On my hunt for knife sharpeners around the world I came across a gentleman on Etsy by the name of Zeljko Mihanovi. He runs a carpentry shop out of his house and makes an assortment of handcrafted items. One of those items just so happens to be a knife sharpener, that's not something you see very often. The sharpener is similar to other designs I've seen by folks who've made their own. Zeljko says these do pretty well for him and he's shipped them to many countries around the world from his home in Croatia. This sharpener is quite unique and it's a creative take on what we typical think of when we hear guided knife sharpener.
Oddly the sharpener doesn't have a name. I asked, and it's not something that he's put any thought into. Which is true, you don't need a fancy name to sell a product. Just a well built product, and the rest will happen. It just causes issues when people want to ask for it by name. The sharpener is made from different types of wood. Most often Walnut, Maple and Oak. The dark parts are made of thermally treated Maple. It's well finished and attention was paid to all the edges, you can tell he does this for a living. This unit in particular is capable of sharpening from 10-22° with some models capable of up to 30°. Other than being made of wood it shares a lot of similarities to other sharpening systems on the market. It features an angle guide with a way to adjust your height, a guide rod that holds sharpening stones, and a place to clamp your knife in place.
The system comes with two stones, a 400 grit and 1000 grit diamond, which are attached on opposite sides of the stone holder. These stones will do fine for keeping an edge sharp but not for correcting any damage. The beautiful thing with this system is that it supports the universal 6 inch stones that are widely available everywhere. If your not overly rough with your kitchen or larger sporting knives the included stones should work fine until you invest in some. For testing purposes I sharpened only kitchen knives. I do have some larger hunting knives but felt this systems wheelhouse is those of the kitchen variety. So I grabbed what been needing a touch up and went to work seeing how this thing performs.
Clamping your knife down is done via the metal plate on the blade table. The clamp is tightened and loosened via a knob under the table. It's very intuitive with a righty tighty/lefty loosy motion and there's plenty of clearance for your hand to turn the knob. Once clamped I want to set the angle needed to sharpen this blade, I had used a previous system to set the angle to 20°. I brought out the angle gauge because I wanted to see if there was any angle variance between the blade, and what the angle gauge says it is. I also grabbed a sharpie to make sure I did indeed have everything set correctly. There's a lot that can be said about something as simple as marking your edge, but it saves you a lot of time and headache. I zero'd out the angel cube on the table and went about finding my previous angle, looks like 21° with the blade on the table meets my correct angle. Changing angle on this sharpener is done by loosening a wing nut, sliding the bolt out and putting it in the hole that corresponds to your desired angle.
I'm going to start off with the 400 grit and work this side till I get a burr, and then will flip and repeat on the reverse. The diamonds feel like they're of decent quality and working up a burr was relatively easy, course these kitchen knives aren't high end either. Using the stone carrier, it feels fluid and comfortable in the hand. I did experience some rolling of the stone arm at first, but I corrected it easily. Having used KME, Edge Pro etc the stone arms feel very different, and have a different center of gravity type thing. This stone carrier may be a little top heavy due to its double sided design, but I wouldn't call it a negative. I moved onto the 1000 grit to start polishing my edge, and hopefully make this edge as keen as it was previously. Flipping the knife back and forth without having a rotating mechanism is a little cumbersome. Constantly needing to tighten and loosen the clamp over and over can get a little monotonous. I do feel the blade is quite secure in the clamp though and didn't experience any unwanted wiggle during sharpening. Coming off the 1000 grit I felt it wasn't super sharp, probably a result of a burr leftover from sharpening. I have a BeaverCraft strop loaded with chromium oxide, and gave it a few passes to get the ede shaving sharp.
I've used this nifty sharpener on a variety of kitchen cutlery, and it's done quite well. It's well built, easy to use, and operates really smoothly. I'm impressed by the quality of construction, it's a testament to his skills as a craftsman. If your looking for something unique that makes a statement as well as it sharpens, check out this nifty gadget. You can find Zeljko's shop on Etsy under iCade, his eBay username is 2eljk0, or email him at: zeljko.mihanovic@gmail.com
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