Re: Kitchen Gadgets You Love
I don't have a knife sharpener and all our kitchen knives were getting very dull. I finally went ahead and bought a Work Sharp knife sharpener from Amazon for $70 (PM me for details if interested). I broke it open and in minutes I had a pairing knife so sharp I could shave hair off my arm. Takes zero skill or effort to sharpen a knife.
Work Sharp claims you can sharpen regular knives, single-sided knives, serrated knives, gut hooks, scissors, pruners/axes/shovels and other hand tools, lawn mower blades, etc. It's simply a mini belt sander with a spring loaded tensioner and no backing plate so the belt can flex under load. There's a couple guides to ensure you have the proper angle for your knife. Comes with a kitchen guide which sharpens knives to 40° (20° per side), and a second guide for outdoor knives (25°), scissors, and serrated knives. With no guide it can be used freehand for various sharpening tasks like garden tools and the like.
It comes with 80, 220, and 6000 grit belts, though various in-between grits can be purchased separately. The instructions say to use the 220 grit to sharpen the knives and 6000 grit to hone them. Says the 6000 grit is optional, but the 220 grit always leaves a burr which the 6000 grit will remove.
To give an example of what it can do, we somehow picked up at some point a very cheap serrated knife that didn't even have proper serrations. Honestly I don't know why I never threw it out, I hated it and never used it.
IMG_20180210_135710712 by
jseyfert3, on Flickr
I took the guard off the sharpener, put the 80 grit belt on, and freehand ground off all the serrations, along with some grinding on the opposite side to match what I had to grind off on the first side. I then replaced the 220 grit belt and guide, and sharpened it like I have sharpened my kitchen knives, finishing with the 6000 grit belt and guide.
IMG_20180210_140819450 by
jseyfert3, on Flickr
Like the other knives I had sharpened, it now could shave hair off my arm very easily. I took a worthless knife and in about ten minutes I turned it into something actually useful. I feel like going to Goodwill and seeing if I can find dirt cheap knives there, no matter the condition I can sharpen it up in no time. We've never really had a good kitchen knife collection.
Anyhow, with this I'll never have another dull knife again. I won't have any arm hair left either, I've already shaved half of it off because I keep marveling how sharp the knives are as I test them after sharpening and shave off way more hair than I need to test the knife.
IMG_20180210_143853316 by
jseyfert3, on Flickr
Anyhow, I got this the day someone posted the "Handy Kitchen Gadgets Under $20" thread but this isn't under $20. Figured I'd make a separate post about it and say how much I love it. Later on I'll sharpen my hatchet as well and see how well that goes.