GEN3 Guided Knife Sharpening System, Aluminum Alloy

After years of sharpening kitchen knives with one of those electric grinders where you can't see the grinding wheel, much less what grinding angle it's producing, I went looking for a better method. After a good bit of viewing videos of Xarilk sharpeners in use, I decided on the foldable version since it's a good bit cheaper, allows you to set a range of sharpening angles, is easy to fold up and stash, and my sharpening needs are pretty much limited to kitchen knives. I also bought a bundled version that came with 6 additional (metal backed diamond) sharpening stones. Out of the box I found it very easy to assemble. Overall, the construction is impressive, all metal and well-crafted. For best results in setting the angle I would advise getting one of those small digital angle finders (less than $20 on Amazon). Kitchen knives typically have a 20 degree angle on each side which is pretty easy to guesstimate, but it's nice to have a digital protractor's confirmation. Once you've set the angle you can crank through most of your kitchen knives with no further adjustment. The knife clamp is not as slick as the ones on more expensive models but is easy enough to use. It uses 2 recessed set screws that have a hex socket. An Allen wrench is supplied (that fits poorly, so you might want to check your toolbox for a better one). The clamp holds the knife quite firmly and is easy to flip over to do the reverse side of the knife edge. As an amateur at sharpening, I'm fine with using a set screws version rather than the more expensive type of clamp the pros advocate. The sharpening stone is held by a rod inserted through a bearing on the lift mechanism to allow moving the sharpening stone in any direction as needed.. The rod has holders with angled grooves that match the angled ends of the sharpening stones. One holder is spring loaded to make inserting or removing the stones easy. The lift mechanism has 2-parts that allow setting a precise angle for the rod. You first set a rough angle and tighten the bottom half, then use a spinner nut to lift (or drop) the upper half until you get the desired angle (which is where you need a digital angle finder). A second spinner nut locks the setting in place. The knife clamp has a (non-adjustable without buggering its detent) 10 degree elevation which you have to take into account when setting the angle (e.g., for a 20 degree angle you set the stone to add 10 more degrees). That could have been explained better. Depending on the size of the knife, the effective range of angles you can achieve goes from a low of about 14 degrees to a high of about 30.5 degrees by my measure (so the range of the lift mechanism is on the order of 15 degrees). That's fine for my purposes. The directions include a chart of recommended (total) angles for various types of knives that is marginally helpful (it doesn't specify single or double bevel, and the minimum double bevel given the 10 degrees of the clamp is about 28 degrees, which should have been noted somewhere in the directions). If I was in the knife sharpening business I would opt for the more expensive model, but I can recommend this product as easy to use and an excellent choice for basic kitchen knife sharpening needs, perfect for unskilled sharpeners like me.

This is the tool I have been waiting for for most of my life. I'm 75 now. From age 15 to about 40 I struggled with freehand sharpening, never getting truly "expert" at sharpening cooking and fish filet knives, no matter how many Arkansas, or aluminum oxide, or ceramic bench stones I tried. Decent results, but never consistently "really sharp". Then about 25 years ago I bought an Edge Pro Apex. Absolutely changed my results to consistently razor sharp, as about 95% of the blades I did for myself and friends were Japanese chef knifes and ended up in the "never been sharper" category. But the thing they had in common was the totally flat primary bevel from the spine to the start of the secondary bevel. My Edge Pro Apex is still my go-to for Japanese and other larger food prep knives with long, flat primary bevels. I still love ya, Edge Pro! However, things got weird when I started doing more EDC folding knives, especially those with wider, flat areas at the spine that did not taper with the primary bevel. Putting these blades on the Apex, especially with my old, shaky hands meant that I could not hold a constant angle of stone to blade and of course my results suffered. The blade edge (apex) rocked back and forth, up and down, just enough to change the angle of the stone on the blade. Very frustrating. Phase 3 of my sharpening odyssey started a month or so ago. As a low-cost gamble I bought the Xarilc Gen 3 since it could hold the blade of smaller folding knives at a constant angle without my shaky hands rocking the blade angle up or down. Life changing! Now I love ya Xarilc (even if it is a goofy name). Even the cheapo set of three diamond stones are sufficient to get started with. I finish on the 2000 grit diamond plate then go to a 6 micron kangaroo strop. Unbelievably reliable and razor sharp. I just added the six-stone set of Xarilc diamond plates and expect them to continue my good results with the Gen 3. I hope the system holds up for a few more years to get me to the honorable retirement age of 80!

