When looking for a good, guided angle system there's lots of factors involved. Quality, warranty, support, and price are just a few of the things I look for. One such system that garners my attention, and meets these criteria is Gatco Ultimate Diamond Sharpener. You know I can't review a product without digging into company history, it wouldn't be one of my reviews, right? The company's website claims they've been in business for over two decades, with the company being purchased by Bear and Sons Cutlery November 14, 2016. But that's not the whole truth, thanks to Sal Glesser from Spyderco I've learned some Gatco lore. The original system was invented by Mr. Ray Longbrake back in the late 70's. Called the "Loray" sharpener. Arthur "Lansky" Levine was a distributor of Loray's. Ray and Aruthur had a falling out and Arthur tooled up and created the "Lansky" version. John Anthon was the Sales manager for Lansky. John and Arthur had a falling out and John created GATCO and tooled up his version.

We've looked at a few higher priced sharpening systems, and I feel we need to take a look at a more affordable option. Not everyone has the dinero to drop on a professional system and that's understandable. There's a ton of systems and methods out there, all with different price points. One that really grabbed my attention was by a company named Xarilk. Xarilk says they were born from a passion for quality and innovation, specializing in crafting precision knife sharpeners. The company has not long launched their new Pro Precision Gen2 model. This update address issues with the old model as well as improvements from customer feedback. Issues are always going to pop up when consumers spend countless hours testing out a product. It's good to see companies listen to that feedback and make proper changes.

I'm big on things that have to do with tradition, history, and carrying on a legacy. When I found out that Steamboat Sharpeners still existed, I was elated. Since seeing them pulled from local hardware stores I had figured the company had become history. After getting in touch with the folks over at Steamboat they are very much in business.

In early 2021, a family passionate about their Steamboat Quad sharpener reached out to the company in early 2021 to purchase another sharpening unit. They learned that the Steamboat Super Sharpener was for sale and saw a need for these sharpeners to remain in production. They're superior to the competition, wholly made in the United States, and affordably priced. In June 2021 they created JGRG, LLC. for the purpose of producing and marketing Steamboat Super Sharpeners.

ViperSharp is one of those companies that's born out of trying to solve a problem. It's a story of ingenuity, determination, and building a better mousetrap.... or sharpener. Owner Mike Wood purchased a sharpener based off of a recommendation. The sharpener did a good job but he noticed some design limitations that caused frustration during sharpening. At first, he sought out to fix those problems on his sharpener, not realizing other systems existed or that some of those limitations were solved. As he went down the rabbit hole, he noted more issues that needed solving, why fix a broken system when you really need to do is go back to the drawing board.

Mike spent over a year working on designs and prototyping, learning more about machining than he expected. His end product is a system that fixes those shortcomings he noticed on that sharpener as well as others in the industry. His goal was to create a tool that offered the precision he wanted and was built to last a lifetime. The end result is a system that's American made and will deliver a perfect angle every time. Today we're checking out the ViperSharp diamond sharpening system, will it make the cut?

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.