Some of you may know from previous discussions that I am big on knives. I have small lock back pocket knives, multi-tools, quality kitchen knife sets, but mostly fixed blades that range from cheap to very expensive.

I have been using knives since I can remember. I have also been on a constant quest to find a foolproof and effective way to get and keep a good edge on my blades. I have never been able to put as good an edge on my knives as I would like doing it free hand. I've used various draw through carbide and ceramic sharpeners for marginal effect. I've used countertop power grinders, and at one time had a paper disc setup on a bench grinder; one side impregnated with diamond dust, the other with white rouge. Up till now, that was probably my best sharpening system, allowing me to regularly achieve what I refer to as scary sharp edges on just about every blade I tried, from pocket knives to beat to hello machetes.

The problem with the wheel system was the lack of a suitable guide. I cobbled together some do-hickeys that got me a good 20 degree angle on the wheels, some of the time. It required some practice, but I got good enough that scary sharp was almost always a certainty. I had never tried a belt sharpening system up till now, and I have to say, this little unit is 4 stars out of 4.

It came with two guides, one for 20 degrees, one for 25 degrees. These two angles are pretty effective for most all of the sharpening you would need. There's also a jig setting for sharpening scissors. However, should you need to sharpen something that either won't fit in the jig or requires a different angle, the jigs come off and you can rotate the belt head to suit your needs for just about anything, from axes, to shovels, to lawn mower blades. You can even do gut hooks.

As a good test, I grabbed up one of my old Busse Swamp Rat knives; the Desert Battle Rat model. This is a heavy fixed blade, and I had put a horrible edge on it that I needed to rework. In less than 15 minutes, I had completely reshaped the edge and had achieved the scary sharp level using the 25 degree jig. I left the edge rough as this is a utility blade. The unit comes with 3 belts, an 80 grit, a 220 grit, and a 6000 grit. With the 6000 grit, you can polish an edge to scalpel sharpness.

A bonus to using a belt sharpener is the give in the belt tension allows for a convex edge. In my opinion, this is superior to a flat or concave edge.

Needless to say, I am sharpening up all my knives that need it. I have also offered to sharpen up friends' knives.

I got mine for $70 from these folks:

http://www.sharpeningsupplies.com/Work-Sharp-Knife-Sharpener-P381C68.aspx

I have no affiliation with this company or with Work Sharp tools. This was the best deal I could find, so I am just passing on my good fortune for y'all. It would make a pretty good gift under the tree for less than $100.