I’m accomplished at freehand sharpening, however this device convinces me that fixed-angle sharpening is the easiest way to reliably, repeatedly produce a razor sharp knife edge, better than electric sharpeners or even skillful hand sharpening. Fixed-angle doesn’t entirely replace hand sharpening, but it’s useful as a supplement to restore bevels that inevitably become sloppy over extended periods of hand sharpening. This device produces razor sharp, near perfect edges every time. It just takes time to set-up, so it doesn’t replace hand sharpening for daily touch-ups. For $85, it’s a good tool. That said, there are a few limitations to my enthusiasm, the first being the gimbal bearing that holds the rod. On mine, the gimbal appears to be made of soft, anodized aluminum rather than steel as (apparently) shown in the Amazon page advertisement. The rod abrades the aluminum and leaves a dark patch on the rod where it traverses through the gimbal bearing, and begins to bind after extended use. The rod itself is not polished, but should be, however you can polish it yourself easily enough with any kind of metal polish. During an extended sharpening session, the rod on mine begins to “drag” through the gimbal bearing, the cause being a build-up of aluminum sludge (the dark patch) accumulating where the rod passes through the gimbal. Polishing the rod and cleaning off the dark accumulation from time to time resolves the problem. One design aspect I really don’t like is the use of a metric, hex-key Allen wrench to tighten the blade holders. The Allen wrench is simple and cheap, but brings the user’s fingers dangerously close to razor sharp edge of the blade with each turn. For tightening the blade holders, a small screwdriver-type bit holder or T-handle for the hex key should be provided to replace the Allen wrench, for safety, even though that might add a couple bucks to the price of the unit. You can provide the same yourself as the user at your own cost. You need a digital angle finder to properly use this unit. They’re cheap enough on Amazon starting at around $20. I use a Kline Tools model that’s a bit more expensive. The scale on the sharpener itself will not alone allow you to precisely set the bevel angle. The instructions that come with the sharpener are rudimentary, however there are several decent YouTube video channels that illustrate how to set the angle on this sharpener. My unit did not come with stop collars, as some early units apparently did, however I found some good split-ring collars on Amazon for about $6.00, so no big problem. The diamond stones provided have a useful life of about 10-15 sharpenings before it becomes reasonable to replace them, however Xarilk has replacement stones available on Amazon that are inexpensive, and there are non-Xarilk options available as well. Diamonds are not forever, especially in the context of sharpening hard Japanese steels (Rockwell 62+) and the new super-steels that are popular now. All three diamond plates on mine showed grit contamination, as did the copper-colored replacement set of 6 stones, also from Xarilk. Most diamond sharpening plates, except possibly the most expensive ones, are rough and contaminated with some large particles at first, and need to be “broken in” before use on anything important. These odd-sized contaminants adhering to the plate surfaces usually wear off after a couple uses. You can see these (or even feel them) as deep scratches when first using the diamond plates. The diamond plates cut super-aggressively at first, then smooth out and cut slower later on. Before using a new plate on something important, sharpen some junk knives first. This is a good sharpener. The price is right. The design is obvious, and you can maintain it yourself as it wears in. The quality of the three stones provided is marginal, but capable of producing a very sharp edge on non-serrated knives. This unit accepts 1”x 6” stones from other manufacturers and the stones can be upgraded with more expensive stones later on, if you’re really concerned about it. It’s not perfect, but we’ll worth the price.

This is my first fixed-angle sharpener, though I’m not new to sharpening. I have a WorkSharp Ken Onion blade grinder and a bunch of diamond stones for freehand sharpening. This system allows you to achieve extremely sharp edges, sharper than I’ve managed with other systems, with a minimal learning curve. It’s not without its flaws as a fixed system, but if you want sharp knives, pair it with some high-quality diamond stones, and you’re set. There are a couple of things I wish were included and offered as a package deal: 1) The angle is infinitely adjustable within its design limits, which is cool, but I doubt most of us care to sharpen to 15.26 degrees. In addition to the adjustable angles, I wish there was a detent system or some way to repeatedly lock into common angles (10, 13, 15, 17, 20, etc.) without needing a digital angle meter. I also think they should offer a complete package ready to go out of the box, including more stones, a digital angle meter, a strop, rod stops, and their new center Y clamp. (Speaking of the center clamp, if you’re doing pocket knives, do yourself a favor and get it ASAP.) That would really make this system 100% ready to go right out of the box. Speaking of stones, I can’t compare them to other stones for fixed-angle sharpeners, but they have worked well enough so far on 8 different knives, all of which are 20CV, M390, and M4. The only minor gripe I have with this item is that a couple of the screws needed adjusting (flip mechanism and angle clamp), which was extremely simple, which is why it’s a gripe. If it’s so simple to fix, why couldn’t it have been done at the factory? But once again, it was very simple and didn’t require any special tools to adjust to my liking. Overall, as I mentioned above, I think this is a great system if you add some higher-quality stones. I’m not really sure what a more expensive sharpener would buy you. I forgot to mention that I had a small issue with the regular clamps that came with it, and Xarilk was extremely responsive and shipped me new clamps. It took a couple of weeks to get, but they took care of me right away.

