I spent more than 10 hours sharpening steak knives, chef’s knives, an ax, a pair of scissors, mini multi-tools, and a woodworking chisel. In this post, I show you how to use the Lansky and how a sharp blade makes a world of difference. If you’re not convinced by the end of this post that a Lansky is a great tool, I’ll abstain from eating for 60 minutes.
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Lansky Deluxe 5-Stone Knife Sharpener
Model: Dlx 5 Stone System
GTIN: 00080999041000
The Lansky Deluxe 5-stone blade sharpening kit is an excellent tool for keeping your knives sharp.
TL;DR
Sharpens really well.
The Lansky's not my favorite knife sharpener, but it gives a really good edge.
The honing stones handle a beating.
I abused the honing stones, and yet, they kept on sharpening.
In the Box
Note: I received the 35-year anniversary edition of Lansky. There are slight cosmetic differences, but what I review and what you buy are the same thing.
Plastic storage case.
Knife clamp with angle selector.
Five guide rods.
Honing oil.
Five sharpening stones:
Black, 70 grit, extra coarse.
Red, 120 grit, coarse.
Green, 280 grit, medium.
Blue, 600 grit, fine.
Yellow, 1000 grit, ultra fine.
Extra honing stone wingnut.
Extra front screw for clamp.
Only Standard Honing Stones
The Deluxe 5-stone kit doesn’t come with half-round or triangle honing stones, used for sharpening serrated blades. It comes with five flat-honing stones. You can only use it for sharpening smooth-edged blades.
Product Attributes
Dimensions: 10.25 x 9.75 x 1.5 inches
Weight: 0.76 Kg
Grits: Extra Coarse, Medium, Fine, Ultra Fine
Material/s: aluminum, ceramic, plastic.
How to Use
Before You Start
Before using the Lansky, know the following:
The Lansky doesn’t do well on the long blades. There’s a big difference in the sharpening angle from one end of the edge to the other.
This doesn’t bother me, but it’s something to keep in mind.
Oil the honing stones before and during use.
The Lansky Deluxe kit comes with honing oil. If you run out, use mineral oil (medicinal liquid paraffin).
The sharpening angle is a guideline. It’s not perfect. The blade’s width and length determine the actual angle.
When you sharpen a knife for the first time, mark the Lansky’s position on the knife, while it’s clamped. The next time you sharpen the knife, you won’t have to worry about having to create a new edge from scratch.
Tighten the clamp screw with a pair of pliers. Your fingers won’t do a good enough job.
Tighten the honing stone rod extensions with a pair of pliers, or else they keep coming loose.
It’s a dirty job. Have something handy to clean your hands with.
Wear gloves if you don’t like cutting your hands.
Directions
Attach the guide rods to the honing stones.
Use a pair of pliers. If the guide rod isn’t tight, it moves around, causing mild frustration.
Make sure the knife clamp bolts are loose.
Slide the knife into the knife clamp slot.
If the blade’s wide, don’t use the slot. Seat the knife against the Phillips screw.
Tighten the Phillips screw.
Tighten the red screw.
Use a pair of pliers to tighten it.
Drip oil onto the honing stones. Rub it into the stones with your finger.
The oil keeps the stones lubricated AND keeps them from clogging.
Start with the 70-grit stone (if the cutting edge is in a bad condition), working your way up to the 1000-grit.
The 70 grit is the roughest stone. If the blade isn’t too bad, you can start with a smoother stone.
Slide the guide rod into one of Lansky’s angle slots.
Lay the honing stone on the blade’s edge.
Applying pressure, push the stone up and sideways, toward the clamp’s center. Cover one to two inches.
Once the edge is sharp, remove the honing stone and guide rod.
Flip the whole thing over.
On the other side, slide the guide rod into one of Lansky’s angle slots.
Lay the honing stone on the blade’s edge.
Applying pressure, push the stone up and sideways, toward the clamp’s center. Cover one to two inches.
When you’re finished with the last honing stone, loosen the screws and remove the knife.
Wash the knife and start cutting.
Likes
There’s much to like about the Lansky sharpener.
Saves Time
It’s a truism that a sharp knife works faster than a dull knife. I don’t need to prove this. It’s a vanilla fact. How much time do you waste on cutting with a sub-par cutting edge? Run a test using a blunt knife and a sharpened knife. Cut various items with both and note the time difference. You’d be surprised at how much time a dull blade costs you.
