Work Sharp WSKTS-W Knife & Tool Sharpener

I've been looking for a sharpening system mostly for our low-to-mid-quality kitchen knife set for some time. I've tried the stone/freehand method, which was nifty at first (you can really go down a rabbit hole on freehand/stone techniques) but it was too long to do each knife, and I'm unwilling to put in the time to master the technique, so the stone just lays around and I never use it anymore.Then, recently I thought I found a solution with the highly regarded Sharpmaker system (Spyderco), bought that, and found that it too takes time to master it (this idea of keeping the blade vertical free-hand, and also getting the blade to consistently lay flat on the flat surface just doesn't work for me), and it just took forever to get one dull knife back in shape. In the reviews for it, a lot of folks conclude that it's more of a "keep sharp" system, not a "make sharp" system, and that was exactly my experience. For fine knives, that are already sharp and you want do keep them that way, I'd say this system is the best. But not for the owner of a low/mid-quality knife set just trying to get them back in shape again.I was suspicious about the Work Sharp - it looked like a "brute force" method that probably would do an ok but not great job, and might easily grind way too much off the knife. But after the Sharpmaker didn't pan out (I'm selling that on Nextdoor now), I finally took the plunge and ordered one last week.So I got it and - Holy cow. It works really well. I got all of our kitchen knives and our steak knives in razor sharp shape in record time (maybe about 3-5 minutes per knife, from not cutting paper at all, to slicing paper like butter). It doesn't seem to take too much off the blade - no more than any freehand/stone type method - and it just really quickly gets you to super sharp. I know it takes all of the art out of knife sharpening, but I don't care. I wanted to find a way to keep our somewhat mediocre set of knives very sharp, and I've found it.The only drawback, is that it seems the sanding belts don't last a long time, and you gotta keep buying new ones if you use it a lot. But, I think I also wore them out faster than normal in just getting my whole set of knives up to snuff. Likely I'll not wear the belts out as quickly just maintaining them after that. At $7 for a replacement set (comes actually with two of each belt), this may be the gift that keeps on costing, but it works so well, I'll happily plunk down $7 a year or so to keep all our knives razor sharp . . . I was gonna knock off a star because of this fact, but naw - I love this thing, I don't care that I have to buy new belts every now and then. It's changed our kitchen for the better/safer, so it's worth it.There is a more expensive model that can do all sorts of other edge angles, and with a variable speed motor (Ken Onion Edition), and that probably appeals to folks with all sorts of knives to sharpen, but I just don't need all that. My kitchen knives are all super sharp, I'm done, and this basic model is all I need . . . .

I hate every day of my life up until now because they’ve been without this Work Sharp sharpener. It’s all been frivolous. I’ve leveled up. And yes, I’m being one of those people that I always laugh at because they write a review after only 1 hour of use. “Take some time with it first!” I’d say. But I gotta say that unless the motor just stops spinning, I’m gonna stay happy with it. I made 6 kitchen knives razor sharp in like 10 minutes. I bought a Japanese water stone because I guess I thought there was something romantic about sharpening a knife the old-timey way. And the thing is, I couldn’t even get my knives that sharp! Sometimes I’d swear that they ended up more dull than they were before I started.But this tool could scarcely have been more easy to use. And if you’re like me and you like to bust out the manual of a new toy when you’re rolling 3 beers deep, you can get real discouraged real quick when you find out that you gotta assemble the thing first and then study the manual in order to even begin to use it. Well, while I definitely do recommend reading the manual before starting, it’s a pretty quick read and just clues you into the few things you should know, most of which is pretty intuitive.The only thing I tweaked was that instead of running one side of the blade on one side of the sharpener and the other side of the blade on the other side of the sharpener, I’d do both sides of the blade on the same side of the sharpener. In other words, instead of with the band moving past it going downward on one side of the blade and moving past it going upward on the other side of the blade, I just flipped the machine between the two knife edges. That way you get the band going either up both sides or down both sides. I used the same slot, just coming at it from opposite directions. Seemed to make more sense to me based on knife-sharpening techniques I’ve read about. If you do it the way the instructions tell you, you’ll have it sharpening downward on one side but upward on the other side.Overall, super happy. Now, all of my knives, cheap and expensive, can thinly slice a tomato. Now, I do not doubt at all that some people out there can get a knife dangerously sharp with a water stone. I’m just saying that the learning curve is much, much lower on this sharpener. I spent hours on one of those things and never could get a previously dull blade to shave arm hair very well. ALL of my kitchen knives will now do this—some better than others—and all within ten minutes.

The first time I wrote this review, I thought I was writing a separate review for each of the two units they carry and I purchased. The less expensive Work Sharp WSKTS-W unit is a very good knife sharpener and one of the very best I have ever used; however, I returned it for its more expensive sibling the Work Sharp Knife & Tool Sharpener Ken Onion Edition to reduce the number of parts that you have to keep track of when you store it and for the ease of use its more expensive sibling provides. My review on the better unit is applicable to this one from a sharpening standpoint. If money is a concern, don't hesitate to get this one as it does an excellent job. However, in quality and ease of use the more expensive unit is just better all around. These units beat every other sharpener I have ever purchased and will get your knives razor sharp. This is especially relevant to the newer expensive stainless steel knives that are very hard to sharpen with a stone or steel like the older carbon steel blades (I still prefer). Slicing through skin on tomatoes is a piece of cake after sharpening with these units. I highly recommend and don't waste your time and money on a lot of the others that do a relatively poor job. These sanding belts provide a lot of surface area to remove steel effectively and the blade angling mechanism takes the difficult part and makes it easy.

Es una invencion que te facilita la vida. Lo recomiendo

Muy útil y fácil de usar

Muy satisfecho con el producto, cumple con mis espectativas.

Bueno, no es así como a prueba de tontos, pero saca un filo increible, batalle con mi navaja por la forma de la oja pero conseguí un filo muy bueno, lo mejor fue afilar el machete.. super rápido. vale la pena si te gusta el filo como yo que me obsesiona tener todo afilado, pero si le hace falta la banda de cuero que la verdad si le falta el ultimo tiro para quedar genial, pero creo que conseguiré un cuero aparte porque si esta bien cara la banda de cuero para este.

Muy practica, cómoda y eficaz