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This is my birthday present to myself: a Lansky Deluxe sharpening system. Five different grades of Arkansas hard stone in the color-coded holders. A clamp that secures the blade; I also got a C-clamp setup that holds the blade clamp and allows it to be moved from side to side and flipped over to do the other edge.
You attach the guide rods to the stones, clamp a blade into the clever aluminum clamp, and go to work. Putting the guide rod through a slot allows enough side-to-side movement to do large blades, but holds the stone at the correct angle to get a consistent edge. This is where I always mess up trying to put an edge on something using a standard Arkansas stone; I can't seem to hold that angle freehand.
I'm a total sucker for anything that comes in its own fitted case, and everything here snaps into its own little spot, even the oil bottle.
I have no practical need or use for this thing, but it makes me happy, so that's all the justification it needs. And I have sharpened everything in the kitchen, including three pairs of scissors.
Like I said, totally impractical, but so much fun!
The title? I'm being sneaky. It's Polish for "Clippers, Knives, Razors, Sharpening!" as shouted by a street vendor in pre-WWII Japan. It's from the book I'm currently narrating, Surviving War, Oceans Apart, by Yanek Miezkowski. It's the story of his parents: his father, who was in the Resistance in Warsaw and survived four POW camps, and his mother, a teenager in Japan who gave up her education to work in a war factory. I have spent so much time practicing Polish pronunciation, working closely with Yanek (who has been remarkably tolerant), that I'm starting to think in it. The sounds that I've spent my life associating with letters and phrases are often different in Polish, and to sound natural I have to practice. Lots of retakes on this one, but it's an amazing story.
Discussion (26)
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Awesome - thanks for the info and review.
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“Barikan, kamisori, hocho, tonginasu!”
Bless you. Are you sure that isn't Japanese?
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While in the Navy a great many of us carried Buck folding hunters (available for a great price at the ship's store). Many off hours at sea were spent shooting the breeze and sharpening our knives—a skill I have let lapse but really need to revive. A guy really needs to have sharp knives.
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I’ve found and used two excellent hand tools for sharpening plane irons, but those I’ve bought and used for knives are not completely satisfactory. The machine I have is slow and quite loud, though it is very effective.
I’ve never seen this design before. It looks very impressive. Congrats and thanks!
(And special thanks for not showing any cat pictures.)
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My late kid brother Dan gave me a smaller version of the same thing, with four stones instead of five. Same clamp design. I haven't taken the time to get competent with it, so I ask my son Tom to sharpen my knives when I make them dull.
My venerable Buck 110 was my every day carry for decades. Now it's either a cheap Chinese SRM that I don't mind beating up, or, when I'm visiting clients or otherwise acting more professional, the Benchmade Osborne my sons gave me for Father's Day a couple of years ago. (I like the flickability of the SRM and Benchmade versus the two-handed operation of the old Buck, as well as the solid axis locks.)
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