HandiHone Universal Sharpener for Hair Trimmers, Clippers, and Scissors.
It's this easy!
If you click on the username (HandiHone), in the upper right, it will take you to videos of scissor sharpening as well.
To view the instructions:
Hand built in the U.S.A.
Hi. There are a number of things that are very important for you to understand before buying a HandiHone, otherwise you may be unhappy with your purchase. I’m very sorry there’s so much to read, but all of this has been written to address the common situations that can cause a headache for both you and I. The HandiHone isn’t quite as simple as a toaster or a blender (even though it may seem so), there are lots of things that you won’t immediately realize. I’d appreciate it if you take the time to read this entire page before you buy. Many people come to me after the purchase with complaints that would never have arisen if they had just read the whole page instead of making assumptions.
20,000+ of these have been sold over the last 10 years. It's a well known and reliable product in its industry that is hand built here in the USA by me, not by some machine in China that doesn't monitor quality. The plain and simple fact is that after 10 years and 20k+ sharpeners sold, I wouldn’t have any business if it didn’t work, because they would all have been returned as defective and I would be bankrupt.
I personally build every HandiHone I sell (no one else is involved), and I hand inspect every unit I send out the door, including measuring every disc to make sure it’s the correct shape (which is CNC machined to tolerances less than 1/1000th of an inch). I guarantee the unit you receive will be in 100% working order.
Having blades sent out to be sharpened can be inconvenient and expensive. For the price of a handful of professional sharpenings, you can do it yourself, eliminating the time, ongoing cost, and hassle. The universal sharpener handles all metal blades (not ceramic, though, as no such sharpener exists) from human and animal hair trimmers and clippers. Works on Wahl, Oster, Andis, Conair, Forfex, Remington, etc., as well as scissor blades. Great for salons, barber shops, dog groomers, horse owners, or those who cut their own or their family’s/friend's hair, *It does not sharpen knives*
It can sharpen all metal trimmer/clipper blades 2” wide or smaller, which is the standard clipper size. The sharpening surface itself is only 2.5" in diameter. Yes, the sharpener is small, but it is all that is needed. You don’t need a 12” wide wheel to sharpen a 2” wide blade, despite what others may think. This sharpener won’t sharpen the wider shears such as used on sheep, or any extra wide blade (again, wider than 2 inches) that some standard clippers use. Sorry.
It can accommodate all scissor blades (Although it does take a bit of smooth coordination to sharpen scissors, so if you have a $200 pair of scissors that you feel must look perfect, you may want to continue having them sharpened by a professional, or practice lots on another pair first. I do sharpen my own hair cutting scissors, though, as well as all my regular household and fabric scissors with no problem and haven’t had any complaints from any of the people who bought a HandiHone to sharpen high end scissors, including several people who have used the HandiHone to set up a sharpening business).
The HandiHone uses an electric motor to spin a diamond grit pad that sharpens the blade. It uses no honing/cutting oils, or even lapping compounds, so there's no mess (and using fluids/oils on it will ruin it, so don’t do it).
It’s made of impact-resistant plastic, so if you drop it on the floor, it won’t break. It can also be screwed down to a wooden table/bench if you wish to have it permanently mounted.
A common misconception is that the diamond pad is flat, but in fact it’s not, it is dome shaped. The shape creates a very close, but still hollow ground, finish which is necessary for optimum cutting. It is supposed to leave the blades with a concave shape, not a flat even surface, despite what several of my disgruntled customers have thought. If the blades were ground perfectly flat, they would not cut. Ask your clipper's manufacturer, or any professional sharpener, and they’ll tell you blades should be hollow ground. *Don't ask them what they think of the HandiHone, though. They aren't likely to tell the truth about their competition, for obvious reasons.*
On average, depending on how well you maintain your blades (keeping them rust free, keeping them sharp and not allowing them to get excessively dull from prolonged use, etc.), the diamond pad will last about 100-150 sharpenings. To have a professional sharpen a set of blades 125 times it would cost around $1,250 (some more, some less. I know one guy who was paying $15 per sharpening)! Even if you're only paying $7 per sharpening, the HandiHone costs less than 1/100th that per sharpening. Hard to beat that.
I personally have both a Sunbeam clipper (low end clipper from Walmart) and an Oster 76 (high end clipper), and the HandiHone performs equally well on both clippers. I’ve sharpened many other clippers in between, and there isn’t one out there the HandiHone won’t sharpen because all clippers are inherently the exact same and require the exact same sharpening process. A clipper blade is a clipper blade, it is 100% irrelevant whether it’s a cheap superstore brand blade or a $25 Oster blade, they’re all made of nearly the exact same metal, and all need to be sharpened in the exact same way. They’re all steel and they all need to be hollow ground, every last one of them (unless they’re ceramic which can’t be sharpened).
What's included: HandiHone AC power transformer Magnetic blade holder Scissor blade adapter Instruction sheet Storage box My assistance should you need it.
Warranty: All the units I sell are brand new, and I guarantee the unit you receive will be in 100% working order. I offer a 1 year manufacturer’s defect warranty. If the unit stops working within one year from purchase, contact me and I'll send you the return address that you can ship the sharpener back to and receive a working unit. This does not cover worn out diamond pads, though. That’s not a manufacturer’s defect.
