DMT ABG Aligner Blade Guide/Knife Clamp

Works great for consistent edge

Great knife guide right out of the box. Easy to use, provides a consistent angle, and is gentle on the belly of a knife blade. But I made it even better: I use mine with a bench stone and after a few months found the quick adjust guide rods to be a bit flimsy and limiting. They would also unlock and slip out of position while in use. So I replaced the plastic guide rods with a couple of 5/16 carriage bolts and stop nuts to make it sturdier and more fine tuneable. Now it's un-beatable as a pocket guide. Consistently keeps my blade geometry at the precise angle I want every time (as long as you clamp the blade in the same spot every use). This guide makes a razor edge very easy to set and maintain.

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.

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.

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

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.

When I saw this product being demo'd at YouTube, I wrongly thought it was made of some kinde of metal due to its misleading black color, but boy, was I proven wrong! This product is entirely made of flimsy plastic that does not hold its structural integrity while sharpening, especially if sharpening knives with blades longer than 6". With heavier knives the system buckles, changing the sharpening angle, which defeats the whole purpose of sharpening. Also, angles are not marked on the device so you don't know at what angle you are sharpening. And since you don't know the initial sharpening angle, you won't be able to keep the same angle using a higher grit stone to polish the knife (since different stones will more probably have different heights than not). As I said, made of a very flimsy and cheap plastic. Were it made with aluminum, light steel, or even heavier grade plastic with angles marked, it would have beeen a good and effective device. Since it is not, it's really not worth the money the way it is currently made. Not only that, it could cost you a lot of money by ruining your expensive and high end knives. Also, the screw that tightens the clamp that hold the knife in place is so soft that after tightening it twice or three times, the screwing slit (the notch where the screw driver fits to tighten) is strippped and damaged!! I am really disappointed.

Looks fragile but is lightweight (so you can hold the knife instead of the clamp while sharpening) en does the job.

Ausgezeichnet; nie bisher solche Kulanz erwartet und! - sodann auch erhalten. Auch, wenn es ja nicht um die Welt ging; denn um Groschen. ... Machen Sie bloß so weiter, so hängen Sie bald Ihre Konkurrenz weit zurück! Bin mit Ihrer Leistung mehr als zufrieden! Danke! Mit freundlichen Grüßen! A.L.

Esta guia da DMT é de boa qualidade, mas tem ao menos dois problemas: 1- Os pinos que regulam o ângulo de afiação não ficam bem presos, e durante a afiação eles soltam fazendo com que a faca fique com um ângulo menor em relação a pedra. Poderia ter um parafuso para travar ele na regulagem desejada e evitar isso. O que eu fiz foi colocar uma fita isolante prendendo os pinos, resolveu. 2- Se usar pedras de espessuras diferentes (por exempo uma pedra grossa mais espessa, uma média diamantada da DMT que tem pouca espessura e uma fina de espessura média), dificilmente vai ser possível ajustar a guia para ter o mesmo ângulo de afiação em todas elas. As regulagens da guia ocorrem em saltos relativamente grandes, e a regulagem ideal para outra pedra pode estar entre duas regulagens possíveis. Então o ângulo vai ser diferente. Seria melhor se a regulagem pudesse ser feita de forma contínua, para chegar no ângulo exato. Uma forma de contornar este problema é colocar um pedaço de madeira ou outro suporte qualquer debaixo das pedras menos espessas para que fiquem na mesma altura da pedra mais espessa. Mas no geral, é uma boa guia de ângulo de afiação. Com algumas melhorias ficaria excelente.

É um bom produto! Voltaria a comprar de novo.

I bought this for sharpening pocket knives. I wanted to get a 15 degree bevel, but with the smaller blades it won’t go below 18 degrees or you’ll be grinding the bottom of the aligner itself.