Saves Energy
Maybe you’re one of those common-sense types who knows that the wife is the weaker vessel, and therefore needs all the help she can get. Bogging down her life with blunt blades is NOT how to show love. A sharp-edged knife makes it much easier to prep food, and if your wife’s making the food, it’s important to help her in her endeavors. If you make the food and you prefer working with a blunt blade, well, there’s not much I can do to help. But common sense says that this is one good reason to regularly sharpen the blades in your home. The Lansky will help with that.
Takes a Beating
The Lansky truly shines in this department.
I didn’t expect the Lansky’s honing stones to last long. As mentioned earlier, I didn’t use the Lansky, I abused it. I read the manual, snorted at their directions, and did my own thing. The Lansky took the beating like a champ. After more than ten hours of assault, the honing stones are fine. They’re like Rocky Balboa. A few scratches here and there, but ready for another round.
Dislikes
There are a few things I dislike about the Lansky sharpener.
The tightening knob is impossible to tighten properly by hand.
Every time you sharpen a blade, you have to reset the angle.
A tool like the Work Sharp Ken Onion allows you to refresh a blade. The same can be said for the Warthog A4. That's because these tools conform to the existing blade's shape. This is not the case with the Lansky. The Lansky forces you to reshape the blade with every sharpening session.
The sharpening angle is inconsistent.
Unlike the Work Sharp Ken Onion and Warthog A4, the fixed position of the blade in the Lansky causes the blade to have a fluid angle across the length of the blade. Whereas the Work Sharp and Warthog allows the blade to make contact at the correct angle along the length of the blade, the Lansky does not allow for this. That means, the longer the blade you're sharpening, the more inconsistent the sharpening angle.
Sharpening
I sharpened 16 blades for this test.
Sharpening Angles
The Lansky has four sharpening angles.
17 degrees.
Recommended for razor blades, fillet knives, and similar tools.
20 degrees.
Recommended for kitchen cutlery and slicing knives.
25 degrees.
Recommended for hunting and outdoor knives.
30 degrees.
Recommended for cardboard, wire and carpet cutting knives, and other heavy-duty blades.
Inaccurate Angles
Lansky’s angles aren’t accurate. Two factors determine the sharpening angle. These are:
- The blade’s width.
- The blade’s placement inside the knife clamp.
I’m no mathematician, but let me explain the hypotenuse concept as best I can.
The Lansky, with the honing stone and guide rod in place and resting on the knife, creates a triangle. They call one side of that triangle, the one represented by the honing stone, the hypotenuse. The hypotenuse is the longest side of a right-angled triangle, opposite the right angle.
On the Lansky, the hypotenuse is the length from the knife’s edge to the edge of the hole through which you stick the honing stone extension. The further you move the edge, or the wider the blade, the longer the hypotenuse becomes. This changes the sharpening angle.
To further complicate things, the Lansky struggles to accommodate a long blade. There’s a big difference between the honing angle closest to the knife clamp, and the honing angle at the point farthest from the clamp. This shows best on longer blades.
But you won’t mind these shortcomings once you see the difference a sharp blade makes.
Sharpening Grit
The Lansky Deluxe comes with five stones. Use the coarsest stone (70 grit) for rough edges. Use the finest stone (1000 grit) for finishing an edge.
70 grit.
Extra coarse.
Black handle.
120 grit.
Coarse.
Red handle.
280 grit.
Medium.
Green handle.
600 grit.
Fine.
Blue handle.
1000 grit.
Ultra fine.
Yellow handle.
Steak Knife
I sharpened a set of cheap steak knives, which the Lansky is perfect for. I started with the 70 grit, although I could have started with a finer grit. These knives aren’t too dull. I opted for Lansky’s 20-degree angle. It took 34 minutes to sharpen the steak knife.
70 grit – 15 minutes.
120 grit – 6 minutes.
280 grit – 3 minutes.
600 grit – 5 minutes.
1000 grit – 5 minutes.
Chef’s Knife
I found a monstrous chef’s knife in the kitchen, which took longer to sharpen than the ax head. This was surprising. I started with the 70 grit and used Lansky’s 20-degree angle. It took 85 minutes to sharpen the chef’s knife.
70 grit – 76 minutes.
120 grit – 3 minutes.
280 grit – 2 minutes.
600 grit – 2 minutes.
1000 grit – 2 minutes.
Meat Cleaver
This was an easy operation. The Lansky did a fine job of sharpening the cleaver’s edge. The meat cleaver’s blade doesn’t have much curve. The straighter the edge, the better the Lansky works. It took 26 minutes to sharpen the meat cleaver.
70 grit – 18 minutes.
120 grit – 2 minutes.
280 grit – 2 minutes.
600 grit – 2 minutes.
1000 grit – 2 minutes.
