Lansky Sharpeners Standard Sharpening System

Amazing piece of kit! I will never ruin a bevel again in my life thanks to this little kit! The three stones are all you need to put a shaving sharp edge on any knife (quality steel of course) I have used this too many times to count now on my own and family knives and they are very pleased with the results. I own some expensive knives and was always dubious of sharpening them free hand for fear of damaging a bevel but this kit is fail proof, easy to use and for not a lot of money will ensure your knives are sharp when need for the task at hand. The versatility of this kit can be expanded by adding extra stones although this will induce extra cost.

This seems, to me, to be worth the £25 I paid for it. I think, had I paid the quoted full price, I would have been a little disappointed with the clamp part, which is fairly fiddly. In my view it definitely takes screwdrivers (one Phillips, one flat) to establish a safe purchase on most blades, rather than the claimed facility to tighten it with a coin. It takes a bit of perseverance to get used to the clamp, but the minimalist design keeps it small, light and robust. You'll also want to take care in ensuring the guide rods are straight, as they have a bit of a tendency to spring back to a slightly bowed shape.I bought the stand to go with it, as another reviewer recommended, and strongly recommend that you follow that advice too. I have factored in the cost of that in assigning my rating.These caveats aside, this works very well and achieves excellent results even on mediocre knives. It has taken my bottom-end Sabatier knives (which cost about £40-£50 for a set of 5, new), which I had been mistreating for years, to a keener edge than they had out of the box (literally, in fact, as the bevel on Sabatier is 22° from the factory - I have now got the smaller knives at 17° for fine work on meat and fish, and the larger knives at 20° for standard chores). The 25° slot put an excellent working edge on a dive knife I've had for a quarter of a century, too. Maintaining the sharpened blades is fine, as one would expect, requiring nothing more than the standard touch with a butcher's hone after use.Those with knives in need of similar restoration and less patience/fewer podcasts to get through might find the extra coarse stone a useful purchase, as establishing a new bevel is not quick with the coarse stone in this set, but if you're in no hurry you can use this to get pretty much anything as sharp as the overwhelming majority of people could conceivably need it. The 20° and 17° slots both produce even edges sharp enough to shave with, comfortably in the latter case.I have no real complaints, and were this listed as standard at the "sale" price, I think it would get 5 stars. It loses a star because it appears to be a ~£25 piece of kit on permanent sale in order to draw in buyers, and because of the cost of the (fairly indispensable) stand, as mentioned above.

This a great system because it produces a consistent grind angle from tail to tip. This version is the standard oil-stone version. I would recommend that as a starter kit. It is particularly quick and effective on "softer" material blades which tend to need more frequent sharpening. Initial sessions may take longer to produce the desired grind angle from the original unknown angle. 25deg is a general purpose angle, 20deg for quality kitchen knives. Once that is achieved then just a pass or two to restore edge condition.Possibly harder material knives might benefit from the diamond version.Hard at work now restoring edges destroyed by inferior systems.

What a good little product, if you ever had problems sharpening a blade, this does it for you with ease, just use the different coarseness files and at the end a quick strop on leather and you get a wicked sharp blade. A+++

I recently went on a blade-smithing course to forge my own blacksmith's knife. The professional blade-smith who ran the course uses the Lansky set to fine-tune the blades he makes and we did on ours too (then finished with a leather strop). The Lansky set is very easy to use and the sharpened blade will shave the hairs off your arm. I chose the basic set with 3 stones - course, medium and fine. If you wanted extra course then you could probably use a grinder and I figured that the extra fine would be similar to the leather. You can buy the extra stones separately if you want to add them later.

This does the job and sharpens knives - really well. The best I've ever used.However, as good as the idea and effectiveness is don't expect too much from it being American. It's made (like most things now) in China and the quality is dreadful. The case only just holds together and as it's not hinged (just bending plastic) I know it will fall apart in no time. Also, the plastic moulding on the 'stones' is rubbish.You will need to buy one of the stands or clamps to hold it steady or it's dangerous - I bought both, but the clamp is the better buy unless you have somewhere like a workbench or board to screw the stand to.My recommendation would be only buy it when it's on offer. It is simply not worth the full price.