Having a dull knife can cause both cutting problems and safety issues. Those issues can be over if you start using a Lansky Knife Sharpening System, which gives a consistent sharp edge every time you use it. With an easy to use multiple angle guide and a series of varied grit honing stones, almost any knife can be sharpened. This system ranks among the best knife sharpening methods that we have used.

For this review, we received two different test kits. One of the kits includes 5 different man made hones and the other set included 3 diamond hones. Each of the kits arrived packed in a handy custom molded carry case that keeps everything organized and in place when not in use. Also included is a 1 ounce bottle of honing oil and easy to follow directions. It should be noted that all the parts in the kit will fit into the hard case, but only if they are dissembled. This is not a big problem since it's very easy to assemble and set up for sharpening a knife. Each of the hones come on a color coded and marked handle. The handles have finger grooves molded into each side, making them easy to grasp. There are small details that make this kit durable - like where the guide rod is inserted into the plastic hone holder. This is a metal sleeve insert for the threaded thumb screw and guide rod, so that they will not wear out the plastic. The included honing oil is recommended to be used with any of the hone materials available with the Lansky Sharpening Systems. There are many different configurations and systems that Lansky offers and the two systems that we examined for our review are among their most popular.

Lansky Deluxe Knife Sharpening System

• Hones Included (man made stone): Extra Coarse, Coarse, Medium, Fine & Ultra-Fine
• Model Number: LKCLX
• UPC: 080999041000
• Price: $49.99
• Buy it now: http://www.lanskysharpeners.com/LKCLX.php

Lansky Standard Diamond Knife Sharpening System

• Hones Include (diamond): Course, Medium & Fine
• Model Number: LK3DM
• UPC: 080999090008
• Price: $84.99
• Buy it now: http://www.lanskysharpeners.com/LK3DM.php

Testing and Use

To test the Lansky Knife Sharpening System, we, of course, sharpened a few different knives. We took a 12" long Farberware kitchen knife, an 8" Colman hunting knife and a 6-1/2" Kershaw pocket knife and put each to the test. To start off, we took the blade clamp (which also doubles as the angle guide) and attached it to the midpoint on the backside of the knife blade. We then took the appropriate hone grit that we needed and attached the guide rod to it. We chose the hone grit based on the condition of the blade to be sharpened. All of the knives we had to sharpen had a clean edge and retained a small amount of sharpness; therefore we chose the fine diamond and the fine stone for our starting points. The next thing we did is insert the guide rod into each of the possible angles in the guide and with our eye we checked which ones best matched the angle the knife was previously sharpened at.

The angle the blade edge is sharpened to is critical to the final use of the blade. As a guideline, Lansky has the following recommendations - and their guide follows these same angles:

• 17° Angle - A severe angle recommended for razor blades, X-Acto blades, scalpels or similar tools. This angle provides an extremely sharp, but delicate edge.
  
• 20° Angle - A commonly used angle for higher quality blades and provides an excellent edge for kitchen cutlery and fillet knives.
  
• 25° Angle - The recommended angle for most knives that need a durable, sharp edge. This angle is ideal for hunting and outdoor knives.
  
• 30° Angle - An outstanding angle for knives that see the heavy use of cutting cardboard, wire or carpets. Recommended mostly for heavy duty use knives.

After we determined the angle, we then put some of the included honing oil on the stone and started to sharpen the blade. Once we sharpened one side of the blade, we flipped the knife over and did the same thing on the opposite side. We found that with our test sets, we were able to comfortably sharpen each of the different size knives we tried. Both the clamps would fit on the blade and the guide rods were long enough to allow us to reach the full edge of the blade from the tang up to the tip. As with any tool that requires some physical action on the part of the user, there is some technique and skill needed to sharpen knives. Of course, with the Lansky Knife Sharpening System, most of the guesswork is taken out of the process. With a little practice you can have all your knives restored to tip-top shape.

Conclusion

While the Knife Sharpening System might not be a new tool out on the market, we figured it was well worth the time to test and review it. This system is among the best knife sharpening system we have used. Made with quality materials and simple ease of use, almost anyone can use this set to sharpen nearly any knife to a razor sharp edge. For our Performance ratting we gave this system a 9/10 since it really works and does exactly what it is supposed to do. For our Value rating we gave the set a 9/10 because, with a variety of different hone materials available, they have a system that can meet your price point.