Work Sharp Blade Grinder Attachment for Ken Onion Edition MK.1 Knife and Tool Sharpener (WSSAKO81112)

Edit - I've had this attachment 4 years and it's still working perfectly, as well as the original Ken Onion motor that drives the belts. I'd use a flapper wheel on a hand held grinder for mower blades and axes as they are cheaper and faster for heavy duty blades, and you won't wear out your belts as fast. I use this for everything else from heavy duty pocketknives to my kitchen knives.I'd give this a 4.7 out of 5 stars...almost perfect.I've sharpened knives for 43 years on various types of stones and sharpening systems and I can get a crazy sharp edge already on just a stone, but I wanted to try this out and watched tons of videos including a couple dozen by a guy that works for Work Sharp, which were great videos.Edit - I re-read my review and I wanted to add that although polishing a blade with the highest grit belt may technically be a sharper blade, staying down one belt grit works better, and here's why. With a highly polished blade, there isn't any kind of tearing action. Think about a serrated blade. They cut well through meat and other objects with the serrations. With a non-serrated blade such as a chef's knife, the slightly lower grit blade will leave micro-serrations and make cutting through meat and other items easier as the micro-serrations tear versus sliding across. Test this with a piece of newspaper or magazine paper. Try cutting with a highly polished blade, then again with the next lower grit belt and you'll see the difference.The main things you need to know are:1) The motor is designed to allow you to lock it in the ON position when using the blade grinding attachment. Just don't use a ton of pressure of you can slow the motor and make it run hotter...plus putting a lot of pressure on a belt grinder isn't the best way to use it and you'll remove a ton of material that you probably don't want to.2) Once you get the blade onto the Reference Plate, pick up the blade and put it back on the reference plate a few times to make sure you're keeping the blade at the correct angle before going up to the belt to start working on the edge. When you first start using this, it is easy to accidentally put a slight twist on the blade when picking it up off the reference plate so the edge isn't against the belt at the angle you started out at. Tapping the reference plate a few times to ensure you're not accidentally changing the angle will give you a better and more consistent edge.3) Pull at a steady rate of about 1 inch per second - so an 8 inch knife should take about 8 seconds to go across the belt from end to end.4) If your blade has a curve, rotate the blade as you go across the belt so the surface being sharpened is at a 90 degree angle to the belt.5) When you are getting near the point/tip of the blade, lift up the blade just as the tip of the blade reaches the middle of the belt to avoid rounding the tip.Pro's"1) This is a quick way to sharpen a blade better than many people can do on a stone without some measure of skill.2) The initial abrasiveness of the belts wear away quickly, but the belts still sharpen (although slightly slower) for a LONG time. These are quality belts that will last much longer than many people think...don't throw away the belt. Keep using them until they are obviously not sharpening at all...then you can get some jewelers rogue and put on the belt and you have a spare high grit belt.Con's"I've sharpened for 43 years on stones and such, and I wasn't 100% happy with the Work Sharp Ken Onion Edition sharpening system because even with a few hours of practice, it would not give me results that I wanted and couldn't surpass using a stone...although after 43 years on stones, I'd say I have enough experience that it would be hard to surpass. So when I bought that Ken Onion edition sharpening system, I also bought this Blade Grinding Attachment. I absolutely love it. There are only two things I'd like to list as a CON.1) The default Ken Onion Edition sharpening system just snaps on and rotates and it is locked into place and ready to go. This Blade Grinder Attachment snaps on just the same, but there is an extra reverse screw wheel that holds the belt in place (officially called the "Hub Fastener" and it would be nice if the attachment could just easily snap on as the Ken Onion Edition does without having to manually add this "Hub Fastener". I've used the attachment and thought I had the fastener tight, and after a minute or two it came flying off and since I was working outside on my deck and it was spinning like a top when it came off, I immediately saw a potential to lose this and that would make the attachment worthless.2) The angle adjustment is easy to work and set, but it would be better if the angle was adjustable where you could use the reference plate to rest the blade on and have the belt at the angle you set without having to pick up the blade. and move it up to the belt. This doesn't matter to me specifically since I've been sharpening and such for 43 years and I'm used to keeping a steady angle, but for novice sharpeners, it would be beneficial. This would introduce the ability to scratch a knife, but to avoid this you could add a piece of leather to the plate, or a piece of felt.Overview - I'd buy this again, yes, and this is a good product, but I think the attachment needs a minor redesign to make it absolutely perfect, even for for amateurs.Lastly, this Work Sharp Blade Grinding Attachment (just under $70 at time of purchase) was a good investment for me. The belts are wider and longer than the default Work Sharp Ken Onion Edition so you have the ability to remove more material before the belts wear out, and you can also do things like mower blades and axes and cleavers easily and quickly on this attachment. Since I wasn't 100% thrilled with the way the belts were removing material with the default knife & tool sharpener, I have been sharpening blades by hand using a stone and then using this blade grinding attachment with the 3,000 and 12,000 grit equivalent belts. I use the X4 (3,000 grit) and make a couple of very light pressure passes to get the stropping effect, then use the 12,000 grit polishing belt to get that mirror edge finish just because I'm OCD about my blades. Most people use a grinder of grinding wheel to sharpen their mower blades and that takes away a lot of metal and makes keeping the blades balanced a bit more difficult. Using the 220 grit belt removes very little metal compared to a grinder and makes keeping balanced mower blades much easier, and removing less metal means your mower blades will last longer. That's not a big deal for most people, but if you mow professionally, this is probably going to be your best bet for keeping your mower blades in top notch shape versus other normal mower blade sharpening options, as well as extend the life of your mower blades.

