Lansky Blademedic 4-in-1 Knife Sharpening System

I always keep 2 of these handy and over the Christmas break I gave both of mine away to family members who wanted one on the spot. I still have to send out 2 more that I promised to others, and order 2 more for myself. These are the best value for your dollar of any pocket pull-through knife sharpeners on the market. In the picture it looks like it is made of cheap plastic like most other pull through sharpeners. When you hold this for the 1st time you will be surprised at how solid it feels. This is the main reason I pass it around for others to have a gander at it, I like watching the surprise on their face when they feel how solid this little sharpener is. The carbide sharpener will take a lot of steel off of your knife blade, so I would recommend using it sparingly and only when you have deep nicks to take out of your blade. The ceramic pull through sharpener is perfect for regular maintenance and is mainly what I use for on-the-spot touch ups. I find that usually I can touch up a knife in 10 strokes or less if maintained regularly. If I am working out small nicks it takes a bit longer. On bigger nicks I start on the carbide sharpener until the big nick becomes a small nick, then I finish working it out on the ceramic side. I like the that diamond rod is held closed and held open via magnets. It doesn't come open in my pocket and stays in place while opened and being used. It is great for serrations and sharpening scissors or other blades they usually require a file. Once again you have a ceramic rod mounted on the frame that can also be used in place of the diamond rod and will take off less metal. This is also great for quick touch ups on blades that are maintained regularly. This does not replace a full sharpening solution, but it is the best sharpener that I have found for everyday carry that will fit in my pocket.

Wow! My father and grandfather were both carpenters. I grew up using a whetstone, oil, and a leather strop to sharpen blades. And that works great when you're at home on a bench. But it's not really an option when you're far from home in the woods. And it takes me about 10 min to put a razor sharp edge on a blade that's in good shape. For some tools in some circumstances it's just not worth the time to go use a whetstone. So I bought this as my first pull through sharpener not really knowing how well it would work or if I'd like it. It's great! I just got it today and used it to put an edge on some cheap steak knives and a couple of cheap chefs knives. And I touched up a couple of new Smith & Wesson assisted folding knives I just bought. How did it work? Fast! If you need to put a quick edge on a dull blade the carbide in this BladeMedic will do that. The ceramic will polish it reasonably well with a few more strokes. The ceramic for serrations and the tapered diamond rod work as advertised. Does it produce an edge like a whetstone? No. The carbide is pretty aggressive and leaves the blade a bit wavy. But the ceramic can polish the final result to a decent smoothness relatively quickly. The end result is probably 90% of the way to a razor sharp blade produced by a whetstone for someone with the skill to use it. But this takes far less time and almost no skill. And the thing is tiny. For a survival situation or putting an edge on a work knife quickly , this thing is great! I'm not throwing away my whetstone but I'm keeping this BladeMedic in my pocket or my pack from now on. This is perfect when time counts and you need an edge to get something done whether that's a chore around the yard or a survival situation. It's well made and solid. It's just big enough to grip safely. The metal frame makes it heavy but also very rigid. Four different sharpening tools ensure that you can sharpen just about any blade. And the carbide as well as the ceramic rods can be replaced easily. For less than 10 bucks this thing is a great value. Edit 01/18/2020: I've had such good service from the blade medic the past 4 years that I recently ordered the Lansky QuadSharp and C-Sharp. I just received them today. They are identical in size and shape to the Blade Medic but where that tool has a single fixed angle at 22.5 deg for both the carbide and the ceramic, these two tools ditch the fold out diamond rod in favor of 4 different sharpening angles, 2 on the top and 2 on the bottom. The 4 sharpening angles are..... 17 deg = really thin blades with a razor edge but not durable under hard use 20 deg = recommended for kitchen knives and probably good for most pocket knives 25 deg = recommended for "outdoor" knives, trades some sharpness for durability 30 deg = recommended for big heavy cutting tools where durability is more important than sharpness With the QuadSharp you get those 4 angles in carbide sharpeners. With the C-Sharp you get those 4 angles in ceramic sharpening rods. Both tools also include the same big piece of angled ceramic that's on the Blade Medic which Lansky calls a bench stone. That can be used to sharpen serrations in a blade. I use it more often in place of a strop to put a final polish on a blade and remove the microscopic burr that the pull through sharpening stones invariably leave. LOL, I'm not a salesman for Lansky. But I liked the Blade Medic so much I figured with the three tools, I can sharpen just about anything in the house whether it's in the kitchen, my toolbox, the garden shed, or my backpack. And I can hone my pocket knife to a sharper edge if I want sharpness instead of durability. My whetstone was inherited from my father and will probably last my lifetime. I may be getting lazy but that whetstone is seeing less and less use. I pull it now more for nostalgia and to keep my skills than any real need.

This is a great sharpener to carry on a backcountry trip or in a bug-out bag, but keep in mind you're not going to achieve razor sharp high quality edges with a carbide style sharpener. It's solidly built and seems of good quality, but this type of sharpener is only good for restoring a truly very dull blade with a ruined/chipped edge or in an emergency when you just need an edge that will cut, but I wouldn't use it on a nice expensive knife when you have other options. Recently, I've become interested in knife sharpening and no professional sharpener will be using this type of tool. They'll be using a gradient of sharpening stones from course to fine to put a high quality edge on a blade probably using a freehand sharpening technique, which is a bit tricky and can take some practice to get right. This gets at another issue with this sharpener, the ceramic may be of little use since ceramic is usually a very fine (vs course) material used to polish an edge at the very end of a series of sharpening stones or materials. Since the carbide blades will put a pretty rough edge on the blade, it will likely take a very very long time to smooth that edge out using ceramic. What you really need is an intermediate material to use between the carbide and ceramic. With all that said, this is a good tool to have on-hand if you simply need to restore an edge either in an emergency situation or on an old knive that's not particularly expensive and is used as a utility blade etc and doesn't need a razor edge. Another thing to keep in mind is a carbide sharpener removed quite a lot of material so if you use this often your knife blade will get smaller and smaller over time. Just a word of caution! I give 4 instead of 5 stars b/c the diamond rod for sharpening serrations sometimes flops loose. It would be nice if it clipped into place a little better. Also, the ceramic block on mine came with a small chip in it which does affect the ability to use the long ceramic piece (to the upper right of the ceramic 'V' in the picture).

Very-very good and helpful for knifes

Ho acquistato questo affilacoltello portatile e sono davvero soddisfatto. Fa il suo dovere egregiamente: affila i coltelli in modo rapido e preciso. È molto pratico, di dimensioni compatte, e comodo da usare, ideale per tenerlo a portata di mano in cucina o portarlo in viaggio. Non è ingombrante e offre un'ottima performance, anche per coltelli da cucina di media qualità. Un accessorio che consiglio a chi cerca una soluzione semplice e veloce per mantenere i propri coltelli affilati. Pro: Pratico e facile da usare. Affila i coltelli in modo preciso e veloce. Compatto e comodo da portare ovunque. Contro: Nessun difetto riscontrato. Un ottimo affilacoltelli, perfetto per chi ha bisogno di un'attrezzatura funzionale e facile da usare!

Very Nice, sharpen my knives with just 3 or 4 stork. Its kind of fool proof:) you don't have to be a professional to sharp your knife when you have this product

Fantastic Product. Very portable and versatile.

I had been put off from using the Lansky because of a negative review which said it damaged the blade. Well, I finally tried it and went through my collection sharpening each one in minutes, and especially the serrated blades which I usually avoid. All steels S30V, 420, AUS8 all sharpened ready in minutes for a final touch on the leather strop. Excellent.