What is the best knife sharpener?

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Herbert Ramos

What is the best knife sharpener?

Hey everyone - What’s the best knife sharpener you’ve found? I’m thinking of buying a new one so that I can keep a better edge on my kitchen knives. There ... are so many different knife sharpeners out there and they can be pretty pricey so I want to make sure I’m getting the best one. Any suggestions? Choosing a knife sharpener can be tricky, but most home chefs can get away with using a manual pull-through knife sharpener. Pull-through knife sharpeners are sharpening blades that you can drag your knife along, thus sharpening your knife. Manual knife sharpeners are cheaper than automatic ones, and as long as the sharpener is high-quality, will last a long time in a home kitchen setting. Any pull-through knife sharpener with a long warranty and good customer reviews is probably a safe bet when looking for a new sharpener. Read more

Top Community Picks

#1 Mercer Culinary

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Discussion highlights:

  • Quickly puts new edges on dull knives
  • Eliminates the need for a whetstone
  • Sharpens both Western and Asian knives
  • Easy to master sharpening technique
  • Won’t damage expensive knives
  • Very safe to use, has no-slip grip
  • Simple, elegant design
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#1 Mercer Culinary

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rating star 0rating star 1rating star 2rating star 3rating star 4
...

Discussion highlights:

  • Quickly puts new edges on dull knives
  • Eliminates the need for a whetstone
  • Sharpens both Western and Asian knives
  • Easy to master sharpening technique
  • Won’t damage expensive knives
  • Very safe to use, has no-slip grip
  • Simple, elegant design
Check price on Amazon

Top comments:

Jerry Hudson

The Mercer Culinary Double Diamond is definitely the best knife sharpener I’ve ever used. It works great on all of my kitchen knives and is easy to use. I’m in the catering business, so I’ve tried a lot of different sharpeners and this is clearly my favorite. The Mercer is simple, well made, and doesn’t cost a fortune. I love how secure the handle is to grip and the design is very aesthetically pleasing.

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Jamison Wallace

I totally agree. The Mercer is a great alternative to a whetstone. The diamond abrasives give my knives a fantastic edge in about a minute. It’s a big advantage to have the sharpening and honing stages in the same tool.

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Esther Roy

@Jerry Hudson, is this sharpener designed specifically for Mercer knives?

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Scotty Burleson

You can use this sharpener on any kitchen knife, regardless of the brand. It even does a fantastic job of sharpening fairly cheap knives that have gotten dull.

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Darius Linton

I have a set of Mercer knives and it’s perfect for them, but it also works on any knife that you need to sharpen. You can also use this with Japanese knives, which is ideal because I was recently given a really nice Kai Shun chef’s knife as a gift!

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Lionel Mooney

I’ve always used a whetstone to sharpen knives before, because it’s what my dad taught me, but I’m glad I decided to give the Mercer Double Diamond a try. It’s the best pull-through sharpener I’ve ever come across. The instructions are easy to follow and this puts a really sharp double-beveled edge on all of my blades. I’ve tried it with a cleaver, chef’s knife, paring knife, boning knife, and fillet knife.

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Buddy Travers

I still use a whetstone (I’m old school), but the Mercer is great for an instant touch up every few days, especially if you’re a culinary professional whose knives get a lot of use!

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Rosa Cummings

I highly recommend the Mercer Double Diamond. I bought one for my husband, who’s a trained chef, and he loves it. I’ve also used it a few times. I used to leave all of the sharpening to him, but this tool is very simple to operate. It’s easy to control the sharpening angle and it’s really satisfying to put a nice sharp edge on a blunt knife!

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#2 Brod & Taylor

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Discussion highlights:

  • Eye-catching design
  • Not as sturdy as professional model
  • Automatically adjusts to knife angle
  • Works with serrated and single-bevel
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#2 Brod & Taylor

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...

