McGowan's Firestone Electric Sharpener quickly hones kitchen and sporting knives to a short functional hollow ground edge. The Firestone works well on utility grade knives commonly used for kitchen prep, but save your finest blades for the whetstone. The angle this machine sets works efficiently but doesn't match up to ...

The Chef's Choice 450 two-stage diamond wheel knife sharpener allows even those chefs who don't like to sharpen knives to work with sharp blades. The bevel it produces and the quality of the cutting edge won't match professional standards, but many good cooks don't care so much about the steel ...

The Ultimate Edge Model 10NUF Oval Ultra Fine honing steel finishes edges of blades with a high polish. If you already keep your knives in good shape, this will bring the edge a degree higher in quality. Don't expect to restore a drawer full of dull knives with the ...

Adding fine abrasive action to the resetting function of the steel hone, the Ultimate Edge Model 10W Gourmet 10-inch Oval Diamond sharpening steel outperforms the traditional sharpening steel. The Ultimate Edge 10W won't completely take the place of flat whetstones -- still necessary for reworking badly worn or damaged blades ...

The Chef's Choice Commercial Model 2000 Diamond Hone Knife Sharpener evens the playing field when it comes to knife sharpening. You meet all sorts of people in restaurant kitchens -- people with skill and talent, and people who are just there for the pay check. Professional quality commercial kitchen equipment evens out ...

Made from a solid rod of chrome vanadium stainless steel and embedded with a matrix of fine industrial diamonds, this unusual honing steel was developed for the Global knives manufactured by Yoshikin of Japan. Global recommends sharpening with their series of ceramic powder stones, an improvement over the Japanese ...

A matching sharpening steel for fine Wusthof Cutlery, this 10-inch honing steel quickly resets the blades of most good kitchen knives, regardless of brand. The most important feature beyond usability is the handle, styled to match Wusthof patterns and sporting the trademark trident rivet on the end. The steel adds ...

Combination stones are always partly a great idea and partly a compromise. There's no question that individual stones work a bit better than the flip-over versions, but with a two-sided double grit stone you get convenience and speed. No matter which stone system you choose, if you own Global ...

Produced by Yoshikin for upkeep of their especially hard-edged cutlery, these stones bring more efficient materials to the old Japanese waterstone method of maintaining sharp edges. Global knives feature long lasting blades which seldom need sharpening but are too hard to respond well to resetting with a sharpening steel. Edges may chip ...

For most chefs, the sharpening steel is the preferred method of resetting and honing the edges of good kitchen cutlery. Ordinary honing steels do little more than reform the edge of dulled blades. If damage goes beyond slight dulling to rounding and blunting, reworking with a stone might be the only ...

Many modern high-end knives are built with steel so hard that the edge chips if used improperly. Micro-chips may not cause problems, but visible chips do. To restore a jagged edge, you either need the help of the factory or a special tool and some time to reflect on your mistakes. The ...

The 100W Diamond Hone Knife Sharpener from Chef's Choice reshapes edges of worn and dulled kitchen and sporting knives in a three stage process. The first and coarsest set of diamond impregnated honing wheels puts a preset bevel on the blade edge. Second and third stages with progressively finer ...

Applying industrial diamond abrasive technology to the already efficient honing steel most chefs know and use, the Ultimate Edge Model 12W Professional Diamond Hone polishes and resets the edges of high carbon steel blades. Though it won't do the job of a flat grindstone, the hone does put off that inevitable ...

With coarse and fine honing plates, a secure hand grip, and several aids to accuracy, the Chef's Choice Multi-Edge Diamond Hone Knife Sharpener does a good job of restoring the edges of most kitchen knives. The system isn't foolproof and shouldn't be expected to match the work of a sharpening stone. For ...

With only two stages of blade sharpening, the Chef's Choice 310 Diamond Hone could be overmatched by genuinely worn knives. If your knives are still in reasonably good shape, the two high-speed honing disc systems in the 310 should do an excellent job of restoring an edge. Major repairs could ...

Something as simple as a honing steel seems difficult to improve, but this ten-inch honing steel from the Henckels Twin Four Star series has a few more things to like. First, it's made with steel hard enough to tune the high carbon stainless in the Four Star knives. Not ...

This handy knife sharpener, the Twinsharp from J. A. Henckels, is designed to do the same job as a honing steel without all the flash and flourish. Although the hardened steel and ceramic wheels of this gadget will do a fine job of resetting the edge of even old knives, ...

This fine 5000-grit synthetic waterstone from Yoshikin, maker of Global cutlery, is the recommended sharpening method for fine Global knives and an excellent way to finish the edge of any high-end Japanese plain edge blade. With a uniform density and a long-lasting wide surface, this hardened ceramic powder whetstone sits securely ...