Shipping: I almost always ship same day or the day after the order is received by USPS Priority with Delivery Confirmation. Occasionally (due to bad weather, or if you order Friday night, etc.) it may take 2 days. I live in the mountains and have to deliver each HandiHone myself to the post office quite a distance from me.
Customers outside the U.S: If you live outside of the U.S., you’ll probably need a power converter, one that turns your power into North American 110v for the power supply that comes with the unit.
Some things that have come up over time that aren’t in the instructions, but should be known by the customer:
1: Clippers with adjustable blade lengths (the kind that has a built in slider that moves the blades) are very hard to adjust when reinstalling them on the clippers. If you’ve never done it before, it’s best to find someone who knows how to do it properly to help you get the process down. Even regular clipper blades on some clippers are hard to adjust properly, and it’s best if you have someone teach you how first instead of just assuming it’s the sharpener’s fault. Perfectly sharp blades that are improperly adjusted will not cut, even if they appear to be adjusted properly.
2: The HandiHone uses diamond, not the typical stone abrasive material on other grinders. This means that there’s no point in comparing the function of the two because they are two completely different materials (remember, diamond is the hardest substance on Earth, and because of its molecular structure, it does not behave like any other abrasive material).
3: When cutting with diamond, power is irrelevant. It cuts so cleanly and easily that the supplied power is plenty for anything from a bottom of the line clipper blade to a top of the line Oster blade. I’ve spent 10 years around HandiHones, and I’ve checked. Many people believe it needs to have a ton of power and spin at incredible speed because the stone sharpener they saw did. Again, this is diamond, not stone, there’s no point in comparing the two.
Since the HandiHone uses diamond that cuts quickly and efficiently, it can be small and lightweight, so it doesn’t need a giant motor to spin a heavy stone wheel to sharpen your blade. It has plenty of power already. If you think it doesn’t, then you’re doing something wrong (see number 4). I even had one person complain because when he touched the blade to the diamond, the motor slowed a bit. Of course it did, it’s called friction. It doesn’t matter how much power a spinning motor has, if you touch anything to it, it’s going to slow down some. I’m sorry, but the HandiHone, like everything else, can’t defy the laws of physics.
Technically, you don’t even need the motor. You could just rub the blades on the diamond disc by hand! It would take longer than with the motor of course, but the point is you only need a little bit of power and speed to cut with diamond, so little that you could do it without the motor (this is how it was done in the past, and I’ve done it with the HandiHone myself).
4: Pushing harder will not make it cut faster, it will make it cut slower. This is one many people don’t understand or believe, even though it is not only true of diamond but of many other common abrasives as well. I’ve spent 15 years studying cutting abrasives, believe me on this one. Just lightly rest the blade on the diamond surface and move it around like the instructions say (or, the video which you’ve hopefully watched by now). Don’t force it down, if the disc stops spinning, you’re pushing too hard.
5: Yes, we could make the HandiHone spin faster and have more power, so it would cut faster, but there are a few reasons this is a bad idea from my experience. 1: If it spins faster, it’s easier to make a mistake and ruin your blade. 2: The motor will wear out faster. Motors that spin slower last exponentially longer. 3: The diamond already cuts so fast if properly used that you’ll only save a few seconds anyways. 4: The price of a faster, more powerful motor, and the more powerful power supply, would put the HandiHone out of the price range of a lot of people. This is a money-saving item meant to be better and cheaper than 500-3000 “professional” grinders.
6: Many people buy this product and never read the instructions because they believe they don't need to. They then sharpen their blades and ruin them because they use the sharpener incorrectly, and blame me for their mistakes. Please, don’t use this sharpener without reading the complete instructions. It only takes 2 minutes.
If you follow the instructions, there is no chance that you will ruin your blades, but if you don't follow the instructions you can accidentally grind areas of the blade that shouldn't be ground and it will be damaged irreparably.
Last but not least: Every returned sharpener I’ve ever received I immediately used to sharpen a set of dull clipper blades and tested them (occasionally even visiting some local salons to check it on different clippers than what I normally have access to), and so far, all the returns I’ve gotten were perfectly functioning despite what the customer claimed. These people wouldn’t believe me or the instructions and believed they knew better than the designer and someone who has been working with sharpeners for over a decade.
Thanks! Chris
Price: $65 + Priority shipping.
Replacement Diamond Pad already mounted on a brand new disk, instructions, and removal tool for old disk.
Price: $22.50 + First Class shipping. Free shipping if ordered with a HandiHone.
You can check my eBay feedback here if you are worried about my being a reputable seller.
http://myworld.ebay.com/hvac25000
Shipping Info: I ship within 3 business days. Domestic and International, USPS Priority shipping calculated by weight.
If anything happens on my end and there is a delay, I will immediately send you an email with an explanation as well as the new expected shipping date, and if the delay is significant, I’ll offer a refund. I’ll also send you an email as soon as the order has shipped, so you’ll know when to expect it.