Fantastic Knife Sharpener - Chef's Choice Edge Select 120

[Terrence Pickles]

I hate a dull knife. Through the years I have owned all sorts of electric and fancy manual rigs. I even have one of the Chef's Choice models. And none have kept my knives as sharp as this one I have been using for a few years:



It costs less than $9 and it makes a great stocking stuffer for friends that like to cook. It is fairly aggressive and I guess it would eat a knife down to nothing if used frequently, but I only use once or twice a year on each knife to restore the edge. Regular honing with a steel keeps the knives wicked sharp. 

You should be careful with this type of sharpener as it takes off A LOT of metal. The chef's knives at the restaurant I work at are in awful shape because of these things. Towards the handle the curve of the blades are actually concave.

One thing on a crappy $5 cisco knife but I wouldn't touch a decent knife with it.

[toyman]

I have a few 'draw thru' sharpeners in the kitchen.  They make the knife seem sharp because they basically leave a micro-serrated edge that tears more than cuts.  Which is ok, if that's what your going for and you understand the amount of material that is being removed from your knife.  I've also used the Gatco type sharpener with reasonable success.  Once I started buying a few Japanese kitchen knives and researching sharpening them, I came across the Edgepro sharpener.  http://www.edgeproinc.com/cart.html  It's a little pricey, but it's very easy to use and can be used on all knives, even single bevels.  Shapton and Chosera also have stones available for it if you really want a fine polished edge.  I use it on my Henckles knives, my Japanese kitchen knives, and my pocket knives.  Friends and family have also requested my services to sharpen their knives.  I guess that's the only negative!    

[c0mpl3x]

with a grooved wooden block angled to pre-sharpen a knife on a stone or oil/whetstone, you can sharpen a knife to within dead accuracy