# Interesting "universal sharpener" from Lee Valley?



## gic (Dec 27, 2013)

I was looking at the Lee Valley site where I occasionally buy their woodworking tools - they are usually incredibly well designed with a beautiful fit and finish and noticed this:

http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.aspx?p=66738&cat=1,43072

They compare it to using a cabinet scraper as opposed to a piece of sandpaper. Since a Cabinet Scraper actually is occasionally an awesomely useful tool, I got to thinking this may be cool to throw in my suitcase so that if I visit somebody with dull knives and wanted to cook there, I can do a quick tuneup without having to shlep around a 1000/6000 stone in my suitcase...

Anyway, anyone use one, anyone have an opinion?


TIA


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## Pensacola Tiger (Dec 27, 2013)

Intriguing. 

Here's a YouTube video showing it in use:
[video=youtube;ztMFfJj7jb0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztMFfJj7jb0[/video]


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## Crothcipt (Dec 27, 2013)

Reminds me of a pull thou, just one sided.


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## Justin0505 (Dec 27, 2013)

The advantage over a pull-through is that you can follow the existing angle and might be slightly less prone to destroying the profile. 
However, I'd also never want it anywhere near a good quality knife / steel. Not only would it not work well on better / harder steels, but your chance of chipping or messing them up with be much greater.

As for the sandpaper vs scrapper analogy, it seems accurate except that it presumes that a scrapper is better, which in the case of kitchen or utility knife edges is simply not true. You actually want the little scratches (which form micro-serrations), and an edge without them will not cut as well or last as long.


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## stereo.pete (Dec 27, 2013)

Did you see that guys crazy gold ring lol :groucho:


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## gic (Dec 27, 2013)

I think they meant for woodworking, there are times when woodworking where you really want to use a scraper and not sandpaper I am told...


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## Justin0505 (Dec 28, 2013)

gic said:


> I think they meant for woodworking, there are times when woodworking where you really want to use a scraper and not sandpaper I am told...



Yes, that's true in woodworking, but what they are implying is that there are times that this scraper is better than traditional abrasion in sharpening, and that's not at all true. That type of false / misleading logic in advertising does not do much for making their product look like anything other than a gimmick.


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## kpeddie2010 (Dec 28, 2013)

I have of these. I use them on fish hooks and ****** knives. They take metal off way to fast to use on a decent knife. U can take so much metal off so fast. A quick analogy would be like flicking flint off a flint stone. That much metal in a single pass


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