Pair of Scissors
I had to stretch my imagination for this one. The Lansky is not made for sharpening scissors. I managed to do it only by using a vice grip to secure the scissors to the Lansky. The scissor’s blade protruded far beyond the Lansky clamp. I had to hold a finger to the blade while honing, to cut vibration.
It took about ten minutes.
Ax Head
You can sharpen an ax head with the Lansky 5-stone Deluxe. It takes imagination, but it’s doable. You’ll need something to secure the Lansky’s two parts to the ax head with. I used a vice grip, but cable ties should work too. The ax’s cutting edge had an original angle in the 20-degree range. It was too sharp. I changed it to 25 degrees. You could increase it to 30 degrees and give it a compound bevel. I did not prep the ax with a grinder or sanding belt. I took to it with the 70 grit honing stone. It took 72 minutes to sharpen the ax head. The edge was in a bad state, so I made the 70 grit stone sweat.
70 grit – 55 minutes.
120 grit – 6 minutes.
280 grit – 5 minutes.
600 grit – 2 minutes.
1000 grit – 4 minutes.
Serrated Blade
The Lansky Deluxe 5-stone doesn’t come with a honing stone for serrated blades. If you want to sharpen serrated blades, you need one of Lansky’s special sharpening stones. They have a triangle stone, as well as a semi-round stone.
Chisel
Like with the ax, it takes imagination to sharpen a chisel. I secured the Lansky clamp to a 0,787in (20mm) chisel with a vice grip and sharpened it to 30 degrees. I opted for a single bevel, but you could give it a double bevel, with 25- and 30-degree angles. I did not prepare the chisel beforehand. I only used the Lansky.
It took 355 minutes (yes, 5.9 hours) to sharpen the chisel. The edge was in a bad state, so the 70 grit stone worked overtime. This was a murderous undertaking. It took Shawshank Redemption and some Netflix episodes to get me through the tedium. I do not recommend using the Lansky for heavy-duty chisel sharpening. Start with a bench grinder.
70 grit – 225 minutes.
120 grit – 88 minutes.
280 grit – 32 minutes.
600 grit – 5 minutes.
1000 grit – 5 minutes.
Multi-Tool
I sharpened the blades of a Leatherman Micra and a Gerber Mini, both tiny multi-tools. It took ten to 15 minutes to sharpen each of these blades. It was a breeze since the blades are small. Apologies for the blurry pics. I was impatient. Wanted to get the article finished and delivered to your door.
Don’t buy a Gerber mini multi-tool, by the way. The built-in pair of pliers is weak.
It took ten to 15 minutes to sharpen each of these blades. It was a breeze since the blades are small. Apologies for the blurry pics. I was impatient. Wanted to get the article finished and delivered to your door.
Cutting Tests
I made a video showing the difference a sharp blade makes in cutting various items. I used only two steak knives and two chef’s knives. One of each was blunt. I sharpened the other two with the Lansky.
My sincere apologies to videographers everywhere, for the terrible video. I hope to improve upon my video-making skills.
Honing Oil
I asked Lansky about this and they sent me a safety data sheet. Click here to download a PDF version of it. According to the safety data sheet, the honing oil is a “Highly Refined Petroleum Base Oil”.
Come to think of it, I once swallowed a mouthful of hydraulic oil. Aside from the disgusting taste, it caused me no harm. But I’m not condoning your drinking of oil. Don’t do it.
The SDS contains the following general precautionary statements:
Keep out of reach of children.
Read the label before use.
Wash skin thoroughly after handling.
IF SWALLOWED: Rinse mouth. Do NOT induce vomiting.
IF IN EYES: Rinse cautiously with water for several minutes. Remove contact lenses, if present and easy to do. Continue rinsing.
Get medical advice/attention if you feel unwell.
Warranty
I emailed Lansky for warranty info. They responded with a PDF document outlining their Limited Lifetime Product Warranty.
Here it is, verbatim:
Warranty: Lansky warranties this item to be free from defects in material and workmanship for the life of this tool. Damages caused by alteration, misuse, or abuse are not covered by this guarantee. Lansky disclaims any responsibility for incidental or consequential damages.
European Union Warranty: Lansky warranties this item to be free from defects in material and workmanship for the life of this tool. Damages caused by alteration, misuse or abuse are not covered by this guarantee.
Lansky disclaims any responsibility for incidental or consequential damages. This guarantee is in addition to and does not affect your statutory rights with respect to faulty goods.
If your product has a manufacturer’s defect which is covered by this guarantee, we will repair or replace it (at our option). Return the item directly to us at:
Lansky Warranty Center
10 Aqua Lane, Tonawanda, NY 14150 U.S.A
Here is a link to download a PDF version of Lansky’s warranty.