Edge Pro Sharpening Systems

Hello - going to bite the bullet on one of the Edge Pro Systems.

Wanting to know if there's any one out there using their equipment and can provide comment on APEX or Professional in terms of value difference, ease of use, flexibility, etc.

I think I recall Kevin Kruger and a few others here are or have used Edge Pro systems.

Ray,

I took the plunge a little over a year ago, and bought the APEX kit with an extra 100-grit stone, and pre-mounted grits to 1000.

It is pretty easy to set-up. I do not have any experience with the Pro setup - however, I think that for home use, the APEX will stand-up to almost anything that you'll throw at it. It's pretty compact, but built with high-quality, sturdy materials. I was amazed at how easy it was to use.

I didn't know just HOW dull my Wusthoff Classic set was getting, until I sharpened them up on my then-new APEX. (I take pretty good care of my cutlery, and steel the blades carefully between uses.)

When you get it, WATCH THE DVD FIRST!

Only thing to be careful about - You may want to set-up a place to use this on a work bench or basement area. (Maybe a chunk of board with some laminate on it, that you can C-clamp down to a bench top somewhere - you want a smooth surface for the suction cups to cling to, but it does produce some messy grit - particularly, after a full hone and sharpening of several largish knives. I would not use it on nice, shiny Granite countertops - at least, not if you want them to STAY shiny! Ask your local builder / counter-top guys if they have any scraps / sink cut-outs with laminate on them.)

You can also score "Brownie-Points" (free beer, etc.) by sharpening knives for friends and relatives.

Other than that

Hey Ron - yeah, seem to remember you picking that Apex up, I believe you posted about, it. I do some woodworking and was thinking about the Pro because of the attachment that lets you do chisels, planer blades, scissors, etc. But I have the standard type stones and all for them.

I'll keep this to knives. Yeah, I was actually wanting to help out the relatives once I got it. I'm always bringing my own knives to use when I go to their houses?

Thing is to keep my knives as sharp as I like they basically get neglects and halfway sharp.

This equipment looks to be a lot easier to maintain the angle especially when doing a number of knives.

Care to share exactly what you picked up when you bought your set? Have you been able to do any knife in the drawer?

Any second thoughts about buying a different set or other accessories when you ordered your Apex?

When I purchased my set, I ordered the following:

1 APEX-3 Kit
1 Un-Mounted 120-Grit Stone

This gave me all of the stones up to 1000-grit. I did not forsee any need for the polish tapes that come with the APEX-4 Kit. The edges on mu knives gleam nicely with the 1000-grit.
I still got the ceramic hone and accessories. (The bag that it comes with is really nice for keeping it all together, and is nice and sturdy.)

With the extra stone, I ended up spending about the same as the APEX-4 Kit - but I think that this tailored the system to my needs and wants.

(I ordered the extra 120 stone per several recommendations in the pre-purchase research that I did. This is the only stone in the set that I can forsee "wearing-out" in the near future. Once you use it for edge correction or rough clean-up, the amount of work you do with the other grits is relatively small - you're mostly just taking-out the scratch-marks from the previous grit)

I do not have a lot of "oddball" knives, but I DO have a wide variety of standard knives and different sizes. For a beginner, I was able to sharpen everything from my large chef's knife down to the small blade on my Swiss Army pocket knife.

If I cut hair with expensive scissors or had a lot high-quality chisels and planes that I used frequently (does it work on these?) - then I might be able to justify the added versatility and precision of the fancier unit. However, so far, the set-up that I ordered is filling my needs nicely for the amount of money that I spent.

I can't see the need for the pro model. The basic apex works great.

I purchased it with the 220 and 320 stones and found that it wasn't enough to go at really dull knives. I have since added a 120.

I'm still improving my skill with it and one thing that helps is a magnifying glass. You can take a peek every once and awhile and see what's getting ground and whats not.

I really struggled to figure out the whole burr thing (it may just have been that my stones weren't coarse enough), but I'm starting to get a handle on it now.

One thing I have trouble with is preventing scratches from forming down the length of the blade. I tend to slide the blade along the apex, and this leaves tiny scratches.

Thanks for the additional info. Going to drop the $$ into an Apex. Isn't the 8" ceramic hone a little short for longer knives? Think I might skip that and use the steel I have or get a 12".

Looked at the videos on the Edge Pro site - I assume this is the DVD content, seems like the Apex is plenty versatile if I'm not trying to cross over into tools and keeping with knives. Looks like it should handle the cleaver too.

The one video I looked at shows how to apply tape to the knife if you want to prevent scuffing the sides of the blade from the table.

After making a mess the first few times using my Apex I now put it in a 9" x 13" pyrex dish and put the dish on a rubber mat to keep it from sliding around on the counter. A couple of those rubber mesh-type jar lid grippers work great. That set up makes clean-up easier.

ive been using my lansky and just cant seem to get a real good edge. Maybe i should try this system. How much cabbage is it?