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Reviews > Knives > Sharpeners > Furi Ozitech Diamond Fingers Sharpener > Brian Tannehill > Test Report by Brian TannehillTest Report Series Ozitech Diamond Fingers Sharpener
Age: 31 Gender: Male Height: 5' 7" (1.7 m) Weight: 185 lb (79 kg) Name: Brian Tannehill Date: 16 Feb 2007 Email: tannehillclan(at)gmail(dot)com Location: Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA I am fairly new to backpacking, but I have hunted/fished/camped all my life in East Texas, Colorado, and California. My young kids (4, 10, 12) limit me to weekend overnight camping trips, or day hikes Geocaching. I am also an avid mountain biker. Currently I live in Colorado Springs, Co at the base of the Rocky Mountains. Pike National Forest surrounds me at 9000 - 14,110 feet (2743 m - 4301 m). Snow can happen 10 months out of the year and summer is the hottest reaching 65 deg F + (18 C), the other months average 45 deg F (7 C).
Product Information:
Manufacturer: Füritechnics USA Inc Initial Thoughts and Descriptions: The case is made of both hard plastic and rubber. All guards on this sharpener are made of the hard plastic to fully protect my hands. The foot of the case is made from the rubber and when fully opened there is another smaller foot inside one of the guards. Both hold very well on any surface when I am sharpening my knives.There are not too many ways to describe just how sharp a knife is without seeing it cut something. I've tried a couple of different methods, to include shaving hairs on my arm, slicing a tomato with just the pressure of the knife, and dragging it across my thumbnail and if it catches then the knife is sharp. I've sharpened three knifes and one small hatchet so far with this system. It has done a great job of knocking off the old edge, but I cannot get that very fine hair shaving edge that I want in my field knifes. The first knife I sharpened is my daily carry knife. This knife is always dull as I use it for everything. It is a Gerber Harsey Air Ranger model. The blade is 3.25 in (8.26 cm)long and the blade is made from high carbon stainless. About half of the blade is serrated. I must have had a funky edge on this one because I had to really grind on the blade to get a decent edge with the diamond fingers. The first time I sharpened it, I ran the blade across the sharpener about 10 times. I could see a difference in the blade, where it shaved some old metal off, but there wasn't much difference when cutting with it. Part of the problem with this knife is I do not have a good 20 deg edge on the blade. So I am still grinding this blade down on the diamond fingers sharpener to get the nice honed 20 deg edge. After a week of use and sharpening about 5 times, the blade is decent, but not sharp. To judge this I ran it across the skin of a tomato with no downward pressure and it did not slice into the tomato at all. I also could not shave any hairs on my arm, nor did I feel it catch across my thumbnail. The second and third knife I sharpened were a set of pampered chef kitchen knives. One is a small paring knife with sharpening case and the other is a chef's knife with sharpening case. These knives were not as dull as my Gerber as they have a built in sharpener in the case. Both knives are made from stainless steel and have a one piece solid blade that extends through the handle. The paring knife blade is 3 in (8 cm) long and the chef's knife blade is 8 in (20 cm). The paring knife I could shave a few hairs off my arm, and the chef's knife with no downward pressure sliced the tomato. The last item I have sharpened is my camp hatchet. This is one of those Wal-Mart brand hatchets. The head is 4.5 in (11.4 cm) wide and the edge is 2.75 in (6.99 cm) long. Not sure of what the material is made out of but it is heavy. I could see where the sharpener took off some metal on the edge because it was shiny. For a hatchet the edge is now very sharp. It won't cut hairs and I didn't drag it across a tomato mainly because of the weight, but also my wife would have a fit seeing me use a hatchet on her tomato. Setup and Use: From the packaging this is how to set up the sharpener and use it.1 Using finger tips open both ‘wing clips’.
2 Open handle/guard halves.
3 Only the handle (bottom half ) rotates freely, and the guard (static at top) will only turn 15º away from sharpening fingers unless incorrectly forced beyond this point.
