u/dxbmoe

This isnt my idea, I found an old video on youtube breaking this setup down. All small knives suck on fixed angle systems, including the Worksharp Pro. I cant hold them well on a whetstone for freehand sharpening either, but this seems to have done the trick!

Frustrated with constant movement, or not being able to get a low enough angle, this actually did the job! Sucks you need all these parts, but here we are. Hopefully helps someone equally frustrated.

You need the Tormek small knife holder, and if you are really OCD a 3D printed stabilizer to hold the knife wobble if you are aggressive.

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7kQLboRvTI

I took an old M5Stack stick and wrote new firmware to turn it into a digital angle guide — I wanted to see how badly I was drifting off-angle during sharpening. Simple to use: turns red if you're over, green if you're dead on, blue if you're under. You can set the angle you want to sharpen at and the difficulty (how much drift it tolerates). I added a stroke count for giggles, but the sensors have a hard time accurately counting the strokes.

After a good six months of practicing on whetstones, I can proudly say — I still suck at holding a steady angle on every stroke. Good news is, I can still take a knife to hair shaving/popping with my shitty angle discipline! Still, it was useful to see where I drift. I wobble most at the extreme ends of the stroke (furthest reach and closest pull), so at least now I know where to focus my practice.

PS — it's not for sale, but happy to share the source code for anyone who wants to fiddle with it.

Update: it's open source now

A bunch of you asked for the code, so here it is — github.com/miamimoe/digital-sharpening-guide

It's dead cheap to build: you literally just need an M5StickC Plus (~$20 on Amazon/AliExpress). It's already got a magnet in the back, so it sticks straight onto the blade — no extra parts.

And you don't need to know how to code — there's a "flash it from your browser" button: plug the stick in with a USB-C cable, click once, done → miamimoe.github.io/digital-sharpening-guide

This is a hobby project, so I'm sure there are a ton of bugs — but ping me and I'll try to fix it. If you build a better version on top of it, share it with the community please.