Lansky Professional Sharpening System with Coarse, Medium, Ultra Fine, and Serrated Medium Hones

This is the best sharpening system I have found. I bought this one for my son-in-law. This kit comes with a stone for sharpening serrated blades instead of the Extra Coarse stone. The system is very easy to use and it’s very easy to put the perfect edge on your knives. The system is set up to sharpen at 4 different angles. 17 degrees for some chef’s knives, 20 degrees for regular kitchen knives, small fixed blade and pocket knives, 25 degrees for larger fixed blade and pocket knives and 30 degrees for heavy duty knives. You can quickly sharpen knives and the system performs well and results are repeatable, unlike using stones and guessing angles. The kit is easy to stow and it’s small enough to keep in a kitchen drawer, tool box or camping gear. You can’t beat the price for the quality of the system and the quality of the sharpness of your knives.

I have to give credit where credit is due and the amazing fellow on Youtube with the channel Project Farm did this great review of probably a dozen different sharpeners, and the Lansky came out on top. I bought this based on that video. It comes in a nice compact plastic box with good, simple instructions. I, not being terribly good at visual things, have to review the instructions carefully each time to make sure I am working things the right way. It's a very simple kit. You have four different kinds of stone (rough to polish) and a clamp for the knife. You attach the stone to a rod and slip the rod through the hole on the clamp that matches the desired blade angle (the kit gives you recommendations for blade angle based on type of blade). Then, just be methodical about running the stone smoothly in one direction on about 2-3 inches of blade at a time. Bigger blades do require that you move the clamp to work a new section of blade. It's simple but clever system and it does do a fantastic job. I had a number of dull as dishwater bottom of the line Chinese made Henckels knives that hadn't been sharpened in 20 years. It took about 80 passes with each grade of stone on each side, but now they are amazingly sharp and require just light maintenance with the extra fine stone now. This is the best kit for the money, and Project Farm was right. Highly recommended.

-The Good The Lansky is easily the best budget sharpening system on the market and easily in the top 3 regardless of price. The Lansky is a controlled angle system that removes much of the guesswork from sharpening. When used correctly, with some stropping, the Lansky can make an edge sharp enough to cut a single hanging hair. It is also safer, making it much harder to scratch up your blades finish if you are inexperienced in sharpening. -The Bad The problem is, several components that should have been included by default (Universal Mount/C-Clamp & Leather Strops With Compound), are sold separately even if you buy the more expensive professional system. The other problem is quality. All the plastic portions feel weak and brittle, the metal is not even deburred in places. While it has not happened to me yet, given any amount of hard use I can easily see the plastic portion of the hones fracturing. If the system were $20 overall that would be fine, but with the necessary accessories the final price is at least 3x that amount. The final and biggest problem with the Lansky is that certain blade shapes and sizes are impossible to use with the clamp. They will fit in the clamp, but you won't have enough clearance and you will just end up shaving down the clamp itself. This becomes really prominent if you try to use the lowest angle setting or are sharpening larger blades. You can always freehand it with any knife and hone, but that defeats almost the whole purpose behind the system. -Final Verdict Despite my complaints, this system is totally worth it. It is almost a necessity if you have trouble freehand sharpening. It helps your muscle memory, making freehanding more intuitive and when everything works the results are great. If your collection is mostly straight angles and pocket sized knives you most likely won't have any of the clearance problems I mentioned either.

This is my second Lansky System. Sadly *someone* dropped my original set on the floor and broke two of the stones. I usually carry several knives. A straight, a utility folder, and a super-alloy folder. Sometimes there are others from the hundreds I own. I'm also an ex-chef and want my kitchen knives "shavin' sharp." This is done always with the Lansky and a Wusthof touchup "steel". The System is dependable and accurate. I sharpen M390, 3V, and plain ol' high carbon, a lot. This system works on them all. Before buying anything I always go to the Amazon 1-star reviews to avoid lemons, etc. Out of habit, I've read the "ones" for this system. Hysterical. A). It scratched the finish on my blade. In 20 years, I don't remember it scratching anything. Tighten the clamp properly. B). Dangerous! The blade slips out of the clamp. See A. C). The angles don't match the blades. Dear Noob: Read up on the "Sharpie Method". You need a cheap jeweler's loupe and a Sharpie. Paint the edge black with the Sharpie. Guess on the correct angle. Take one light stroke with the coarse stone, at the guessed angle. Examine to see if the entire edge has had the black removed. Bang! That's your angle. Write it down for that knife for the next sharpening. D). The clamp is cast junk. My old clamp and the new one are identical in dimensions. The new one appears to be bead-blasted. Whatever it is, so far it works great. E). You can't use the 17-deg setting because the stone bangs into the clamp. You didn't read the directions, did you? I bet you threw out the special screw that came with the set. And I bet you didn't notice that there's a step in the clamp's jaws so that you can grip the blade just by the very back of its spine. Magic! I don't know what to tell ya, 1-star peeps. Thousands of us are cranking out edges that'll pop the hair off your arm, using this kit.

I bough this a s Christmas present for my son-in-law. He does not like it. I have one that I thind workd very good on small knives (up to 4" blads) It is hare to use for anthing larger.

