Electric Knife Sharpener

[Wayne Sieber]

Has anyone had any success/failure with an Electric Knife Sharpener?

[Cliff Wagenbach]

I have a Magic Chef that does a great job on filet knives and butcher knives.

Don't use it on your hunting or pocket knives though!

Cliff

[Wayne Sieber]

Cliff - Thanks, but why don't/can't you use it on pocket or hunting knives?

[SDHNTR]

Well, I worked at a butcher shop for 5 years and my dad was a butcher so I have dealt with many styles of sharpeners. My opinion will always be that oil bath sharpeners (stones submersed in mineral oil) work the best, but they tend to require practice and more time. But I have used some electric sharpeners too. Electric sharpeners that use a belt can be tricky and I would advise staying away from them unless you have experience with sharpening knives. The electric sharpeners with rotating stone wheels probably work the best. And I would recommend getting one with an adjustment for the angle of the blade. They usually come with a book that will recommend what angle to use depending on what you will use the knife for, and usually their recommendation is a good place to start. I am usually more concerned about how hard or soft the metal of the blade my knife has than if it is a fillet knife, butcher knife, or pocket knife. Harder metals are tougher to sharpen but hold an edge longer. For a hunting knife I prefer a softer metal so it is easier to touch up in the field with a steel. Frequently running your knife over a steel will prolong the need to sharpen and the life of the knife. My best piece of advice is to contact a local butcher with knife and sharpening questions because that is their lively hood and they tend to be more informative than salesmen.

[delcecchi]

The Chef's choice 120 works well for me. The other one that folks seem to like is the Edge Pro Apex, although it is not electric.

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Quote:

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Cliff - Thanks, but why don't/can't you use it on pocket or hunting knives?

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The Sharpener that I have does not put the right angle on my hunting knives or on my pocket knife and without the right angle it is very hard to get an edge that will stay sharp. I do not know about the other electric sharpeners.

Cliff

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Mitchel,

You are right on there, but for the average guy like me the electric sharpener at least gets us close!

Cliff

[Opie]

I have a Chef's Choice, not sure of the model though (has 3 different sharpening levels/areas), and it works pretty good for most knives. I totally agree with Mitchel that a pass or two on a steel before every use will really prolong the times between sharpening. I believe that the steel is the most under-used piece of cutlery equipment in our homes.

Dean Thorn

[nitroant]

This is a little off topic, but still fits. I posted on here a while back looking for places that sharpen knives professionally and there was little to no feed back. Maybe a few others will have some ideas.

[BLACKJACK]

I have the Chef's choice 120 with the three slots - course, medium, and fine and I love it!! I only use the course on a real dull knife. I used to have the dullest kitchen knives around but now when they get dull, I can do all my kitchen knives in less than five minutes. I also use it on my fillet knives and my Buck hunting knife - it works great!! One of my best gifts ever!

Will have to try and incorporate the steel into the routine. What exactly does the steel do? And how often should you use it before you resharpen?

[Northlander]

For places that sharpen knives the phone book has many of them. I dont know where you are but stop by a resturaunt and ask them who does theres.

We have hardware stores that you can drop your sharps off at and in a few days they come back sharp as can be. Thats what I do. I get every fillet knife and some house knives sharpened every summer. About $3 a knife.

I also have had good luck with the Chefs Choice Sharpeners.

[SDHNTR]

I too agree that a steel is the most under-used piece of sharpening equipment yet nearly the most important. What a steel is, is a long smooth metal rod with a handle and a guard to protect your hands. You run the edge of your blade along the steel rod several times on each side. What is does is straight the fine edge of your blade back out, because the cutting edge of your knife folds over gradually as you cut with it. As a former butcher, I keep a steel on hand with me at all times, and yes even when hunting. I run my knife over the steel after each deer I gut or after filleting several fish. It will amazingly prolong the need to sharpen.

The best place to get knives sharpened is at a local butcher shop if they will do it for you. Otherwise, you can sometimes find in the YellowPages under knives, people listed that sharpen knives.

If you use a sharpener with coarse, medium, and fine stones, the coarse is to put a whole new edge on a knife and should only be used if the knife is incredibly dull. The fine should be used to touch up an edge or should be used to touch up a new edge after using the medium or coarse stones. I also lightly run all my knives across a steel after sharpening them on a sharpener too. It tends to refine the edge just a little better.