Lansky 4-Stone Deluxe Diamond System | Precision Knife Sharpening Kit

If you are looking for a sharpening system and reading these reviews, you have probably been fooling around with stones and gizmos, like me, for years; I own a Chef's Choice model 110, Smith's Tri-Stone, crock sticks, etc. and I have never been able to consistently achieve a sharp knife edge without lots of trial and error. The "secret", of course, is maintaining a consistent, repeatable blade-to-stone angle while sharpening; one slip and all of the previous honing can be ruined. I was looking at the motorized belt sharpeners and surmised that instead of screwing up a knife's edge in hours, with a motorized system I could do it in mere seconds ! I was surprised that I had never come across this Lansky system before now, but once I saw it, it immediately clicked - the simplicity of a system where the knife is held in a clamp and the stones are at the end of a rod which pass through slots thereby allowing the user to repeat the same angle of hone through all of the different grits was what I was looking for. The system itself is not "over engineered", i.e., not fancy, but adequate. The stones are only 1/2 " wide and 4 " long, at first blush this seemed kind of undersized, but once I used them it made sense. Because the stone moves over the blade ( not the usual knife moving over the stone), the narrow stones more easily conform to curved blades. View the Lansky video to learn the correct technique; YouTube is filled with videos on how to do it wrong: sawing action on blade's edge, using oil on the diamond stone. I wouldn't expect to have perfect results on your first attempt, like anything else worth learning there is a learning curve. After a few knives you will start to get the feel of how much pressure to use on the blade ( as the grit becomes finer, you will use less pressure: on the finest stone you will use a very light touch to just dress the edge ). Based on other's reviews I opted to buy a stand ( clamp on model ). I tried to use the knife clamp without the stand and it was awkward; nothing to hold onto. While the stand doesn't hold the clamp rock solid, it provides sturdy enough purchase of the knife and keeps it off the table when you flip it over. I had to put thread locker on the clamp's rod's end stud to keep it in place and then a lock washer to hold it firm to the base to keep it from loosening up - if you buy one you will see what I'm talking about. One last thing, I thought I separately ordered the ultra fine honing stone - yellow holder - but inadvertently ordered the leather stropping hone instead. What a dummy. But, after using the finest diamond hone, I daubed a little red rouge from the Dremel polishing kit, onto to leather strop, and the strop did an excellent job of polishing the edge to a mirror-like finish along with a touch more "keenest" to the blade. All and all I am quite satisfied with the whole Lansky system, and for the first time ever I have an entire knife block full knives that are as sharp as they were new and the means to keep them this way. 11/29/14: Like I always say:" Anything worth doing is worth overdoing". I've since purchased the yellow and Sapphire stones to see if I could squeeze out that last little bit of edge. In my opinion there is a small, incremental improvement so I've added these extra steps when I want an especially sharp blade. Also, I purchased a set of extra wires to accommodate these additional stones. And not leaving well enough alone, I switched out the thumbscrew clamps for Phillips head screws. I discovered that one-inch self tapping sheetmetal screws have the same thread pattern as the thumbscrews; I cut the screws to about 3/8" (shaft length ), dressed up the threads, and permanently attached wires to each stone. The main reason I did this was to regain almost 1/2" length of usable sharpening stone surface and to have the stones all set up and ready to go without any assembly. Now, I need to gin up some kind of storage/carrying case for the these things...It never ends.

I have owned the very first Lansky sharpening kit when it first came out in the late 70's (as I recall). It has been with me since, althought I had to return a couple sharpening stones that broke at the part that joined the rod to the plastic part. But the stones themselves never broke or suffered any ills. The new products had improved plastic, and I have never suffered any breakage. The design may seem old, but its design have been copied by all other manufacturers. I have found, however, the new molded metal of the knife clamp is below my expectation. It is limited in the range of motion of the sharpening stone, unlike the old original, machined knife clamp, made of machined aluminum and steel. Also the tightening wheel is made of plastic molded over a screw head. The screw itself was too short to use with a thicker blade; the old one is made of metal, and is longer. If you need longer, you need to get a longer screw, which I did. So, over the time of 30 plus years, I can see how the company tried to shrink the expenses, in order to cope with the rising costs. I will continue to use the old clamp. Only if I am sharpening a longer blade, I will use the new one, clamping next to the old one. That way, one can save the annoyance of repositioning the clamps. The holes on the new clamp for the different angles of grinding match the old one's holes. But the diamond coated grinders are superb, and gets the job done fast. CAUTION: 1) one needs to make sure the clamp is installed perpendicular to the knife, before one starts sharpening; 2) make sure the grinding is done equally from both sides. The diamond surface is so effective, and if you do not pay attention, you could over do it, and cut too much meat from the blade. The "fine" grit grinder is good, but if you want to have a mirror finish, you need the "extra fine" stone. You could get the edge to "wicked" sharp, if not "scary" sharp.

