :) But my overall results are very good and I'm very happy to sharpen almost any blade using this system.

Maybe you can explain something. How is it possible that this machine can raise a burr on two sides of a knife when the belt only runs in one direction? I don`t get it.

Bill Clinzel You're referring to using the WSKO with the guides, which I don't do. But I'll answer anyway. :) When the metal gets to a thin enough transition at the apex (edge) the force of the abrasive becomes so great that it makes the metal flow like mud. This is called "plastic deformation". Even with the abrasive moving towards the edge, there is enough force to "squash" the metal at the edge, which makes it hang over the other side, forming a burr. The burr will be larger with the belt moving away from the edge, but a burr will form no matter if you are grinding one direction or the other. This is the same with all abrasives when sharpening a blade, whether they are bench stones, belts, etc.

See my reply below to David Jackson. Summary: The variable speed is the killer feature of the WSKO for me.

Gary McCraw he prob knows better. I know what I’m doing. Sometimes it’s more to your liking doing it freehand. You know the feel. Especially if you learned using wet stones etc. think most professional sharpeners use angle guides? There are many knives that don’t fit well into those guides based on their width, shape, depth, etc. When stropping and having to go with the same direction... it’s easier. Did you get a worksharp and think you’re an expert now?

Lol, first off it is a "kitchen" knife, it doesn't need to be "shaving" sharp. "why don't you us the Guide that Comes with the Work Sharp Ken Onion it makes it much faster Sharping? " When it come to sharpening anything, the word "fast" should have anything to do with it, one should always take their take time, or don't even attempt it. Plus it is "his"video and maybe it's like therapy for him, I know sharpening is for me.

Thththth then than, thun, thank you yewyew!

Sometimes is hard use the guide with some specific knives (shorts or thicker) and you need do it by hand, also I had problems with the guide with some acid washed knives cuz the guide made some lines and scratches on the blade finish, so this free hand technique is cool for those cases.

@@elrapanda agree, bought this to speed things up compared to NY kme but the guides make it a pain in the ass and once off the guide the knife wants to jump. Managed to get some good edges but could be better. I bought the grinder attachment, hopefully that helps.

My belts are moving on the pulleys and the tracking lever is maxed to one side. Any advice?

Thanks for the comment. I thought you might like to know that this comment set me off on a two week long project. I've been wanting a "real" belt grinder for a while now. So I went shopping and researching for a few weeks. My new 1x42 belt grinder should be here next week. I might make a video with it once I've got a bit of experience using it. I'm hopeful that it will be a nice step up from my stock WSKO. Thank you!

1. In my opinion, the most valuable feature of the WSKO is that it is variable speed. Being able to slow down the belt dramatically is very useful. The slightly wider belt is also better. I am certain you are right about my angle holding ability. However, you have to consider the compromises with an angle guide. It can collect grit and scratch your edge. The pressure exerted on the blade at any given point is quite difficult to control because your only point of contact with the blade is the handle. With freehand, I can use both hands and control the pressure quite well along the entire blade. Especially at the tip. 2. I should have on safety glasses. I am now wearing them every time with my new belt sander setup. You are correct. 3. Ok. There's not that much dust, but you are probably right. 4. This was my first ever youtube video. My technical execution could certainly use improvement. My new sander seems much quieter. Hopefully future videos will be easier to understand. Even if the mic is clipped to my shirt, it's going to pick up machine sounds. A headset might be better, but might be awkward. I hope you enjoyed some part of the video and maybe picked up some techniques. If not, thanks for watching anyway. Brian.

I also removed the angle guide in favor of freehanding. For me the results are better and its my knife.

I've gotten a bit more safety conscious in the past few years. I now own a 1x42 belt sander and I use safety glasses with it always. I don't use the WSKO very often, but I'll probably use glasses with it too. Thanks for the comment.

Ha! That's nice of you to say. The only real issue I had with that blade was that it still hung in phonebook paper in a spot or two. Otherwise it was quite sharp.

+F Mathieson Yeah, a few people have commented on that. I probably should, just to be super extra safe; eyes are important. That being said, you cant really get a good sense of how this machine feels and works without being there. At the speeds I run it at in the video, it just doesn't sling anything around anywhere near the top of the machine. At this point I've sharpened something like 150 blades with it, and many required at least as much work as the one in the video. I haven't even gotten metal dust on my face. It's really quite safe. I know, I know, you only get one set of eyes. But do you wear safety glasses when doing everything potentially harmful? Like cooking on your stove with oil? Anyway, thanks for the comment.

Could do the same in a Video less than two 2 minutes, but what do you thing you would learn from such a Video instead of this one........

Too bad you didn't like the video. I think my technique was proper if a bit slow and erring on the side of keeping the speed and heat down. At last count I had sharpened around 250 blades with this same basic technique. My results are generally pretty good both in terms of bevel geometry and sharpness as tested. I'm always open to improving my sharpening technique on all platforms. If you have anything concrete to offer, I'll listen.

There is always an expert and critic in the comment sections with little to offer in way of proper technique. They just like to spit something negative for the sake of trying to seem superior.

That was painful. So wrong. I hope the viewers use this to know what NOT to do.

well, hope in one hand and shit in the other and see which one fills up quicker, I'm ordering one now and this is the first and only way i'll do it. Thanks dave emersin.

You are right of course. I made this video quite a few years ago. Now that I use a bigger belt sander (a 1x42") I wear safety glasses every time. They stay with the machine. I even have a label on the sander "WEAR SAFETY GLASSES", in RED. You only get one set of eyes....

Hi there. I've been freehand sharpening for many years on stones. This video was made after I had sharpened something like 100 blades on the WSKO using the method shown. As for slowing down the belt, I feel like I took WAY too much time doing this. Running the belt faster would have yielded a similar edge in a shorter time. Now that I've done more like 300 to 350 blades on the WSKO, I can run it faster and with more coarse belts (like the stiff X200 or the 60 grit ceramic) to get faster results. Honestly the WSKO is a bit of a baby steps belt sander. I now plan on buying a 1x42 Kalamazoo or similar when I have dedicated space for it. There are a lot of things here you really can't see on film. How truly dull that blade was. How much metal I removed. The temperature of the edge while I was grinding it. That blade is still in service today and has been resharpened several times since. It seems to work just fine. Thanks.

If it dulled the tip of your knife is because you were using the wrong technique,i use this on all of my knives and end up getting a RAZOR sharp edge with the 6000 grit belt.

I think the key there is to not run the knife point off the edge of the belt, keep as much edge as possible in contact with the belt.