Discussion highlights:

  • Eye-catching design
  • Not as sturdy as professional model
  • Automatically adjusts to knife angle
  • Works with serrated and single-bevel
Check price on Amazon

Top comments:

Byron Williams

I recommend the Brod & Taylor Classic. The tungsten carbide sharpening surfaces do a great job of putting sharp edges on my knives. Theoretically, you can use this sharpener to coarse ... sharpen, hone, and polish your knives -- just make sure to use the right technique. However, I almost always use a ceramic rod to put a fine hone on my knives rather than relying on this. Read more

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Donald Boudreau

I first saw this sharpener at a friend’s house and the unusual design caught my eye. It looks cool on a countertop, although the base of the Classic is thick plastic rather ... than stainless steel, so it’s not as sturdy as the professional model. Once you get the hang of it, this sharpener is fairly easy to use, but I’m glad my friend was there to show me exactly what to do. You don’t need to apply much pressure since the sharpener should do all the work for you. Read more

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Ryan Pham

The best thing about the Brod & Taylor is that the spring-action bars automatically adjust to fit the angle of your knife, anywhere from 12 degrees to 20 degrees. However, be ... prepared for it to shave some of the metal off your knife ... I wouldn’t trust it with an expensive blade but it works well if you need to create a new edge on a dull knife. Read more

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Top comments:

Sandra Cantu

We have a PriorityChef manual knife sharpener in our kitchen and it’s a big hit with the entire family. I’m not a knife expert so I just wanted ... something that would be safe and easy to use, since my teenage son and daughter both like to cook. As most people know, having dull knives can be really dangerous. We’ve sharpened all of the knives in our kitchen and it’s made a pretty big difference when it comes to chopping vegetables. I also like how the PriorityChef has a no-slip grip on its base. Read more

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Gregg Yates

@Sandra Cantu, have you used this to sharpen any serrated knives?

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Sandra Cantu

Yep, we ran our bread knife through it and it helped a bit. You have to be careful to only use the second polishing slot (the one with ceramic wheels, not diamond ... wheels) for serrated knives.Read more

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Top comments:

Bradley S. Bachman

The Chef’sChoice AngleSelect 1520 has served me pretty well as a sharpener for both my Western-style and Asian-style knives, and my ... hunting knives, too. It might be more expensive (and more powerful) than you need, though, if you’re a knife-sharpening novice or if you only have pretty standard kitchen knives. Read more

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Enid Aiken

@Bradley S. Bachman, how do the three stages on this sharpener work?

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Bradley S. Bachman

The first two stages use diamond abrasives to sharpen and hone. You choose the stage based on the angle of your knife blade: 15 degrees or 20 degrees. The third ... stage uses a stropping disc to polish the blades. Read more

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Top comments:

Ambrose Muniz

I really like using the Buck Knives EdgeTek. It’s a sharpening steel with three different grits (coarse, medium, and fine). I mainly use this on my ... hunting knives out in the garage, but I don’t see why you couldn’t use it on kitchen knives. Be careful when you use the coarse grit though … if you don’t know what you’re doing it might take some chunks off of the knife blade.Read more

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Mattie Gardner

@Ambrose Muniz, is it easy to tell which side has which grit?

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Ambrose Muniz

You should be able to tell by the feel, but I also used a permanent marker to identify each side, since the markings on the handle are too small for me to read.

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#6 Smith’s

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Discussion highlights:

  • Portable, inexpensive
  • For pocket knives, not kitchen knives
  • Not as effective as a whetstone
  • Could dull some knives
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Top comments:

Chang T.

If you’re interested in a portable option, the Smith’s Pocket Pal could work for you. It has two slots, one with carbide blades for putting an ... edge on dull knives, and one with ceramic stones for finishing and polishing. There’s also a tapered diamond rod to use on serrated knives. It seems like pretty decent quality, especially for the price.Read more

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Ryan Ackerman

The Smith’s Pocket Pal is a decent choice if you’re going to take it on camping trips, or for hunting and fishing. It’s alright for pocket knives, ... and simpler and easier to use than a whetstone and oil, but there are much better options for kitchen knives! Read more

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Jesse Fairchild

I think this is a classic example of “you get what you pay for.” I wanted to find a budget knife sharpener, but the Pocket Pal has turned out to ... be pretty useless. It seemed to make my knives duller each time I used it, which shouldn’t be possible! Read more

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