I wanted to buy the original, rather than clone, for a variety of reasons. This is the real thing, not a clone, and it does work. This is great for fixing or re-setting an edge on a knife that hasn't been sharpened in a long time. It's also a great way to sharpen a knife that doesn't require any experience. It's also better than any low to moderate cost powered sharpening system that I've seen. So that's all good. The rod and holder set the angle consistently. Besides it working, on the plus side the oil bottle doesn't leak. That's amazing, no joke. On the negative side: The stones are mostly mounted in the holders crooked. That doesn't affect the sharpening, because they rotate around on the rods, but it's sloppy. The casting of the clamp is really rough. Like cast from scrap zinc fence parts with road sand. They're 1/4 inch thick at the base, so they're probably never going to break, but they feel like it. Finally, the case is pretty miserable. Molded in hinge, fidgety hinge, and slightly warped at the corners. I've seen better from HF. As to the design, it's pretty good. It should ship with a stamped tool to work the screws, though, and with a measurement mark on something for the clamp to edge distance. As is, it's a self contained kit, except it needs a screwdriver and a ruler. It would be much more convenient to have those included, so if you took this to a camp or other location you wouldn't get stuck w/ missing tools. To sum up, this feels like a good product that someone put some effort into getting the production costs down on. Here's how it went: One piece injection molded case, simple and thin. Cheapest possible zinc casting. No QC on the stone/holder assembly. It still works, though. The stones seem fine. It just seems a questionable value.

Not "professional" by a longshot. The guide rods are substantially smaller then the guides, so unless you physically restrain them during sharpening, they will drift a couple degree's. Second the blade clamp is subpar, struggles to hold anything not perfectly flat and square. Lastly, blade edge position in relation to guide. You can resharpen the same blade 100 times and get a different hone angle every time , because of mathmatics. You'll almost never remount the same knife the same way every time. Thustly the sharpening angle will be different every single time you attempt to sharpen your knife. The stones are subpar, not flat and the rod mount is very different for each stone, so every stone/rod needs to be planned before use to insure the imperfect angle guide is equally imperfect every time. Ultimately you will waste a lot of time chasing a sharp blade every time unless you leave the rods in the stones and mark your blades for mounting at a later date. A pocket knife at 20° and kitchen knife are different by several degrees because of blade height and mounting in holder. This is horrendous to get a consistent sharpening job done.

I bought this item after watching many videos on YouTube. What convinced me was when some really good professional knife sharpeners tested it and gave it good reviews. I also bought the metal stand that holds the knife clamp because all of the videos said it's kind of clunky to use without the stand, the Lansky leather strop and an extra coarse stone because my kitchen knives were in such bad shape. Another thing I learned from watching experienced knife sharpeners online was that all these years of me thinking I knew how to sharpen a knife I was totally wrong, I had no idea what I was doing. So I used this system for the first time tonight on two of my wife's kitchen knives that hadn't been correctly sharpened in goodness knows how long. Probably since they left the factory to be honest. I followed the pro's recommendations from the videos I watched and went to work! 45 minutes later the first knife that I did would shave hair and was scary sharp. It took so long because I had to work some big nicks out of the blade. Second knife wasn't in quite so bad shape and only took me 35 minutes and it was shaving hair. My left arm looks kinda strange right now with some bald spots on it. Then I did a couple of my pocket knives that only needed touched up and they took less than 10 minutes each. Like I said earlier, I didn't know how to correctly sharpen a knife and with this system I was able to make 4 knives scary sharp. For the price I don't see how a person can go wrong. If your knives don't get super sharp you must be doing something wrong. So glad I bought this system. No more dull knives in our house and it costs a lot less than a new knife set.

Pues eso, totalmente recomendable. Siguiendo los pasos correctamente (sencillísimo), consigues un afilado como nunca antes había visto. Algo IMPRESIONANTE. Si quieres afilar a 17º, dependiendo de la anchura de la hoja del cuchillo a afilar, las piedras van a rozar un poco el soporte que fija el cuchillo. De todos modos, con 20º debería de ser más que suficiente para el 99% de los cuchillos. Por ponerle "un pero", la caja de plástico que contiene el kit de afilado, es un poco "fullera" y las varillas que se supone van fijadas en la parte superior, quedan sueltas, pero vaya, nada de importancia. IMPORTANTE: Para conseguir unos filos pulidos y de película, lo ideal es complementarlo con el asentador de cuero que venden suelto para el mismo sistema.

Weird but works. I've had great results so far, though the technique required is akin to rubbing your tummy and patting your head at the same time. Once you've got use to the motion/technique, you'll be glad you invested. The knife clamp needs some kind of support and hand holding it, as shown in the promo photo, seems neither effective nor safe. I'm a keen DIYer so I don't mind making my own little holder for the clamp but if you're not into making your own stuff, you need to go for the, frankly overpriced, stand. As other reviewers have commented, Aaron from Gough Custom has a great demo video on YouTube.

Ótimo!

Cheap metal, sloppy fitting. 17' doesn't work as set screw in way. Waste of money

This is the best value for money sharpener out there. Not stupidly expensive but not cheap. Stones are good quality and last a long time. The angle guide is a proven design Lansky invented like 35 years ago. Still one of the best. Yes the holder digs into your hand so wear cut resistant gloves when sharpening. All things considered for the money these are good performing accurate sharpeners. I trust my really good knives to these. If you care for your knives and want repeatable sharpening angles, long life stones and scary sharp knives buy Lansky.