I got the gen3 kit with the six extra stones. I followed the instructions carefully, and watched some youtube videos. I was able to get a perfect 16 degree grind using a digital level, which is the perfect angle for the S90V benchmade knives i love. After using the 3000 grit stone, I stropped with leather. I now have two benchmade bugouts in S90V that can cut hairs dropped onto the blade. Not just hair whitling sharp. Not just hair popping sharp. Hairs that fall onto the blade are cut by the weight of the hair. I've never had a blade this sharp. I highly recommend in the very least, getting one of their 3000 grit diamond stones and using it last before stropping. That said, their prices for their stones are very reasonable, and I can not argue with the outcome. If you want the best, you can have it.

Edited below after using and upgrading this unit, to aid understanding: I was stoked by the design of this small, but capable sharpener. For an inexpensive sharpener, they did some things very right. The stones are pretty good, designed to take other brands of stones for more grit sizes, and the tower is very adjustable for various sharpening angles from 14 degrees per side (dps), very slicey, up to about 29 dps. That would be like the angle on a log splitter or an axe head. More on that in a minute. There is a set screw for coarse adjustment of the tower height, and a thumb wheel for fine adjustments. The adjustments can be locked down so things don't change during the sharpening. The side-to-side sweep at the blade is enough to cover a blade about 10.5 inches long with a little room to spare. With a little thinking, this is pretty easy to set up and use. I would have preferred speaking with the company before leaving this review, but I cannot find a way to contact them and discuss the shortcomings of this very neatly designed sharpener. Maybe I have overlooked something. Here are some things to take note of that are NOT in the description: 1. There is no finger guard and you are stroking the stone directly at and across the knife blade. Your fingers are vulnerable. Be careful. 2. This sharpener does NOT come with spacers to accommodate thin kitchen knives. 3. The clamp is rather stiff, and the clamping screws set extraordinarily far back from the clamping edge (or rather, very close to the base pivot point.) This makes it necessary to twist the screws very hard to tighten up on a thin blade. You must reef down hard with the very soft metal clamp screws and the small, very soft metal, hex tool it comes with. A formula for imminent failure. I have a pocket hex tool set I've carried at work for almost 20 years and the one size I use most is still going strong, so I doubt it's my bad technique. I've already rounded the included tool because it was so loose in one of the screws and the screw head is now, also rounded. I can no longer clamp a blade in the clamp. 4. The clamp screwheads: Are they metric, or SAE?! Neither tool seems to fit properly. Edit: (they are M4 metric) The threads look to be not full thread diameter.(peak to valley) Better quality screws might solve this issue. Edit to add: the new screws have really shallow threads too. Doh! M4 screws have naturally shallow threads. 5. The clamp does NOT fit thick knives. Large pocket knife blades are too thick for the clamp. Anything over 1/8" thick. Forget sharpening camp knives and hip knives unless they are small and thin. My Kizer Cormorant pocket knife blade is a perfectly snug fit as is my SOG Terminus. They are about 3mm/0.12 inch thick. (just under 1/8 inch) Any knife thicker will get scratched once the protective coating on the clamp wears off, if it can even be coaxed into the clamp. I feel these clamps should be hinged, or cut to accept thicker blades with inserts for thin blades. There are no rubber pads either. 6. As a 'little giant' this sharpener seems to be suited for neither large nor small knives. The clamp is so very wide a standard 3" blade is almost too short to stick out both sides. (not all knives have the tip in the same place) Also, at relative flat (narrow) sharpening angles, narrow knife blades clamp so close to the clamp lips that the sharpening stone 'sharpens' the clamp instead of the blade. Here is where innovative technique starts to become helpful. Summary: Would I recommend this sharpener? Absolutely yes, if you are good at tinkering and don't like the ridiculous prices other sharpeners are asking. The design is well thought out except for the narrow range of knives that can be sharpened in it easily. The clamp assembly is the root of all the problems I have with this sharpener: The thickness, stiffness, number of knives that fit. Sure, I can grind the lips thinner, but I shouldn't have to grind a groove in the clamp leaves to un-stiffen them so I can squeeze thicker and thinner knives in. The set screws and tightening tool were not the high quality we need for long service life. The screws gotta get corrected. I am now back to my bench diamond plates until the clamp screws get sorted out. Edit to add: I ordered some new metric (M4 x 10mm) screws and they work well. I ground some divots on the sides of the clamps for thumb and finger grips to assist flipping the knife without pulling on the blade. I also ground some grooves across each clamp side to make them a little more flexible. My kitchen knives can now be clamped quite well. I plan to get some thin, flat copper sheeting I can form for spacers to make thin knives fit better. I need to remember: to keep the blade centered, I have to put the same spacer in top and bottom of the clamp. I really like this sharpener. It's pretty easy to debur the wire edge before stropping. I can now get equal edge apex angles and get my knives razor sharp.

