09-03-2020, 07:44 AM
"Professional" is just another marketing adjective. I'm sure the products from those companies, that are their "professional" product are really nicely made and include all of the toys.
But, to echo what Edge Pal said, you can't really sharpen manually and make much money. There are guys doing it. Over on the old knife forums site, there was a retired guy with the handle "Old Navy". He sharpened mostly high end kitchen knives using Japanese water stones. He got a reputation for doing it and had clients that wanted him to do the manual method because it had more appeal to them for their expensive Japanese knives.
I've seen a craigslist ad or two with people advertising that they use an EdgePro or something similar. Or even by hand. I've done a good handful of average ultra, ultra dull blades by hand. Several for restaurants. It is tiresome thankless work. Power tools are where it's at for sharpening the average blade. With an angle guide, and some care, I think you can do a very nice job with a power tool. At the risk of over using my videos... here's a nice look at a blade I sharpened using the Kalamazoo 1SM and the KalyRest. As I say in the video. I'm pretty satisfied with the precision of the job I did on this blade.
I guess it all depends upon what you want to achieve. If you want to cater to higher end knife customers with a manual method, you probably could do that. The hard part is finding those people that are willing to pay higher end sharpening rates for a manual method. Also taking on the risk of damaging higher end blades during sharpening.
You could certainly sharpen everything manually with one of these systems, but your money earned versus your time would be very, very low compared to using a belt sander or similar.
Brian.
But, to echo what Edge Pal said, you can't really sharpen manually and make much money. There are guys doing it. Over on the old knife forums site, there was a retired guy with the handle "Old Navy". He sharpened mostly high end kitchen knives using Japanese water stones. He got a reputation for doing it and had clients that wanted him to do the manual method because it had more appeal to them for their expensive Japanese knives.
I've seen a craigslist ad or two with people advertising that they use an EdgePro or something similar. Or even by hand. I've done a good handful of average ultra, ultra dull blades by hand. Several for restaurants. It is tiresome thankless work. Power tools are where it's at for sharpening the average blade. With an angle guide, and some care, I think you can do a very nice job with a power tool. At the risk of over using my videos... here's a nice look at a blade I sharpened using the Kalamazoo 1SM and the KalyRest. As I say in the video. I'm pretty satisfied with the precision of the job I did on this blade.
I guess it all depends upon what you want to achieve. If you want to cater to higher end knife customers with a manual method, you probably could do that. The hard part is finding those people that are willing to pay higher end sharpening rates for a manual method. Also taking on the risk of damaging higher end blades during sharpening.
You could certainly sharpen everything manually with one of these systems, but your money earned versus your time would be very, very low compared to using a belt sander or similar.
Brian.