Did I get your attention with a controversial statement? Good! 😊 hear me out, I found a cheaper way to get this system!
To clarify, I think the worksharp precision adjust system is incredible. I personally have the setup and find it works really well. I also have a sharpal diamond stone and there are knives I can’t use on the precision adjust so I have also learned to sharpen with a stone. I find the worksharp sharpening system to be really good for consistency and I am very happy with it.
However, the pricing of the Elite system is about $100 more (CAD) or $130 more (CAD) for the upgrade kit. The upgrade kit comes with a case, the leather strop arm, and the fine&coarse tri-abrasives. These items are definitely useful and I wouldn’t want to go without them.
But! $130 for an upgrade kit, or $100 for the elite setup is not the cheapest route to go if you are willing to forgo the case. The elite setup comes with a coarse abrasive set of 220, 320, and 400, a fine abrasive set of 600, 800, and a ceramic plate. Also, a leather strop arm is provided too. The basic system comes with only one arm which has a 320, 600, and ceramic plate.
So the elite set up comes with an additional 2 arms. The strop arm and the coarse arm. The coarse arm includes 2 grit plates, 220, and 400, which is not provided in the basic setup. It also comes with an 800 grit plate in the fine abrasive. All you are missing is 3 grit plates and a leather strop arm.
If you go on to the worksharp website, you can purchase the individual plates for $7.95 (USD). You can also purchase the leather strop arm for $12.95 (USD). You can also purchase the coarse abrasive arm for $29.95 (USD). Since you are only missing 2 arms, 2 coarse plates and one fine plate, you need to buy the coarse abrasive arm, the leather strop arm, and one fine plate to make your basic setup arm the fine abrasive arm.
The total cost is $50.85 (USD) if you follow the route I suggested. For those in Canada, House of Knives also sells these parts. It’s hard to find on the website so I searched on google and house of knives came up. Comparably, $89.95 (USD) is the cost of the upgrade kit.
For anyone who read this far, thank you for listening to my spiel. I hope this helps!