Knife sharpener....spec me?

Reality Bites said:
My diamond coated knife sharpener is getting very dull now, lasted me 12 years or so but need a new knife sharpener.

tried looking at reviews and bought a cheap “any sharp” which came today and has likely caused more damage to my knives than good.

any recommendation for a decent knife sharpener?
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I got an any sharp don't use it on any expensive knives LUL

It will get a knife terribly sharp but it also scrapes off so much material over time your blade is ruined.

great for like wilko own brand premium knives though that I think are like 15quid look okay, fairly heavy and it doesn't matter if the edge gets destroyed over a year or two

I've got an Anysharp and it seems to do well with the random knives we've got in our kitchen
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Each sharpening you can see the millimetres if scrapes off the blade though, it's not a nice finish either.

yep it's terribly sharp, you will slice your skin but the actual finish is terrible, under a microscope it must look all jagged and messed up with tons of sharp spiky edges.

don't use it on a nice knife, but if you want a cheap knife to last a lot longer than usual yea it's great
 
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WJA96 said:
If you haven’t placed the order already there are two issues with the Minosharp that you should be aware of before you buy.

1. It will sharpen your knives to the Japanese Industrial standard of 17/34 degrees with a dual bevelled edge. So if you have older Wüsthoff knives which are 20/40 degree knives then the first time you sharpen those knives you will need to completely recut the edge angle which could take 40-50 passes through the coarse wheel. You only have to do this once.

2. It is designed for Santoku and larger blades with hanging handles so if you are trying to sharpen a small blade with a straight handle the handle will hit the water wheel guide and you end up with an unsharpened section near the handle. This doesn’t occur with bigger knives but paring knives and Swiss Army knives will have a blunt section at the end near the handle.
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I doesn’t get the tip of the knife well as you can only get one side in contact with the wheel at the tip. Works well enough for me however.
 
arknor said:
I got an any sharp don't use it on any expensive knives LUL

It will get a knife terribly sharp but it also scrapes off so much material over time your blade is ruined.

great for like wilko own brand premium knives though that I think are like 15quid look okay, fairly heavy and it doesn't matter if the edge gets destroyed over a year or two


Each sharpening you can see the millimetres if scrapes off the blade though, it's not a nice finish either.

yep it's terribly sharp, you will slice your skin but the actual finish is terrible, under a microscope it must look all jagged and messed up with tons of sharp spiky edges.

don't use it on a nice knife, but if you want a cheap knife to last a lot longer than usual yea it's great
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This is pretty much how I would have described it.

I've got some non-expensive knives that have coloured (black/grey) blades. Sticking them through the anysharp you can see it's chewed away at the knife coating.

Don't professional chefs use like a rod type sharpener? I appreciate it'll probably take some skill to use versus one of these anysharp devices.
 
Semple said:
This is pretty much how I would have described it.

I've got some non-expensive knives that have coloured (black/grey) blades. Sticking them through the anysharp you can see it's chewed away at the knife coating.

Don't professional chefs use like a rod type sharpener? I appreciate it'll probably take some skill to use versus one of these anysharp devices.
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That's a steel and is used to hone rather than actually sharpen as far as I understand.
 
Semple said:
Presumably regularly honing requires less sharpening?

I would guess sharpening is only required if the blade gets a nick in it.
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Honing just straightens the edge back up slightly, if done regularly then it will keep your edges sharp, but you will still need to sharpen properly every so often.

My experience is that the ceramic wheel sharpeners are rubbish and cease to work once the wheel has a coating of metal particles. They’re a pain in the arse to try and clean and hone the edge more than sharpen.

I use a knife wizard electric sharpener which gives very good & consistent results.

And for the love of god, do not use the anysharp on any kind of expensive knife, they’re brutal on knives and cut a very rough but sharp new edge, and takes off a large amount of metal in doing so.
 
Reality Bites said:
Who’d have thought buying something to sharpen your knives could be such a minefield
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who'd have thought cheap sharpeners scratch off so much of your blade to make a new edge :p

one of my knives is so worn down from sharpening the blade has became too thick and the anysharp refuses to touch it lol
 
arknor said:
who'd have thought cheap sharpeners scratch off so much of your blade to make a new edge :p

one of my knives is so worn down from sharpening the blade has became too thick and the anysharp refuses to touch it lol
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Just bought an AnysharpX, will have it tomorrow. Thought it worth a punt, given the marketing claims, which if not met i'll return it for a refund.
 
Someone I know bought this.

https://www.silverarchery.co.uk/products/kme-the-ultimate-sharpening-system

You do need.to be careful with the pull throughs as mentioned. Henckels for example have a completely different bevel to Japanese and other European knives, so their pull through will ruin other blades and vice versa.

I've been in the market for a whetstone tool but never pulled the trigger yet...
 
DampCat said:
Get a whetstone, then you can use it to sharpen all sorts of stuff. Gives you complete control of your knives
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Yes. If you can maintain a precise angle. The whetstones only do the same thing as the ceramic wheels or the v-shaped devices or the motorised grinders. You rub the knife blade at an angle over the oiled abrasive surface. The skill is in being able to keep the blade at the edge angle - there is no magic in this. The skill in using the whetstone is where you put your fingers under the blade as you move it around. Put them too far in and the angle is too great, too far back and the angle is too shallow. Some whetstone kits come with angle blocks to help you achieve the correct angle but they’re a crutch. Anyone skilled just slips their fingers under the blade.

Professionals who use knives constantly (industrial butchers) have their blades sharpened off site by specialist companies and in-between they use spring-loaded edging tools - the original was called the ErgoSteel but Caribou, Dick and Victorinox etc. make something similar now the patent has elapsed. Have a look at a Cutting Edge Services website for proper tools.

https://www.cuttingedgeservices.co.uk/knives-steels-and-blades

The only thing I can say is I was working in a factory in Germany and I was allowed to do the knife sharpening course run by Dick Messer Sölingen and they did whetstones, steels, Dick’s version of the ErgoSteel and they all do the same thing. They wipe off tiny bits of metal to achieve an angle. It doesn’t really matter what that angle is, so long as it’s less than 20 degrees. The lower the angle theoretically the sharper the knife but as you drop the angle you weaken the edge so it’s easier to nick it on a bone or if you hit the cutting block underneath. And once you nick the edge you have have a saw, and that rips the thing you are cutting, rather than slicing through it.

If your knife is being destroyed by a sharpening device then it’s because you are applying too much pressure or you’ve bought a chocolate steel blade. A lot of cheap knives are soft 410 or 420 stainless steel. Wüsthoff use their own version of 425 stainless steel (56 hardness) so is still pretty soft and easy to sharpen (or destroy the edge). Global use a 440 stainless steel (58 hardness) and that’s why they sell a ceramic sharpener. You won’t get them sharp any other way. The industrial knives from Dick, Victorinox etc. use anything up to 460 stainless steel so you can grind them and use them all day, but they are brittle and snap easily.

There really isn’t anything clever about this. Set the angle all along the blade and it will cut. I’m pretty sure @EdwardTeach bought a MinoSharp and it would be interesting to see what they think of it.
 
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