Easy to use Knife Sharpener?

[nevermas]

A belt grinder is neither easy nor idiot proof

 

[Smokey Joe]

Welll...

Nevermas--you said

A belt grinder is neither easy nor idiot proof

I don't claim to be brilliant, but I'm no idiot. Idiots shouldn't try to make knives razor sharp anyhow. You probably know the saying, "There is no such thing as foolproof, because fools are so ingenious." I think "idiot proof" is the same idea.

There is no such thing as a mechanical device that cannot be stupidly screwed up and wrecked, not to mention made to produce subpar results, by careless, ignorant handling.

I do not find a belt grinder difficult to work with. And for the difference between the cost of the Wicked Edge, and my cheapo belt grinder, I'll gladly suffer the very slight learning curve required by the belt grinder.

BTW, you didn't respond to the idea that a Wicked Edge may not have the "reach" for a filet knife, a chefs' knife, or a big carving knife.

Now, you want to spend twice what I did for equipment, to produce more or less the same results, be my guest. But please don't dismiss my method out of hand.

 

[seed]

If you don't know what you are doing, things can get ugly real fast with a belt sander. You can ruin the temper of the steel with a belt grinder and even if you don't, you remove far more metal with the belt than you do with manual sharpening, like with the Wicked Edge.

I'm not trying to be a salesman for the Wicked Edge (I do think they are way expensive), but anyone, and I do mean anyone can use a Wicked Edge to sharpen knives to razor sharp edges. Profiling is a little more challenging, but is a step by step process with the Wicked Edge and again, no one can screw it up with the WE if they follow the steps. The only negative I can find so far about the WE is that there is a limit to the angle you can put on the edge. That doesn't matter to me though as the angle range it does have is more than enough.

 

[nevermas]

Seed pretty much said it all.

A beginner like me wouldn't know that I shouldn't wear gloves while grinding because I wouldn't know how hot the blade gets before it needs a dunk. I wouldn't know the sander speed setting and mess things up quick.

I'm not here selling the Wicked Edge either, if you don't like it, don't buy it. I'm a proponent of the Spyderco Sharpmaker, but since the OP mentioned that he has a few of those I didn't feel the need to mention it.

Regarding long blades, because the angle doesn't change through the length of the blade, according to Wicked Edge, you can easily sharpen a blade up to 17 inches.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhR3jCsQX5Q&feature=player_embedded#at=33
http://www.wickededgeusa.com/FAQ.html