WORK SHARPBenchtop Whetstone Knife Sharpener - For Knives & Edged Tools - Kitchen, Pocket, & Fillet Knives

This review is for the "Work Sharp Benchtop Whetstone Knife Sharpener - For Knives & Edged Tools - Kitchen, Pocket, & Fillet Knives"I've sharpened many knives and tools over the years, and I bought this unit so others in the household could successfully put a razor sharp edge on kitchen knives. The one thing about dull knives is they aren't safe to use. This sharpening system is the real deal, and greatly simplifies getting a great edge on your knives. The whetstone (2-sided: 1000 and 6000 grit) sits in a tray with the angle guides at each end. The guides are held in place magnetically. The guides are 15 degrees on one side and 17 degrees on the other which covers pretty much anything you might want to sharpen in your kitchen (exception shears which you can freehand). They also sell, through their customer service, 20/25 degree angle guides for outdoor type knives. The sharpener stays put in use due to a combination of size, weight and rubber grip strips on the bottom.It pays to watch the Work Sharp video on usage. It wasn't the way I learned to sharpen many years ago, but I found it excellent to get up to speed honing wickedly sharp edges and the video was useful for the others in my household. Using the sharpener is pretty simple. First soak the stone in water for at least 5 minutes, then place your knife against the angle guide on one end of the stone, then 'sweep' the knife across the stone being careful to hold the angle from the guide. Then repeat the process from the other end to sharpen the other side. When satisfied with the edge, switch to the 6000 grit to put a very fine edge on the blade. If at any point the stone surface appears dry, sprinkle some water on it. The whetstone is large enough to easily sweep a 10-inch chef's knife across its face. It works well with both carbon steel and stainless steel knives.Work Sharp is an 4th generation USA (Bend, OR) company. It's clear that they spent the time to develop a well designed and implemented product that is easy to use and durable. You can spend a lot more and get a less effective system than this at about $40.

I had never attempted to sharpen anything with a whetstone before but I had a 13ish year old Wuthof santuku that I thought was probably done for so I gave it a try. A couple YouTube videos and an hour or so of sharpening at a slow pace to maintain my angle and the knife is back in the rotation. I would not say I got it razor sharp but it is cutting through ripe tomatoes with just the weight of the knife so I would say this is a good product to use. I'm sure I can get better edges with more practice.

As advertised.

This company makes great sharpeners

Excellent design and performance.I would purchase this product again.

Joe Maynard recommended this to us, and it did not disappoint! My son is a chef and was looking for one, he got it, set it up, quickly, with the easy to follow directions, and was able to sharpen all of his chef caliber knives! He was very impressed, and he is hard to impress! 🤣 Thanks for an awesome product!

I have tried different sharpening devices in the past. I feel like I have control of the blade when using this product. Sure, it's the person applying pressure an trying to keep the angle right. But once that's achieved, You actually feel the blade in contact with the stone and sharpening is happening!! I have the worksharp belt sander and I can't feel what I'm doing, even with trigger control. This does take some time to get used to, but once that's achieved, I feel the edge comes out better than anything else I've tried and own.

My husband did a great job of sharpening all my kitchen knives with this. They came out much sharper than we could get them with our electric sharpener.