All About Pocket Knives

Just got this. Mainly for kitchen knives. I am not the best with stones. Takes quite a while and results are better but not great. Have seen the vids on youtube. Was wondering if any owners/users have any advice as to what I should expect before starting. I know its not gonna be as easy as those videos show. Usually from people who know all about it and exactly what they are doing. Im new, looking for tips and advice please. Older, crappy knives are ready.

I don't know what a WS Ken Onion is. Does WS stand for water stone? If it does you are miles ahead.
Water stones are great. They are soft stones but they abraid steel pretty quickly. The coarser ones, around 500 grit, are more soft than the finer ones. If you can keep your attention on the coarser stones you will see your progress more quickly.
Older knives aren't necessarily crappy knives. If you have a visor enlarging lens or a powerful loupe (10X) review your progress.
always have in mind what you are trying to accomplish and work toward that goal. That is, know beforhand what angle you want the blade to set on the stone. And I don't mean a numerical angle, I mean a visual angle. You don't need some one to tell you what number to use. Lay your blade on the stone and chose your own angle. Of coarse this is practice but when you determine later on what you will be using the blade for you will see that some angles are better than others within a certain spectrum. For now, don't be afraid to lean that blade over and get a good cutting edge on the blade. Get everything good and wet and set the blade perpendicular to the stone in the middle of the stone and with firm pressure move the blade back and forth from one end of the stone to the other gradually moving up toward the tip. Do the other side the same way. Firm pressure, wet stone and blade. Repeat and repeat. Look at your edge. Repeat.
This is a way for a beginner to make an edge and get some confidence. If you don't create a cutting edge you will quit and buy a .........
I can't say it. ...... Just keep trying, you will soon get the hang of it if you really want to use stones. Good luck.

FRJ, it stands for Work Sharp. It is a motor / small belt drive system. I have about every system, known to man, for sharpening. I like stones and strop for "maintaining" an edge. I use the WS for getting an edge, pretty fast, on a knife that won't cut butter.
Tundraman, the detractors will tell you that running it too fast, will generate heat and ruin the heat treat on the blade. I generally use it at medium-to-slow speeds. It will put a good edge on knives, with practice. It's not too hard; I too watched Youtube vids. I had an assistant, that I swear she tried to sharpen her kitchen knives, on the asphalt, on her street... butter knifes literally cut better and they had scratches that will never come out. I knocked out all of her knives in very little time with the WS. It would have taken me a week to get her knives back in shape, with stones. (She cut herself within a week of me sharpening them)
I just recommend starting with the least favorite knife...that wouldn't hurt to mess up. I never run it on high speed and don't use it on my traditional folder pocket knives...the blades are usually thin enough, I can get a good edge with stones, pretty quickly. I prefer stones, to maintain...because the WS potentially removes a lot more metal. I did pick up a leather belt, that is pretty good for stropping...I use some compound on it. Don't try to strop with the cutting edge toward the belt...you have to do one side out of the aligning guide.

I have a pair of HOUSE HOLD SCISSORS, I have tried several things on them but they still wont thin plastic's or a cereal bag. When it warms up again I may put the table on my one inch belt sander. Not ready to lay out around $100 for a new Work Sharp. How long do the belts last?

mrwatch wrote:I have a pair of HOUSE HOLD SCISSORS, I have tried several things on them but they still wont thin plastic's or a cereal bag. When it warms up again I may put the table on my one inch belt sander. Not ready to lay out around $100 for a new Work Sharp. How long do the belts last?

I don't have a good answer on how long the belts last. I've sharpened quite a few knives, including my assistant's entire kitchen set and the first set of belts is pretty good. I picked up some cheaper knock-off belts, on Amazon. As the coarser ones wear out...they kind of become the "next grit down" belt. The only ones I've really changed out, are the moderately coarse. I don't use the coarse too much; I'll start with it on a machete or horrible fixed blade knife.
I haven't used it on scissors. My wife is a sew-aholic and I'm trying to get the courage to try it. Will try some cheaper scissors first...Mama would kill me if I screwed up a pair of her good ones

I have the exact same one. I only use it for my "Beater" knives, the ones I abuse. The Work Sharp is great for those kinds of knives, the ones where you don't care how much metal gets taken off. All I care about is it's fast and the belts last a "reasonable" amount of time.

I don't have any special technique. I just followed the instructions that came with it. I also watched the videos on the WS website.

I also use it as a grinder, even though that was not the intended design. I save the worn belts and use those to grind down the "kick" on the blades so they sit deeper in the well.

For my good knives I use a Whetstone or a Lansky, but for EDC type knives, the WS is fantastic. I'm glad I bought one.

___________
Mike

Thank you Doc B.
I need to get out more.

The subjects of power sharpeners in general, and the Work Sharp specifically, come up here several times a year. The responses you’ve received so far pretty well sum up the consensus.

- Be very careful with any powered sharpeners. They can remove a LOT of metal really fast! Many a knife has been ruined.
- For most of us, power sharpeners are best suited for sharpening kitchen knives, lawnmower blades, machetes, etc.
- Unless you’re very well versed at using a power sharpener they’re best not used on quality pocket cutlery.
- Unless you do a lot of sharpening, probably better to get some type of hand sharpening equipment (stones, Lansky, etc) and learn how to use them.

These are applicable to the average knife user (like me) and probably most who are reading this. Of course there are folks who are knife mechanics here who use power tools like belt sanders and such - those are the experts who’ve practiced and are very well versed in using such equipment. If that’s where you want to go, more “power” to you.

Ken