Very well made with good instructions. This sharpener takes a bit of practice to sharpen knives consistently but the result is very sharp knives in a short time!

Quick version: Not a bladesmith or professional sharpener by any means but man does this attachment get results. In short, if you already have a Work Sharp, this is a must to take sharpening your blades to the next level. The only drawback is that for amateurs, there is a bit of a learning curve. You need to have a steady hand and have good muscle memory to float the blade parallel to the reference surface. I suggest doing 10-15 minutes of "dry-runs" before starting with garden shears, scissors, less critical blades first before working your way to axes or pocket and kitchen knives. Make sure you can hold that blade level to the reference plate when holding the blade in either your left or right hand.For a year I thought I didn't need this attachment as I already had the base model of the Work Sharp Ken Onion Edition with the adjustable edge guide. After reading reviews I decided to take a chance and boy was I wrong. After a bit of getting used to, I'd highly recommend this blade grinder attachment to anyone at home person with lots of blades to sharpen.Things I love:- Super quick attach and detach, and it's very easy to micro adjust each time you swap belts to center it on the pulleys.- Stability. As long as you have a flat surface, this thing is planted. Even once the machine is in auto-run mode it doesn't walk around the table or vibrate excessively. I've even used on the tailgate of my truck while it was straddling the ridges/valleys of my tailgate liner, no issues whatsoever. Base of the grinder attachment is machined to sit nice and level with no wobble in reference to the tool base.- 1"x18" belts as opposed to the 3/4"x12" belts are a stark contrast in the feel of the machine while sharpening. As an amateur, it give me more confidence and stability in holding the blade angle when there's more belt-width.- Quick belt changes. This is subjective but to me it feels easier and quicker to swap belts on the grinder attachment as opposed to the cassette on the standard edge guide. Much easier on/off movement thanks to the simple tensioning wheel that has a twist lock built-in.- Obviously, it produces great edges for your blades. Great adjustability as well. The belts work very well and last long for their size, you don't need much downward pressure to sharpen your blades. Don't be wary of your belts when they lose their factory grit and start feeling smooth, they still work. Judge the life of your belt based on the burrs your are creating while sharpening and the amount of passes it's taking to create that burr.Things I don't like:- Price, it's an expensive attachment to and already expensive machine.- Unless I'm doing something wrong, the attachment doesn't "lock-in" to a set position like the cassette does. When you lift the tool up by the handle, the grinding attachment can still freely swivel and swing.- The belt path is pretty narrow at the point where you screw in thumbscrew to the tool. Always want to start your machine slow to adjust your belts to make sure they're centered before speeding up to your sharpening speed. Otherwise I can see you fraying edges rather quickly.- For amateurs, there is a learning curve with this. Do your practice before attempting your first blade. I practiced going from the reference surface to the belt and then back to the reference surface to check if I was still level for about 5 minutes. For the next 10 minutes I rotated between holding the blade in my left/right hand and mimicked the motion of drawing the blade across the belt while floating it above the belt. As an amateur, I think doing this little bit of practice gave me much better results as opposed to diving right in. Even still I started with hedge shears and garden snippers before moving to scissors, machete, hatchet/axe. It was so tempting to jump to my hunting/pocket knives as well as my kitchen knives straight away but I'm glad I didn't. I'm glad I had some practice under my belt before I moved into the blades with the finest edges.

I don’t write many reviews, but this deserves one. I’m a huge perfectionist and enjoy getting things as good as possible. I’ve been using a Wicked Edge pro pack 3 for years now and it works amazing. The results come at the cost of spending significant time sharpening though, sometimes over an hour on one knife. The Ken Onion Edition Worksharp with the grinder attachment caught my eye a few weekends back and I started watching videos. It looked very nice, but I was curious how close it would be to the results I got from my WE. I can now confirm that this sharpener is AMAZING. I can get a blade to 98% of what I can do with a WE in maybe 10 mins VS 45 mins to an hour on the WE. The edge is every bit as sharp, smooth and almost as reflective. What puts this over the top is how easy it is to sharpen everything else. I sharpened 6 pairs of scissors I had laying around, just because it was so quick and easy. Each pair took maybe 2 mins and they were all razor sharp when I was done. It does make a decent mess between the belt dust and metal shavings and I can see after only a few uses that purchasing more belts is going to be an absolute necessity, but these are very minor complaints considering the benefits. If you’re on the fence or are concerned that it won’t get your blades sharp enough, rest easy. I’m as picky as they come and I have zero complaints on the edge I can get with this in only a few minutes. Hope this helps!