Chroma Haiku knives are traditional blades that need matching systems of care, and this Medium 800-grit waterstone is one of the basics you'll need for correctly maintaining the Haiku knife.

This old-style waterstone needs to soak in water before use for about fifteen minutes until it's totally saturated and no more bubbles ...

With the advent of affordable industrial diamond abrasives, sharpening systems like this Chef's Choice 464 Pronto have actually begun to work properly. Older versions of this patented idea used hardened steel wheels or ceramic rods and yielded uncertain results, but the Pronto produces consistent results with a minimum of practice.

The ...

Wusthof's ten inch Sharpening Steel is a level higher than the cheap versions many of us depend upon for honing our cutlery daily. Hardened for greater efficiency but still durable and resilient, the Wusthof version will reduce the time you spend on blades and give you more time to cook.

Cheap sharpening steels ...

Unlike many short lived home sharpening systems, this professional diamond wheel electric sharpener from Wusthof of Solingen, Germany, carries a lifetime warranty. With most home appliance warranties falling between ninety days and two years, that's an indication of something special.

Two sharpening slots in this brushed stainless steel grinder house coarse and ...

Diamond Machining Technology produces this space age whetstone, in the same dimensions we've always used but with materials and efficiency far beyond what we've grown to expect from ordinary carburundum. This solid nickel sheet, with a surface layer of fine diamond grit alternating with plastic discs that speed sharpening by ...

It can be tricky to keep up with all the different Chef's Choice electric sharpeners. Read our reviews of the various choices and your head might start to spin.

The long and short of it is this... If you've got exclusively Asian knives, the 316 is probably for you. If ...

Most knife buffs turn up their noses at electric sharpeners, and for good reason. There are enough crummy ones out there that it's usually good advice to just avoid them altogether. The worst of them will chew up your edges, taking off a good chunk of metal while leaving them jagged and ...

If you're a junkie for sharp edges, as I am, you've probably tried nearly every tool or technique chasing the perfect edge.

The Lansky is one of the few products I've used which has withstood the test of time. Using a design which features a simple fixture into which the knife is clamped ...

There are a lot of ways you can go with sharpening your kitchen knives.

Want to take up a new hobby? Invest in a high-end whetstone, get yourself some training and get yourself some of the best edges you've ever had.

Want to get great edges but have neither the time nor the ...

The Chef's Choice lineup of electric sharpeners can be a bit tricky to navigate. We've written about the Chef's Choice M120 and the M130 previously, so now we'll tackle the 110.

First, let's get something out of the way... Chef's Choice stands out among electric sharpener manufacturers by making high-quality ...

Throw a stick in a department store and you're bound to hit at least two different knife sharpening devices. Between electric sharpeners, waterstones and pull-through systems, it's hard to figure out which is the right choice.

The Henckels Twinsharp Duo is a manual pull-through system that costs just twenty bucks. It's not ...

How to sharpen a knife? Let me count the ways...

Water stones, oil stones, electric sharpeners, professional re-sharpening, belt sanders and the back of a can opener just to name a few.

And then there's this thing. Diamond Fingers sounds like a James-Bond villain and this gadget looks like something that 007 ...

A lot of people really like this sharpener. Ninety percent of the customer reviewers on Amazon gave it a four star or five star rating. Note their comments, saying things like "It does an amazing job on sharpening knives" and "It's amazing how quick and effecient this sharpener is!"

And it's less ...

Thinking about buying an electric sharpener? Then you need to read this.

Electric sharpeners are dangerous! And I don't mean dangerous to you, I mean dangerous to your knives. In the best case, a poor-quality sharpener will leave your edges dull. Worst case, it will remove a ton of metal from your ...

Using an electric sharpener is an easy way to ensure you get a consistent edge without delving into the art of manual sharpening.

But be careful which electric sharpener you use. Some are too aggressive -- they'll eat away at your blade and you'll soon be left with a useless knife.

Others don't sharpen ...

Many amateur chef's are intimidated by knife sharpening. While unafraid to tackle a dinner party for twelve, they've been told that knife sharpening should be done by a professional.

And yet, sharpening doesn't have to be scary. It requires some time, some practice, and some attention to detail but, as a devout cook, ...

Many hobbyist cooks underestimate the value of a knife's sharpness. When they first bring a new knife home, they're thrilled with how well it feels and how well it cuts.

Six months later, their knives are now dull as a doornail. The cook wonders why they didn't hold up so well and goes off in search of newer, better knives.

But wait just a minute there! A little maintenance can go a long way toward preserving sharpness. Do it right and you can extend the life of your knives indefinitely. Learn about maintenance before you buy knives and you can save yourself a ton of money.

If you want great performance from your knives, look for knives that are sharp and will remain sharp with proper maintenance instead of ones that are "maintenance free."

Don't know how to maintain knives? Read on....