This system rocks. My little black WorkSharp can’t keep up with this guy. I ordered all the different stones this device had available and I couldn’t be happier! She really takes on a big knife well. It goes quickly on this machine, she’s sturdy and easy to setup and use. Money well spent!

I am new to sharpening, so I can only give a beginner’s review. I started testing with the Work Sharp Precision Adjust Elite. So far, I prefer the Xarilk. Pros of the Xarilk: 1. The metal construction feels more durable and should last longer than the plastic Work Sharp. 2. It allows for larger knives (chef’s knives, filet knives, cleavers), which are difficult or impossible to use with the Work Sharp. 3. It also supports smaller knife options. 4. It uses 6x1 stones instead of 4x0.5 stones. 5. Cheaper then the Workshop Pro PA and having most of its feature Cons compared to the Work Sharp: 1. It takes longer to set up. You have to do more preparation, especially with angle adjustments, before you can start sharpening. 2. Quality control is not always consistent, so you need to personally check and test everything. I used CBRx’s videos to help verify my setup. Both the Work Sharp and Xarilk have great customer support. They answer questions and provide good solutions. Xarilk will also replace parts after diagnosing a faulty unit. Overall, I am currently happy with the Xarilk setup. I can already make my knives sharp and very usable. I’ll see if I can eventually reach razor-sharp results. Since I have never tried the TSPROF, I really do not know what I am missing. But for my current skill level, I am happy with the Xarilk.

Funktioniert sehr gut. Das Einstellen des Winkels erfordert etwas Übung aber wenn man sich ein bisschen damit beschäftigt und Tutorials ausschaut klappt's super. Messer werden sehr scharf. Hab mir noch ein passendes Set Diamant Schleifsteine dazu bestellt. Bin sehr zufrieden

Il prodotto presenta almeno due problemi importanti. Il primo è che affila con due angoli nettamente differenti i due lati del coltello. Il secondo è che l'asta dopo una decina di minuti smette di scorrere in maniera fluida rendendolo di fatto temporaneamente inutilizzabile. Con un po' di pazienza e spirito di adattamento si riesce comunque ad ottenere un filo fantastico ma non è un prodotto che funziona "così com'è". Le pietre in dotazione non durano molto ma uno dei lati positivi è la compatibilità con molte pietre di diverse marche e di ogni qualità. Diciamo che è una base buona ma bisogna lavorarci un po' su. E l'avevo previsto leggendo le varie recensioni, ma è peggio di quello che pensavo.

This seller and company are great , great costumer service , great communication . I recommended them 1000% Update, I’ll leave my original rating below, I had some issues with the sharpener , seller or manufacturer to be more specific got in contact with me, he show me a option to fix my issue , something that they don’t mention or the instructions don’t mention is this little machine has a few different way to tune it, I adjusted the two screws at the back of the unit to stop it from changing the angle everytime I lock the angle knob, I like that I can adjust the machine to my needs this thing is so smooth that you can actually change the angle by hand or with the knob but one you lock the angle it does not move, if you have any issues contact the seller or you could try adjusting the machine yourself if you are really handy. I already sharpen a few of my kitchen knives and a spyderco folding knife . What I like from this unit is that I can use different type of stones, from cheap stones to really expensive stones. I also like that I don’t need to clamp or secure the machine to a table to use it, it didn’t fall forward when I was sharpening my kitchen knives . I have another similar system but it needs to be clamp to the edge of the table, now I can seat in my living room and sharpen my knives. Hopefully the manufacture releases other clamps to use with different knife sizes. Overall yea I do recommend this sharpener , I would buy another one if I needed it to and now I know how to adjust it or tune it to my needs. Thanks to the seller for contacting me. Please discard the review below but I will leave it in case somebody else goes through the same, contact the seller they will help you out I’m a little disappointed with this machine, it is nice, looks well made but but when I chose the angle I want, the locking latch changes the angle by 1.5 degrees , that’s a lot because it’s changing my angle from 20° to 21.5° and even 22°, for those who already have leave the angle finder on top of the blade holder and you will see the change in angle, to use at 20° I had to leave the able 1.5 to 2° lower so when I lock it I will got to the angle I wanted. That’s a little annoying to be honest, is there away to fix it or should I return it ? Hopefully I get an answer from the seller and I will have to return this sharpener

Penser a rajouter des ressorts et des butées pour la tige au niveau du confort

Ist super, compakt, leichte Aufbau. Meine alte Messern ist wieder scharf! Passt nicht für klingendick mehr als 2,5 mm. Nur empfehlen.