The system is very good. Restored the edge on 3 knives of different styles with great results. The only issue is the clamp. It really doesn't hold the knives well at all. I see from some YouTube videos tape on the knife helps with that. I tried it and it does help a lot. I also wish my kit had a super fine ceramic stone versus the extra course. That could have been my mistake in the ordering process. Overall though I'm happy I got it. I had a couple of hunting knives that really needed a touch up. In very little time, with very little effort, they are back to a new edge. The system works!

You looked at that KME first, didn't you? Then saw its nearly $200 and looked for an alternative. You've come to the right place. Functionally this is the same. You get a clamp to hold the blade, you get guide rods and set angle slots to keep the diamond hones level, you can get from butter knife to shaving sharp in 10 minutes. The guide rod does all the work, just make sure you line the clamps with electricians tape or something to prevent scratches. I've got a modest collection of knives. Most are s35vn and these diamond plates handled all of them perfectly. I really don't see these losing their grit any time soon. Unless you intend to use it while standing at a work bench you don't need the stand. It's very comfortable to hold while sitting on the couch. You can get a good edge with what's provided, but if you want that mirror edge you'll need the strop and the blue sapphire hone and those go for about $10 each. My only issue is the plastic case lid came fairly warped. It didn't want to snap shut until I really bent it into shape, and even still the corners still lift up slightly.

Ce set et vraiment super pour afuter les cuteaux. Les deux angles d'alluminium pourais etre un peux plus costeau, mais ca functione bien. Par contre pour faire un bon finish a la lame, il faut completer ce set avec la pierre Saphire (bleu) apres c'est impec!! Mais surtoux PAS utiliser l'huile pour la pierre Saphire!!!!

とにかく簡単に切れるようになります。 刃渡り10cm程度のナイフしか削ってませんが、よく切れるようになりました。 削った面を拡大して見たことがないので、以下はあくまで印象です。 目の細かい砥石で研磨したような滑らかさは無いような気がしますが、 実用上まったく問題のない切れ味になりました。

I read through some of the unfortunate circumstances where others had faulty stones in the plastic moulds - definitely seek a warranty claim via amazon. I can only say positive things, as I've used this system today, and I've spent about 20 minutes sharpening my santoku kitchen knife - which is now exceptionally sharp - tested it on paper and a tomato. Prior to sharpening it wouldn't cut through the paper and was blunt on the tomato. I'm very happy and it was easy to learn how to use by reading the instructions and watching a quick video online.

Excelente calidad: Ya llevo más de dos años con el y compre dos versiones. La Version que más me gusta es la de las barras con aleaciónes de metales (SOLO 4 AFILADORES, PLATA, MORADO, NARANJA Y DORADA) te duraran toda la vida. Con respecto a la versión en donde los afiladores son de piedra, encuentro mayor desgaste y aun es mas lento el proceso. Sin duda en ambos casos si deseas adquirir un LANSKY es importante tener la prensa o la base para sujetarlo, o hacerte de algo que te ayude, es costosa pero si no tienes en donde sujetar todo sera imposible que lo hagas bien y se convierte en un tema desesperante. Adquirí la piedra de cerámica por separado, la verdad no es nada del otro mundo y el acabado espejo en realidad no es indispensable, la he dejado de usar. El mejor producto es el de solo cuatro piedras con aleacion de metal. ( OJO ESTE SISTEMA ES PARA UN AFILADO ARTESANAL Y DE MUY BUENA CALIDAD PERO LLEVARAS ENTRE 15 y 25 MINUTOS PARA UN AFILADO PERFECTO) Si eres desesperado y deseas afilar con tres pasadas, Lansky no es lo que buscas, pero si tienes cuchillería fina y disfrutas de tus cuchillos y de un afilado perfecto, adquiere. Puntos a mejorar o deficiencias: Las pestañas del sujetador del cuchillo o navaja son muy pequeñas, si presionas mucho las piedras contra la hoja del cuchillo puede ser que se salga la hoja y tengas que estarla acomodando. El tornillo requiere de más fuerza para sujetar cuchillos más grandes y pesados para que no se salga (como un cuchillo de supervivencia). Así que comencé a usar unas pisas para apretarlo mejor y con el tiempo la perilla plástica del tornillo del sujetador se ha ido desgastando. Este sistema es eficiente y perfecto para navajas, cuchillos chicos y medianos. No lo recomiendo para cuchillos de campo de tamaño mayor que la hoja supere los 15 centímetros.

My very expensive kitchen knives were once more lethally sharp after using this. It's not a long job to sharpen a knife from very, very blunt to razor edged; maybe ten minutes. Sharpening less blunt knives is much faster of course. The fact that the angle is set correctly pushed me into buying this set. That is apparently a very critical part of knife sharpening and this makes it foolproof. It is tricky to use with smaller knives (fruit knife sbut not impossible at all.