Work Sharp WSKTS Knife and Tool Sharpener

by Work Sharp

• Sharpen every knife you own like a pro quickly, easily, and with repeatable, consistent results
• Comes with premium abrasive belts to meet all your sharpening needs: coarse, medium, and fine
• Precision sharpening guides provide fast, easy, repeatable and consistent results
• Can also be used to sharpen a wide range of bladed shop tools and lawn and garden tools
• 1-year warranty valid for North American 110v power source applications

Product Description

Amazon.com

Work Sharp’s WSKTS knife and tool sharpener is specially designed to sharpen any number of knives and tools in your collection. Thanks to its flexible abrasive belts, the WSKTS sharpens knives with straight blades, serrated blades, and any other silhouette or sort of blade. Get quality-grade sharpening functionality in your own shop or job site with the WSKTS’s precision-sharpening guides that consistently hone the correct angle needed.

WSKTS Knife and Tool Sharpener At a Glance: Sharpens any and every knife quickly and efficiently Easily replaceable abrasive grit belts Precision sharpening guides for consistent results Won’t burn or damage blade steel

Work Sharp's WSKTS knife and tool sharpener delivers professional- grade razor-sharp edges on your blades (view larger).

Engineered for Consistent Professional-Grade Results
The WSKTS employs flexible abrasive belts to create a convex edge that is guarantees the sharpest edge for your knives and other tools with blades. Between these belts and the precision sharpening guides, this sharpener promises exceedingly sharp blades with ease, speed, and consistency. It allows tradespeople and hobbyists alike to get professional-grade razor-sharp edges on their own at home, in the workshop, or on the job site.

Sharpening Guides for Accurate Angles
The WSKTS’s precision angle sharpening guides assure that users get the correct angle every time. Included with purchase is a 50-degree angle guide for hunting and outdoor knives (25 degrees per bevel) and a 40-degree angle guide for thinner blades and kitchen knives (20 degrees per bevel). All a user has to do is set the knife in the guide and pull it through for a razor-sharp edge. (The outdoor knife guide also works well for scissor and serrated-blade sharpening.)

Designed for Versatility and Portability
In addition to knives and tools with straight and serrated blades, this sharpener also refines curved knives, tanto blades, filet knives, gut hooks, and more. Garden pruners, lawn mower blades, shovels, and other household and yard tools are also easily sharpened with the WSKTS. It even works as a handheld detail grinder for light-duty grinding and deburring projects. Plus, it can be used with a 12-volt power inverter for use at tailgates, RV sites and camping grounds.

What's in the Box
One Work Sharp WSKTS knife and tool sharpener, two P80 coarse belts, two P220 medium belts, two 6000 fine belts, one 40-degree kitchen knife sharpening guide, one 50-degree outdoor knife guide (including serrated knife guide and scissor guide), a user’s manual, and an instructional DVD.

The WSKTS consistently sharpens a wide range items, from knife blades to shovel edges (click each to enlarge).

From the Manufacturer

Sharpen like a pro at home, with the Work Sharp knife and tool sharpener, an innovative abrasive belt sharpening system that brings professional level sharpening into your home shop. The combination of flexible premium abrasive belts and precision sharpening guides create incredibly sharp blades with speed, ease, and repeatability. The sharpening guides are purpose-built for kitchen knives, outdoor knives (hunting knives, pocket knives, filet knives, etc.), and scissors and serrated knives. This tool can also be used for many other sharpening tasks such as garden pruners, lawn mower blades, shovels, and countless other bladed shop and garden tools. They also make the ideal hand detail grinder for light duty grinding or de-burring tasks. The sharpener can be used with a 12V power inverter to meet your sharpening needs at your hunting camp, RV camp site, or truck's tailgate allowing you to sharpen where and when you need to (inverter not included). This tool includes a detailed User's Guide and Instructional DVD.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

256 of 259 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars what I've been looking for, with caveats October 15, 2010

By davwe

Amazon Verified Purchase

The Work Sharp WSKTS Knife and Tool Sharpener is exactly the sharpener that I've been looking for! It quickly and easily makes a good convex edge on most blades, and it only took me a few minutes to get the hang of it. I profiled and sharpened three kitchen knives in five minutes, and a brush axe in ten minutes. The brush axe took more time both because the new edge profile was a lot different, and because it took me some practice to deal with the curving blade.

Pros
- It takes me an easy 35sec to change a belt.
- The belts are lasting well.
- It takes about 5 passes each side w/medium belt to put a convex edge on a typical blade.
- It takes 1-2 passes each side w/fine belt to sharpen a typical blade.
- Works for most any blade, even my Benchmade folding knife with thumbstud.
- Sharpens hard knives.

Cons
- The instructions are not great. You may round the tip or ruin a blade's temper if you follow them exactly.
- It would be easier to draw through true if the guide extended to either side 1/2", and was solid above the belt.
- Will only sharpen the flat side of a serrated blade. You'll need something like a tapering round sharpener to get the other side.
- The thumbstud on a folding knife may get in the way unless it is near the handle.
- The fine belt is generally good, but sometimes I want finer. I searched online, but couldn't find any.
- There is no 15deg knife guide.
- The WSKTS quickly gets hot; you're not supposed to use it for more than 20min.

