Nirey Electric Knife Sharpeners

[nick parkes]

Hey guys, has anyone had any experience with these sharpeners? I'm sick of blunt knives and going through the ceramic stone sharpeners. Have seen there's 3 different models and was after any clues as to how each one finishes the knives? I've seen a review on the ke3000 middle model which said it gets your knives to a razors edge really easily. Has anyone got one of the 3 models?

[Waldo]

Hi Nick, sorry to say there is no easy way

I've tried a few different things and have ended up with a Lansky kit for the hunting knives (ie: things with relatively short blades) and just use the oil stone for the longer kitchen (carving) knives. If the carving knife (which also doubles as cutting up venison steaks knife) gets real blunt I hit with the cheap aldi electric knife sharpener just to get a rough edge back then back to the oil stone.

Drag out the oil stone Nick, it's old school carpenter and works.

Cheers,

Waldo

[ozrider81]

nup stick to the old stone, electrics will ruin your blades, being in the meat industry i've seen what electric sharpnerers can do and not worth ruining a good knife. Get yourself a good sharperning steel to keep with your hunting set to give the knife a quick flick as your working. as long as you don't hit grisle or bone the knife should be sharp start to finish with a quick flick of the steel as you go

[Shanu]

I've got a KE-280, had it for years, worth it's weight in gold I reckon.

Paid a couple of hundred for it at the time though I see now they're on e-bay for less than $100.

[nick parkes]

Thank you for the replies fellas. I use an oil stone to sharpen my chisels at work and also for my broadheads, but still find its really only good for touching up a near sharp edge. I've been using a panel beaters or bog file for a while on really dull blades but have had mixed results, which I think is dependent on the hardness of the steel. But when it works it works really well. I'm not fussed about the electrics eventually wearing the knives out cos my filleting and hunting knives are cheap shchit! Probably haven't spent more than 20$ on a knife, except for a handful of scan pan chefs knives which might have been a little more. Just getting sick of wasting time sharpening knives and im after something to take a dull blade to new in a flash. How often have you had to change the belts in yours, Shanu?

[Waldo]

Hey Nick, have you had a look at the Piranta Havelon? I carry one of those plus a fixed blade with me and find the Havelon really good and do most of my work with it, you just need to remember not to put too much pressure (well OK no pressure) on the blade, amazing what you can do with them though.

Cheers,

Waldo

[Shanu]

How often have you had to change the belts in yours, Shanu?

Rarely Nick, I use mine for 3 knives 3 or 4 times a week & buy new belts on average about every 5 or 6 months.

Sooner if I get lazy or don't concentrate enough on what I'm doing & don't hold the knives in the guide correctly, sometimes they catch & it chews the belts out.

I use only Swibo or F.Dick & sharpen with the medium roughness belts (fine, medium & coarse available) and can do up 3 knives from blunt to good in a few minutes.

Keeping the blades cool while sharpening I find important, if they get too hot it can bugger the knife up.

I do one run on each side of the blade then dip in water, wipe with towel another run, water, towel etc.

I used to just use a belt sander held in a vice using water to keep the blades cool before I bought the KE-280.

That works well too but the 280 is better as it has the guides to keep the blade at the same angle each run.

[smallfry]

Hey Nick,

I've got a KE-280 also. Best knife sharpener I've ever had & I've tried a lot. Use it on all my knives with ease. Would recommend if you are in the market but not a cheap option.

[nick parkes]

Hey dudes, thanks for your replies. I did some more reading on them and on other brands. I ended up ordering a chefs choice 120 model delivered for 228$. A fair bit cheaper than the nireys and they got an average of nearly 5 stars from about 50 reviews. Hoping it will deliver what it promised! I'm also going to scrap some of my filleting knives as I think they're so cheap they struggle to get sharp and hold an edge. I realised this after a bait knife in the boat made by Mitchell engineering has stayed pretty sharp after 6 months of chopping through boney baits regularly. Now they are also a pretty cheap knife to buy ( under 20$ inc shipping) but I reckon the steel is of much better quality than the price tag suggests. Worth checking out on eBay and they make quite a few different styles.

[gafloss]

Let us know how the sharpener goes, Nick.

[nick parkes]

Will do Geoff.

[nick parkes]

The chefs choice turned up in the mail Wednesday, and I reckon it's pretty damn good! I tested a lot of different knives on it, and as long as the blade isn't too damaged it will get it extremely sharp. As for razor sharp? I think that depends on the quality of the steel. The Mitchell knife I ordered came fairly sharp, but after running it through the machine it is pretty much razor sharp and will shave hair off my arm. Some other mid priced knives went from blunt to the point I could run a finger up and down the blade with reasonable pressure, to super sharp in about 30 seconds. The cheap filleting knives came up very sharp, not quite as sharp as the others but plenty sharp for filleting fish. I've got some reasonably good quality chefs knives packed away in storage as we're between houses for 6 weeks, but I'm confident they'll sharpen up to a near razor edge too. I reckon it will sharpen knives to as sharp as the quality of steel will allow. Highly recommend one for the man cave as it make sharpening knives a 30 second job, no matter how blunt the knife is.