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The best sharpener is the one you already have: your hands and your eyes.
All you need is a few stones and a little practice.
You can spend (blow) $600 for a Tormek & that's fine if you can afford it, but it doesn't save you any time and personally I'd rather spend the money on lumber.
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Bill,
I sing this song to everyone who asks for advice about sharpening systems.
There are numerous ways to sharpen tools (and knives). Each one has its advantages and disadvantages and its advocates and detractors. Discussions about which is the "best" sharpening system on this and other forums can get lengthy and sometines heated. The truth is that there is no "best" sharpening system, they all work. The best one is the one that works for you and you're comfortable with. Many people, in fact most people starting out, jump from one system to another looking for the "best" one, the one that guarantees them killer sharp edges, sharpening "Nirvana." A lot of sharpening gear is pricy. A Tormek with all the necessary jigs and related paraphenalia, for example, can run into many hundreds of dollars. Thats on the high end, unless you find your way into natural Japanese water stones where individual stones can run into the thousands. But even good water and oil stones are expensive. The point is that you can quickly blow a whole lot of money looking for instant sharpening gratification. I did and many do.
My advice is to do your research and decide what you think will work for you. Buy it, learn how to use it and use it for a while. All of these sharpening systems have a learning curve. If you're not getting good edges from your system, it's not the system's fault. It's because you haven't mastered it yet. Keep working on it. Jumping to a different system isn't going to give you good edges immediately, it's going to put you at the bottom of a whole new learning curve. If you're serious about this and stick with it over the long term, you will probably have to try several different sharpening systems to find one that suits you. Master the system you have - work on it until it gives you consistently sharp edges - before you decide to try another system. You will find your comfort zone much more quickly this way and you won't waste a bunch of money on expensive sharpening gear you don't use.
Finally, after commenting about how expensive this stuff is, I think I should add that good gear is important. There's a lot of cheap, crappy sharpening gear out there. It may do the job eventually, but the learning curve is longer and mastering it is frought with frustration. Good gear does the job efficiently and you don't waste time and patience trying to figure out how to compensate for the shortcomings of shoddy equipment.
My $.02.
Hank
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Thanks again for all the advice. Not sure what direction I'll go...but this gives me good food for thought!
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(10-25-2016, 08:18 AM)Hank Knight Wrote: Bill,
I sing this song to everyone who asks for advice about sharpening systems.
. . . . . . . . . . <edit> . . . . .
My $.02.
Hank
Hank: great song, good advice.
Credo Elvem ipsum etiam vivere
Non impediti ratione cogitationis
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Hi
For me, the basic way to sharpen is simple and easy and cheap.
I only use a stone to sharpen everything. The important thing actually most important thing you must ensure the stone is flat. Always ensure you stone is perfect flat. Oh also not clogged, clean the stone. For me this is the only right and proper way to sharpen what ever need to be sharpen, one or more chisels, router bits, drill bits, maybe an odd knife or two. Now then this is not a system as such, but cheap. I do not use anything else other than a flat clean stone, works great for me. But it does take time to do a good right and proper job. If you are in a hurry, then I do not think any thing you use will really do a complete job.
