Knife Sharpeners for your hunting and fishing knives

Knife sharpeners – a review

My old Case pocket knife

For years I have carried my trusty Case pocket knife around with me just about every place except church (because I may get mad at the Preacher). I use it to cut my favorite cigars to filleting fish to stripping wires. All of this use leads to a quickly dulled knife blade. Good knife sharpeners will keep your tool sharp and a sharp tool is a much safer tool.

I have tried probably 5 or 6 different designs over the years and I still come back to my favorite the Lansky. Most of the sharpeners do a pretty good job, but each has their drawbacks. Some are just too complicated and some just don’t sharpen consistently which I consider to be a key feature. The Lansky model that I use is the one featured here;

Lansky Diamond Deluxe Sharpening System with Extra Coarse, Coarse, Medium and Fine HonesThey way that this knife sharpener works is extremely simple yet it produces a very precise edge. I am a fanatic about a good edge and I actually inspect my blades under a microscope! Believe me when I say it will be nearly perfect every time! You fasten the blade in the holding jig first. Then you select whatever grit stone that you need and then the stone is held automatically to the correct angle by holes that are drilled in the jig.

Knife in holding jig with stone held at proper angle

By using this setup it is impossible to get off angle and therefore creating an off center blade edge. When you finish one side of the blade you simply move the stone to the other side of the blade and draw the same number of strokes on each side. Lansky provides a special cutting oil in the kit to help lubricate the stone and wash away metal particles and keep the stone clean.

Cutting oil being applied to the stone.

I usually polish my blade edge after sharpening with a leather strop. This will help set the edge also to make it long lasting. One drawback that I have noticed with the Lansky is the holding jig is made of aluminum and is rather delicate. You need to make sure not to over tighten the set screw. The kit comes with a few spare parts and that’s a nice feature.

I have seen knife sharpeners come and go around my shop, and this kit has stood the test of time and hard use. Anyone can produce a nearly perfect edge every time using the Lansky kit. I hope that you will find it as useful as I have!