DMT ABG Aligner Blade Guide/Knife Clamp

No matter what kind of knives you have, they won't work if they aren't sharp. Sharp knives are frankly dangerous. I have had a sharpening stone for some time now and been afraid to use it because I didn't want to mess up the blade angle and ruin the knife. I discovered this sharpening jig and it finally gave me the confidence to give it a try instead of spending a ton of money getting my knives sharpened professionally. Wow! I am so glad I went ahead and got this. It is plastic, so keep in mind that you can't and shouldn't press hard, it would obviously break. The good thing is that you don't need to! It worked like a dream with my first knife and was so easy. I can see where it won't last forever, but for the price, it doesn't have to. Even if it lasts for one sharpening of my block of knives (and it has lasted for so many more than that already) it pays for itself. I highly recommend this item. I use it with this stone: http://www.amazon.com/Zwilling-J-Henckels-Sharpening/dp/B000OWD218/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1424289421&sr=8-1&keywords=henckles+knife+stone

Love this sharpener used the first one for 10 years then I tightened it to tight and broke it. It's my fault for tightening to much so I highly recommend this product

I'm a practiced knife and tool sharpener with a large collection of various stones and can get a reasonably good result free hand. I decided to purchase the Aligner guide because of it's low cost and the ability to use existing woodworking stones. I found the guide very simple to use and was able to get a very nice repeatable edge on an array of kitchen knives from small to large. including a cleaver. The guide is easily adjustable for various sharpening angles for different type knives. You do need to workout the desired angles depending upon the thickness of your stones. Be prepared for a bit of a mess if using water stones. It does require a decent sized board to work on. I gave the product 4 stars vs 5 as it is definitely usable but not a robust design with the plastic construction however I believe it will last a long time with careful use. For $12 and the use of existing stones it's a great deal for getting repeatable edges. I do recommend stropping after stoning to get a super sharp knife.

This thing looks pretty cheesey in the photos -- and in real life -- but surprisingly it seems to work well! I have a favorite 15 degree santoku which was losing a bit of its sharpness, so I dialed this in for the thickness of my resilient bench strop doped with green stropping compound, using a 15 angle guide I cut out of wood, and then did a half dozen alternating side stropping passes. And the sharpness picked up very nicely. Using this with my stones and bench strop, the short length of the clamp means that I can only use about half the length of my stones and bench strop, so that is a decided disadvantage. I usually stone and strop perpendicular to the blade edge, but because of the short clamp with this I may have to switch over to 45 degrees ala Bob Kramer. In any case this tool is a great value!

Good concept to help those new to sharpening but too bad the execution is just not there. Cheap material means it breaks quite easily. It's not just about how much force is used but also the angle at which you turn the guide. I would have gladly paid another $10 just to have it made in a stronger material.

I bought this little guy to use in conjunction with the DMT 6-inch whetstones for the upkeep of my pocket, camping, and kitchen knives. After a few months and several go-arounds with my modest knife stable, a shrug and an overall feeling of "meh" summarizes my experience with the DMT ABG Aligner Blade Guide.Virtually every part of the guide's form, and my experience using it, leaves much to be desired.- BLADE THICKNESS CAPACITY IS MINIMAL - Several times I had to slide the guide onto a couple of my knives from the blade point (taper) to make it work. Definitely would not work with some of the thicker "survival"/"bushcraft" knives out there.- GUIDE SLIPPED OFF BLADES A FEW TIMES - I stopped tightening the blade clamp's plastic thumbscrew when the guide started to bow and I felt like any more would strip the plastic threads and it still slipped off/around once in a while. This could be remedied by some sort of high friction material on the faces of the blade clamp or a metal clamping screw.- INCONSISTENT SHARPENING ANGLE - Because the angle is determined by the adjustable height of the plastic posts / arms(?), and because the posts/arms contact the work surface (table, bench, etc) at a point rather than along the entire blade, the sharpening angle steepens as the distance between the guide and the blade-stone contact point increases.- IT BROKE - After a few months of semi-regular use (I sharpen/maintain ~2-3 knives per week), one of the plastic tabs used to index the sharpening angle via the guide's posts/arms failed. It sheared out of the inside of the post/arm sleeve, so the post/arm was free to slide in and out of the sleeve with no way to fix it in position. I remedied it by screwing it in position, which rendered the sharpening angle permanently fixed.- LOUSY MATERIALS - Maybe all of the problems I had with this guide, with the exception of the inconsistent sharpening angle, could have been avoided if it had been made of something more durable and rigid than soft plastic.TLDR: Not an absolute nightmare to use, but hardly a dream either. Plastic construction leads to many problems. Resulting blade edge is good, but not unattainable if sharpening freehand with a good set of stones and some patience. Save your money. This thing isn't built to last, and I doubt the average joe/jane would want to replace it if he/she suddenly didn't have it anymore.

I have used just about every angle guide you can imagine. I love this guide because it is lightweight, easy to assemble and use, and is very affordable. It works with its own DMT setup or works with any other benchstones or system. Plus, it won't scratch your blades. It feels like it might break, but it's more durable than it seems. I definitely recommend it.