Review – I am one of many knife owners who have never mastered the use of traditional whetstones to maintain knives. Over the years I have tried many different guided knife sharpening systems, and now there is a good electric knife sharpening system, but still need something more portable and easier to set up to repair and modify the tool system that does not need to be placed on the electric knife .this TSPROF Kadet Expert+ Sharpener Kit It seems that even I can use it to maintain my EDC, camping knife, and chef’s knife.
What is it?
The TSPROF Kadet Expert+ sharpener kit is a manual sharpening system that helps users sharpen/hold the knife at a uniform angle along the length and both sides of the blade. It supports various sharpening stones and can be adjusted to different angles to support different blade contours.
What’s in the box?
The TSPROF Kadet Expert+ knife sharpener kit comes in a sturdy box with a well-organized expanded polystyrene insert.
- TSPROF® Kadet Expert Sharpener
- Blitz diamond plate, 5 pieces.
- TSPROF® 4 mm hex screwdriver
- Set print instructions
Hardware specifications
The TSPROF Kadet Expert+ knife sharpener weighs 1800 grams and is sturdy and durable. The entire kit including all plates and hex drivers weighs less than 2100 grams. This makes the sharpener light enough to move easily while remaining strong and stable when sharpening the knife. Kadet Expert is machined from blanks, not just roll castings or stampings you find in many other sharpeners.
Design and features
set up
There are several steps involved in setting up a sharpener
- Unfold the vertical arm and lock it in place (it takes a little bit of force the first time)
- Adjustable arm with fixed clip
- Installation clip
- Mount the rotating head on the top of the vertical arm
- Assemble and install the rod and bracket of the sharpener
After assembling the Kadet Expert, installing the appropriate sharpener is a simple process. These plates are fixed by a compression spring, which can be adjusted to firmly hold different types of grinding plates (diamond, wet stone, etc.).
The blade is mounted in a pair of adjustable clamps, which can be adjusted with the included hex screwdriver. Large blades and small blades can be installed.
Disassemble and reassemble the sharpener in daily use
Kadet Expert+ can be easily disassembled and stored in one to two minutes, and reassembled in about the same time. Decomposing Expert+ is the opposite of initial assembly.
- Remove the sharpener
- Loosen the fixing screw (knurled knob) fixed on the top pivot
- Remove the top pivot and optionally remove the sharpening guide
- Loosen the screw that secures the clip assembly to the angle bracket and remove the clip assembly
- Loosen the locking screw fixing the angle bracket
- Press the button to release the corner support
- Fold down the gusset
Finally, disassemble the guide rod and disassemble.
Use a sharpener
After setting up the TSPROF Kadet Expert+ sharpener, sharpening is a simple process.
First loosen the thumbscrew of the clamp assembly arm from the curved support arm to select an angle. The clamp assembly can be attached to either side of the arm. The arms are marked with icons and tick marks instead of different angle measurements. This makes it easier to determine the recommended sharpening angle based on the type of blade you want to sharpen, but it does make repeated sharpening/modification of the blade a bit error prone, because you can’t easily reset to a specific angle.
Once the angle is set, the blade is inserted into the clamp, and then the clamp is tightened.
Finally, insert the sharpening plate/grinding stone into the plate holder by pulling back the spring-loaded plate seat and releasing the mounting seat after the sharpening plate is in place.
Sharpening is done by moving the sharpening board on the blade. The guide rod and top bearing maintain a constant angle over the entire length of the blade. You can push the board diagonally along the blade (my preference), just like pulling the blade on a traditional sharpening stone, or by moving the sharpening board and the edge of the blade vertically and then moving to a small area of the blade to a new area (recommended only Used for fine/very fine plates).
After one side is completed, release the latch on one side of the clamp assembly and turn the clamp arm 180 degrees to bring the other side of the blade to the top. The latch is fixed and the other side of the blade may become sharp.
As with most sharpening systems, you can start with a coarser abrasive and then use a finer abrasive. You should only use the grit required to provide the required sharpness-if you just need to change from “shave” to “shave sharp”, don’t start with coarse sand.
There is still a learning curve, but you don’t have to worry about manually maintaining the angle between the blade and the stone, as with traditional stones.
The guide arm can be parked by locking the clamp on the guide arm assembly around the pivot between the sharpening process, when changing the sharpening plate or changing the knife. This is a very convenient function.
The biggest problem I encountered when using the TSPROF Kadet Expert+ sharpener kit was that it was impossible to use the narrow sharpening angle with the included clip, which would be used for razors and paring knives with shorter blades-bottom . The sharpening board will eventually rub the fixture instead of sharpening the blade (the photo on the back of the fixture assembly shows markings and metal shavings, and when I tried to clean the peeling, I “shaved off” a portion of the knife from the edge of the fixture). There are spare fixtures available for this specific purpose, but they are not included in the kit. I also prefer a wider and narrower clip, which can be firmly fixed to the blade.
what do I like
- Easy to adjust the sharpening angle
- Easy to install the blade for sharpening
- Folds for easy storage and transportation
- Including various whetstones
- A clamp is included to “park” the lever/sharpening plate when adjusting the blade.
- Suitable for medium to large blades
- Supports various sharpening blades/tool holders and sharpening stones in the entire TSProf series.
What can be improved
- The Expert+ kit cannot sharpen narrow blades at sharp angles (low angles) without hitting the fixture-additional fixtures are required
- No sharpening/maintenance of serrated blades (only kit flat grindstone)
- Directly read the sharpening angle on the arm, not just icons and tick marks
Final thoughts
The TSPROF Kadet Expert+ sharpener kit is a good manual sharpening system for maintaining various tools. It is very suitable for medium to large knives, but not for smaller paring knives or razors, because the clamp will interfere with the grinding plate when using a narrow sharpening angle.
I think the price of Kadet Expert is a bit high because my paring knife cannot keep the sharpness of a razor. Including an additional jig to handle these blades will make the sharpener worth the money.
Price: $355
Where to buy: TSProf’s US storefront
source: The sample of this product is made by TSProf.
