As I promised, I am providing thoughts on the Gen 4 at my first opportunity. Just received it today. I recently received a Damascus blade ZT knife which despite only being factory sharp is rapidly becoming a favorite EDC. I have been looking forward to getting it sharp on the Gen 4 Pro.
My first impression of the Gen 4 is the engineering. I got the one with the newer iteration of micro adjustment option. I am not sure why one would spend the money for such an expensive device and not get this option, as it is the real difference maker. Flat base similar to my Obsidian. The footprint of this base is actually a little smaller, but just as solid as the WE66. Just screwing in the arms into the pivots screamed precision! The threads are exact. There is no slop in the arms and they stop at every position, but there is no effort in moving them. The angle adjustment system is impressive. Finding the exact angle and sweet spot on the knife was quicker than on the WE66. My factory sharp blade was turned into an arm hair shaving blade in just a few minutes with the 800 and 1000 grit stones, followed by a quick strop.
Is the Gen 4 necessary. Yes if you are a little OCD, a perfectionist lacking the patience to sharpen manually. It is difficult to be critical of the Obsidian, because it does a great job. I just have a little more confidence in the micro adjustments on the Gen 4, and I can see it being a little quicker to set up a knife, which would add up over time if you were providing a knife sharpening business. When you get to the best, only the individual can decide if the last few steps are necessary. This has got to be near the very top. Outside of storage, I don’t see much advantage tothe shelf option and would alter my position for using the sharpener significantly.
There is nothing wrong with it, but looking at the videos of the Gen4, the improvements are quite obvious. Being quite OCD, I had to, late at night take the next step. The main advantages I see are a slightly better micro adjust system and a more robustly engineered pivoting mechanism for the stone rods. Increasing the angle to strop will lrss likely to be missed which can(did) result in strops being sliced a bit. I will let my son have my Obsidian which is a great sharpener in its own right compared to pull thru and electric kitchen sharpeners advertised as the best on the internet. Will update my observations, soon. I’ll have to dull some knives over the next few days.