# My New EdgePro Apex Knife Sharpener - Pictures



## drizzle (Jul 2, 2005)

For years I have sharpened my knives the basic way; using a stone, and holding the knife at a constant angle as best I could. I could nearly always put an edge on a knife that got the job done but always wanted some way to easily put a consistent nice edge on any knife. I believe with this contraption I've found just what I wanted. It's kind of pricey but is very well made.

This sharpener is essentially still just a sharpening stone but the difference is that you move the stone across the knife instead of the knife across the stone. The key is that the knife sits in an angled holder and the stone is clamped into a rod that holds it at a constant angle to the knife. You then push the stone across the knife blade on a diagonal.

Here's what you get:






You get the base ; the rod assembly; the stones; a small water bottle; a small bag of sand to flatten the stones. Two more items that didn't make it into my picture: a washcloth and a really nice bag for holding everything.

I should note here that you normally get two stones of 180 and 220 grit but I bought this special package from Bronks Knifeworks with three stones of 180, 320 and 600 grit. I like this combination.

The base sits very securely on any flat surface that is smooth enough for the suction cups to work; a kitchen counter works great. You don't need to clamp anything down.

You put the vertical rod into the base and tighten the knurled screw then you adjust the height of the pivot to set the angle of blade you want. The vertical rod has color coded marks on it to indicate blade angles. They are: Red-15, Green-18, Yellow-21, Blue-24. Here's a close up of the rod with the marks.





Then you set the guide that holds the knife. It doesn't actually clamp the knife it is just a metal plate that the back of the knife rests against. There is a plastic cover that you can put over the end of the plate for double-edged knives.

To sharpen the knife, you hold the knife in place and push the stone in and slightly across to sharpen about 2" of blade. Then you move the blade and make another pass with the stone. After doing one side, switch the knife to your other hand and sharpen the other side of the blade.

This picture shows the sharpener in position to make a pass. What you are seeing is the metal plate that the stone is bonded to.





The blue under the knife is painter's tape. They recommend you apply that to protect the knife blade and also so you can see quickly if you rub the stone against the tape.

That is the one finicky part of this whole process. As you move the knife you have to rotate it so the blade still sticks out from the edge of the holder. Still, it seems to me a lot easier and quicker than clamping a knife in and having to reclamp over and over. I got the hang of it very quickly.

Here are a couple more views of the sharpener.









I first sharpened a couple of kitchen knives that I hadn't sharpened in a looong time. I used the 180 grit at 18 degrees and made several passes to get the basic edge then I switched to the 320 to make a smoother edge. The flat sides of the kitchen knives sat very nicely in the holder and made the sharpening very easy.

Next I put in the CRKT Ryan Plan B that I just bought. That's what you see in the pictures. I started with the 320 grit since I had already sharpened it myself and chose the 21 degree angle. Oddly, this angle seemed to be greater than what the factory put on. As I sharpened I could see the new grind working it's way back from the edge and gradually replacing the more shallow edge that was there. After several passes I had the new angled edge on then I switched to the 600 grit to get a smoother edge.

Note: I chose to go ahead with the new angle and change it from the factory one. I could have also adjusted the angle of the sharpener to match the knife. One nice feature of this sharpener is that you can continuously adjust the angle. The marks are only there as guides.

I had to be a little more careful to keep the flat part of the blade flush against the base. This knife has a deep hollow grind so I had to make sure I didn't allow the knife to rotate down and change the sharpening angle. It wasn't too hard to do but this is the one case where I could see a clamp maybe being useful.

The nice thing about the way you sharpen using this is that you feel completely in control. You control how hard you press down on the stone and how fast you push it across the knife so you never feel that the knife is going to move and make you mess something up.

And here are the results. I wish I took a before picture so you could see how much better this is but, trust me, it was pretty ugly before. Funny thing, the edge actually looks smoother looking at it directly than it does in this picture. Maybe that says something about my eyesight. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif





One final note about Bronks Knifeworks. He happens to have his business near me so I just drove over to pick up the sharpener. He's got a nice little workshop and obviously knows his business. I would recommend buying from him, especially the special I bought or if you are more into it than I am, the more expensive special with polishing tapes. He put these kits together and they seem to make a lot of sense.


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## TOB9595 (Jul 2, 2005)

Great review and pics, Bob!!!
Thanks
Tom


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## Joel (Jul 2, 2005)

I also have this system and it's the best I've ever used. It is a bit pricey but if you consider all the money I spent on all the other systems, I would have saved money and time by just purchasing the Apex to begin with.


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## xochi (Jul 2, 2005)

Excellent review Drizzle! I've wondered about this setup myself and I've heard positive things from others as well. If we had a sticky knife sharpening thread, this should be included.


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## ths11 (Jul 2, 2005)

Nice pics, drizzle! But looks like you're sharpening the Ryan Plan B at almost 10 degrees - into a razor. Or is that just a pose shot? 
One thing the package from Bronks Knifeworks seems to miss is the ceramic steel. I've found it handy for putting on the final finish and touching up from time to time without sharpening all over again.