4 Click into fully open position as shown – do not continue rotating beyond this point, or guard may be damaged.
1 Place Ozitech™ on a flat surface and hold down firmly with the palm of the hand. Never operate Ozitech™ unless all parts of your hand are fully covered by the guards.
Repeat this swiping action 4-6 times (for regular maintenance of an edge in good condition), or continue until the edge feels sharp. Generally this is all that is required for an edge that is in good condition. The diamond coating on Ozitech’s™ fingers will lightly sharpen/reshape edges that are in reasonable condition. However, very worn or very thick blades may require one initial edge regrinding (preferably on the full Füri® Tech Edge™ sharpening system) before Ozitech™ can easily hone and maintain the edge. The packaging information also states this is not designed for scissors or serrated edges. That will wipe out a few of the knives I wanted to run across it.
Some of my questions and concerns: I do have a few questions and concerns with this sharpener. The first involves the wings. These double as protection when sharpening, but they are held on by a small piece of plastic. Will this break over time?My second concern is that of hand position. I tend to grab the sharpener with my thumb underneath one of the wing guards. While the guard is there, it is still an awkward place to grab. It is comfortable for me though. I'm trying to acclimate myself to move my thumb to a different position, because like I pointed out above, if the guard breaks off I could do some damage. My third concern is getting a good edge on my field knife. Can this be done? While it feels sharp to the touch, it doesn't cut well yet.
Some questions to answer through out this test period:
Will the diamond coating wear down? If so how fast? Thanks to BGT and Füritechnics USA Inc for allowing me to participate in this test. Brian
___________________________________________________________________________ FÜRI Ozitech Diamond Fingers Knife Sharpener
FIELD REPORT
FÜRI Ozitech Diamond Fingers Knife Sharpener
The locations of my tests have been mostly in my house in the Rocky Mountains of Pike National Forest just west of Colorado Springs. Elevations ranged from 7000 feet (2134 m) at my house up to around 10,000 feet (3048 m) in the local mountains. Weather so far has been cold and snowy. I was also able to take the sharpener out in Northern Colorado on a hunting trip. Low temperatures at night ranged from 10 F (-12 C ) to around 30 F (-1 C). However we did not use it as we did not have to skin anything.
In my opinion there are basically three types of edges you can have on a blade. One is a razor edge, next is a good sharp edge, and finally just an edge. I've only ever had a razor edge once on any of my knifes and that was when they were new out of the box. The rest of the time I have just had a really good sharp edge. Not sharp enough to shave hairs, but sharp enough to slice paper very easily. How I like to sharpen my knives
A technique that I like to use to sharpen my daily carry knife which is always dull, is to give the knife about 6-7 really deep pulls through the diamond fingers and finish it off with 7-8 really light pulls through the diamond fingers. I will continue to use this sharpener as my primary sharpener through out this test. It will sharpen my daily carry knife, and all of my kitchen knives that can be sharpened with it. They however do not need to be sharpened near as often as my daily carry knife. PERFORMANCE IN THE FIELD
Not much has changed with this product over the last couple of months. I wound up putting the knife sharpener where any good knife sharpener should go. In the kitchen drawer. I cook about once a week or so, and have used the knife sharpener to maintain a nice edge on my two kitchen knives. I find that 2-3 swipes across the sharpener are plenty for my kitchen knives to keep a nice sharp edge for cutting foods. SUMMARY
In summary, I think this sharpener is best suited for kitchen knives. While it puts an edge on my daily carry knife it maintains a better edge on kitchen knives that are not used on a daily basis. Refer to my field report about how I have to regrind my daily carry knife from constant use. I like to sharpen my longer blades like my kitchen knife on it versus a smaller blade. Read more reviews of Furitechnics gear Read more gear reviews by Brian Tannehill Reviews > Knives > Sharpeners > Furi Ozitech Diamond Fingers Sharpener > Brian Tannehill > Test Report by Brian Tannehill | |||||||||||||
