Set of 2 Minosharp Guide Rails

Just recieved my miniSharp sharpening guides, they are just what I wanted.The ability to guarantee a consistent angle on the edges of my kitchen knives, without any requirement of expertise on my part. Thus ensuring ease of polishing on my leather strop, to keep a keen edge the full length of the blade.Used in conjunction with my Trend 300/1000grit diamond whetsone and my Lavoda suede/fine leather strop, both also aquired on Amazon, I can easily achieve a consistant razor keen edge along the length of my kitchen, and my gardening, blades.Maybe because I use a clean metal whetstone with diamond polishing surface, I have absolutely no issues with 'gunk' getting between my blade and the plastic grips of the guides, so no issues with my precious blades being scratched.After each use, I take a microfibre cloth and draw it through the plastic grips inside the guide, just to be on the safe side.On which note: I set up my leather strop beside my whetstone on which to reciprocate the blade & guide, thus avoiding the possible twin issues of grinding the miniSharp guide on the whetstone at the same time as the edge on my blades, or any swarf resulting from this contaminating the surface of my whetstone, avoiding potentially causing blemishes on my blades.I found that by having the surface of my whetstone a 'hair' higher than my strop, and the strop slightly seperated from the stone, I avoid my blade edge damaging the strop, or grains of leather finding their way, while I'm working, onto the whetstone.The leather strop simply polishing the stainless surface finish of the guide.I do a final - maintainance polish of my edges with my double sided suede/fine leather strop, creating an ultrafine mirror shine.I used the smaller guide to aid sharpening a 150mm knife with a 20mm wide blade.Results are excellent, with no great effort on my part, I can now shave the hairs off the back of my hand with either knife, slice ripe strawberries and raw carrot translucent wafer thin.I could not ask for any better than that.

As far as I know, MinoSharp and Global are the same company. This is the set of guide rails recommended for Global knifes. Of course, there's nothing special about these other than the fact that they provide the same sharpening angle as the knives' original edge. Given that the whole point of a guide rail is to keep the sharpening angle consistent, this is a good thing.I bought these rails to go with my set of Global knives. I use them with a Kirameki waterstone (bought from Japan). I've also used the set for other knives, from small pocket knives to large fixed blade utility knives.These guide rails are made of high quality 18/8 (304) stainless steel. The inside is lined with a grippy material that feels more like plastic than rubber but provides enough friction to keep the guide rail well in place. The rail is springy enough to stay in place; you need to be careful your hands don't slip when you slide the rail on or off. Sliding the rail on is easiest from tip of the blade.The large rail is a good size for larger kitchen knives; I use it on the Global G-2, G-3 and GS-5. The smaller rail works well for smaller knives and I have used it on the Global GS-11, GSF-49 and GSF-46 (although the latter is perhaps a little on the small side for the rail.)I have found just two small problems with the rails, and neither is specific to this set. First, the metal will rub on the waterstone. While this doesn't harm the rails, it does leave a mark on the stone and (presumably) causes unnecessary wear. Secondly, on small blades or those with a curved spine, clipping the rail against the spine means it will not align with the edge. I can solve this by aligning the rail with the edge instead of the spine, but then it clips a little less securely.I've had this set for about 2.5 years and it's still as good as new.If you have a quality set of knives and a waterstone, and you'd rather use a guide than sharpen free-hand, then this is the set to get.

I bought a knife sharpening kit but the guide included with that was no good for smaller knives. The small one in this kit is perfect for that and both are much better quality than my old one.Very pleased with this.

These left marks where they fit to the blade which are now permanent.

So when I purchased this, in the back of my mind was "how do you stop the surface of the sharpening stone wearing away the side of the guide, which ultimately changes the angle.The answer, Nothing! I've used it on a couple of knives and a Faithfully 6000 grit diamond sharpening block. More material came off the guide than the knife so, as I feared, I've got a nice flat on the side of the guide and as a consequence, the angle changes. Maybe I'm using it incorrectly but the only way I can see this working is if the grinding surface is recessed to a level where only the blade comes into contact and the guide is not abraded. Something like a fine grit sandpaper stuck to a sheet of glass, so the guide rests on the glass and the blade on the sandpaper. Mine is consigned to the back of the draw.

Pros: A great teaching aid, these will teach you what angle to sharpen at. They are a good price if they are too tight they can be opened up a little using the right tools.Cons: They don't have anything to prevent them from wearing down.

Depending on the width of the knife depends on the angle you get but as we a a whole are not great at using a whetstone then it is the next best option, we'll in my opinion anyway.I will keep trying to improve on a whetstone but in the meantime I will try these on my cheaper knives and a marker on my Japanese ones.

Great product, really easy to use,