Tips
- Practice drawing the blade through with the motor off.
- As you draw through, change the angle of the blade to keep the belt-to-edge contact uniform....
- The belt will conform to the knife tip as you draw it though, which will round the tip of the knife. I avoid this by drawing through the same, but turning off the motor just as the tip of the knife reaches the belt.
- During the initial edge re-profiling, be careful that the knife doesn't get too hot, which will ruin the temper. I worked with three knifes at a time to avoid this.
- I alternate sides every pass, both to help keep the edge symmetric, and to minimize the number of passes.
- I only use the downward side of the belt; this seems safer and perhaps the belt will last longer.
- For a curving blade like a brush axe, I work in sections, being careful to vary and feather the sections each pass. Read more ›

88 of 93 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars It REALLY works! August 23, 2010

By Philip J. Lapin

I bought this device yesterday, and today about 20 of my kitchen knives are razor sharp. With a machine shop background, I was familiar with small "3 wheel belt sanders" - we used to sharpen shop tools with them 40 years ago! Work sharp has essentially crossed a mini - belt sander with a mini electric chainsaw power head and "Walla" - the Work Sharp Knife and Tool Sharpener!!! Well built, and with angle guides to make sharpening a snap, it is a great little tool. One big advantage of this sharpener (over stones, wheels and other "hard" sharpeners) is that the belt will FLEX. That allows for contouring to a blade, and also prevents grinding off excessive metal. With three grades of abrasive belts, there is wide versatility for sharpening, grinding and honing. The belts seem to be holding up very well, and can be swapped out in just a few seconds. Also of interest to me is that the "belt head" can be rotated to several positions - allowing for standard sharpening, compact storage, and also use as a mini finishing / deburring tool! Quite ingenious.

86 of 93 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars for the Work Sharp Knife and Tool Sharpener! July 28, 2010

By Dr. A. Meal

As a former chef, restaurateur and food service professional, I've had a life-long interest in sharp knives. It took me years to master a good set of oil stones and no machine has come close to replacing them for me. Then along comes the Work Sharp Knife and Tool Sharpener.

For my first trial, not wanting to risk a good knife to a machine, I selected an old abused chef's knife and in short order returned it to excellent working order using the Work Sharp! I discovered that the Work Sharp leaves no mess to clean up and poses very little risk to the blade, even in the hands of a novice.

Since that first blade, I have trued up numerous neglected knives in professional kitchens with the same great results. At less than half the price of a good set of oil stones, I recommend every professional and home cook add one to their must-have list!

43 of 47 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars This machine is AWESOME!!!!! June 28, 2010

By CPA - Salem

I received the Work Sharp Knife and Tool Sharpener as a gift, and I can honestly say this product is AWESOME!!! For years I have tried wet stones, oil stones, dry stones and all kinds of knife sharpening tools and for the life of me, I could never get a decent result! Within 5 minutes of receiving the Work Sharp product I had figured out how to use it (a quick glance through the manual is recommended, I know, real men do not read instructions, but in this case it really helps - especially when trying to figure out how to change the different levels of abrasive belts).

Needless to say, I probably sharpened 25 knives, including my wife's pride and joy Shun and Gerber knives, to razer sharp levels! The differing knife guides that come with the product make it really hard to screw-up! I am an accountant, not a mechanic, and I achieved amazing results. I went around the house sharpening the kitchen knives, my pocket knives and even some of my father's hunting knives that I inherited. Within 20 minutes, all of the knives were amazingly sharp!!!

The other nice thing is that I did not put scratched all over the blades, like what has happened to me in the past. This product really works well. I cannot give it any higher praise!!!!

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent sharpener for the money August 14, 2011

By knife nut

Amazon Verified Purchase

I saw a product review video on youtube on the Work Sharp Knife and Tool Sharpener (WSKTS) and decided to give it a try. Over the years, I've pretty much been a stone and/or ceramic stick guy. I've owned various natural and diamond stones. I own a Lansky system, but find it too clunky. Also, the clamp never seemed to hold all my knives very securely. As of late, I've been using a Spyderco Tri-angle Sharpmaker with much success. I typically used the ceramic sticks freehand because different knifes are made with different angles and they frequently don't match up with preset angles on sharpeners.

OK, on to the WSKTS. This thing is basically a hand held mini-belt sander. This sharpener puts a convex grind on knives due to the tension of the belts. The head rotates from a table top position to various positions intended to be used free hand. I've sharpened all kinds of knives and even my lawnmower blade with excellent results each time. Haven't tried scissors yet. Yesterday I sharpened several older knives and was done in a few minutes. Last week I even sharpened my 3 Cold Steel Kukri's and 1 machete with hair-popping success.

There was a small learning curve/technique issue not mentioned in the included DVD. Don't push your blade towards the belt while drawing it through the guides. This will round the point. You should draw the knife keeping light pressure away from the belt and towrds the guide. Being a belt grinder though, I ran the belt down the spine at the tip to get my point back. Other than that, I'm extremely pleased with the versatility and ease of use. Yes it has guides with preset angles, but you can quickly conform a blade to the guide angle by letting the grinder do the work.

Excellent sharpener or the money!