After many years in the knife industry, Steve McCowen of Iola, Wisconsin had seen literally hundreds of knife sharpening systems, ranging from stones to expensive electric hones. The simpler devices required a good deal of skill, the more advanced systems came with mounting hardware and pages of instructions, and the electric sharpeners could grind the edge of a favorite knife to nothing in a few seconds.
Steve came up the idea for the Slide Sharp and contacted Charles Kain, a custom knifemaker in Indianapolis, Indiana. Together they developed this breakthrough product.
The Slide Sharp uses a unique system of injection molded nylon guides to hold the knife edge at the specific angle required for optimum sharpening. A hardwood base holds a porcelain sharpening rod. Simply insert the rod in the base, slide a return spring over it, select the sharpening guide needed for your knife, and slide on the cap.
Sharpening action couldn't be easier. Just pull your blade through a sharpening guide slot pressing down lightly. The return spring pops the guide up again for the next stroke. You then repeat the same action as needed in the opposite slot, sharpening both sides of the blade equally, or as needed.
Two sharpening guides are included. One is a slight angle for putting an edge on sport, work, tactical and kitchen knives. The second has a steeper angle for heavier tools such as choppers and machetes.
The Slide Sharp system comes with two porcelain sharpening rods. You start with the coarser gray rod, and finish the edge with the fine white rod.
That's the Slide Sharp story. It's simple to use, quick and convenient. It is as easy to use as a butcher's steel, with the accuracy of the more expensive and time-consuming clamped sharpeners.
The sharpening guides maintain the edge angle and do the work for you. There's no guessing, no rounded edges, and no loss of blade shape from oversharpening.
If you can sharpen a pencil, you can sharpen a knife. And Slide Sharp is inexpensive and portable, which means you can have one for the kitchen, one for the tool bench, one for your tackle box, even one for your favorite firearms case.
Slide Sharp
SS01: System with storage case
- Base: Natural finish ash
- Rods: MRI #229 Porcelain 0.310" (0.79 cm) x 9.45" (24.0 cm)
- Guides: Nylon, 15 degree and 20 degree angles
- Storage Case Material: ABS
- Length: 10.5" (26.7 cm)
- Width: 4.5" (11.4 cm)
- Depth: 1.5" (3.8 cm)