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## drizzle (Jul 2, 2005)

Thanks for all the kind words!

Yes that was a pose shot. I moved the slide down to show all the colors in the close up and never moved it back up again.

There is actually one more color band well below the others. It is black and must be close to 0 degrees. It is intended for sharpening serrated knives. I haven't tried that one and I'm not sure I will.

I've thought about getting a ceramic steel but haven't yet. Maybe now is the time.

One other thing. I haven't tested the edge on the Plan B really except that it cuts paper well and shaves arm hair. But on the kitchen knives I tried cutting cherry tomatoes and was easily able to slice _very_ thin slices with almost no effort.


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## TOB9595 (Jul 4, 2005)

Can you go into more detail about how....
You sharpen a blade without a straight spine?
How about recurves

I know you touched on this but 
Do you freehand the position of the blade for sharpening?
How do you get consistentgrinds if you frehand the position and the blade isn't locked or held in place with a backstop????
Thanks 
Tom


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## drizzle (Jul 4, 2005)

Sure Tom here's a bit more explanation and pictures.

For this post I'm going to use the terminology that EdgePro uses for its sharpener parts. The angled base that the knife lies on (where the blue tape is) is called the Blade Table. The metal plate that the spine of the knife rests against is called the Guide.

You always have some part of the knife spine in contact with the Guide. Unless you have a knife with the blade edge and spine both straight and parallel to each other (like you might find on some kitchen knives) you won't simply let the spine rest flat against the guide.

First here's a better view of the Blade Table and Guide.





So in the case of the Plan B even for such a short curvy blade the first part I sharpen is pretty much straight and parallel to the spine so I can start with the spine resting flat against the Guide.





But as you go out toward the edge you rotate the knife so that the spine is only contacting the Guide at the rounded corner of the Guide, like this.





You never truly free-hand the knife so there shouldn't be any movement of the knife during a sharpening stroke. The closest you come is that the knife could pivot around the Guide corner a bit but that shouldn't affect the edge much, if at all. It will only change the angle of movement across the edge, it won't actually change the angle of the edge.

A recurve could be kind of tricky I suppose. Maybe there are others with more experience than me that can give their experiences sharpening those kinds of blades.


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## TOB9595 (Jul 4, 2005)

Thanks Bob, I still don't get it...
What happens if the spine offset is very long.
Example:
What if the Ryan B was 4x longer in the tip area where you couldn't hold it against the guide?

Email to Bronk thru his site.

Many times I am very thick /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Thanks for the well done explanation.
Tom


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## drizzle (Jul 4, 2005)

No problem Tom. It's kind of harder to explain than to actually use it.

I may not have made clear that you can move the Guide up and down to suit the width (edge to spine) of the blade.

I have just re-read this explanation and think it may be kind of confusing. I hope not. Keep in mind that whenever I talk about angles here I'm not referring to the angle you want the edge to be (like 21 degrees). I'm referring to the angle that the stone passes across the blade.

On to the explanation:

If you have a longer knife it is actually easier to control because as you move the knife to sharpen more toward the tip you have the handle of the knife further away from the corner of the Guide. That gives you a better lever and better control.

Remember that the knife will normally be resting against the _corner_ of the Guide since you will have rotated the knife to get the edge to extend out over the edge of the Blade Table. As you do rotate the knife against the corner it extends the blade edge out and also turns it so that it's more or less perpendicular to the stone.

As one more illustration that might help. One of the kitchen knives that I sharpened was a paring knife. The blade and the spine of the knife were both straight but they weren't parallel. Because of this I had to hold the knife so the spine was resting against the corner of the Guide but was at an angle to the Guide. This made the blade edge be perpendicular to the stone. In this case, as I moved the knife to sharpen out toward the edge I didn't rotate it because the edge was already at the angle I wanted.

Hope this helps. I might not be understanding your question. Feel free to ask anything else. I'll try to answer it as best I can.


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## sniper (Jul 4, 2005)

Beautiful pixes, Drizzle. It looks like a beautifully made apparatus. I had the same problem till I got a set of crock sticks. Now, I use them and a little gizzie called the Hunter Honer that I got for $8 on eBay, to keep a war edge on my hunting knives and Swiss Army edc knife. 
My wife got me an electric diamond honer for our kitchen knives and my fillet knives, which were formerly a real PITA to sharpen. Didja know you can bring back a real good edge just by stropping your blades on a rolled-up newspaper? Yup. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif


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## Anglepoise (Jul 4, 2005)

I have had my EdgePro for a couple of years and it is without question the finest sharpening system out there. Infinitely adjustable angles assures the minimum of metal removal on re sharpening.
drizzle .....when you have some time, order some polishing tapes that you use AFTER the 600 hone. You can put a mirror finish on the edge or just above the edge on the secondary bevel.


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