Chef’sChoice Professional Electric Knife Sharpeners FlexHone/Strop With 100-Percent Diamond Abrasives And Precision Angle Guides For 20-Degree Straight-Edge and Serrated Knives, 2-Stage, White

...and that is purely because I am a traditionalist when it comes to sharpening knives. I spend a lot of time outdoors and sharpening a knife the old fashioned way is an essential skill for every man...and sadly maybe for the woman whose man won't develop the skill. Even during a stint in the deli and meat business for 9 years, I stuck with the old methods. As often as I had to sharpen knives, only occasionally and with a lot of work was I able to get our knives really razor sharp. Other times, they were only just pretty sharp!Many people don't realize that the most dangerous utensil you have in the kitchen is a dull knife. A dull knife requires more force to do the same work. Dull knives are more susceptible to slipping and combined with the force that moved them, can still produce chilling and even life threatening accidental cuts. A sharp knife requires much less force, can cut more precisely and is easier to control.I bought this device for my son and daughter in law for Christmas 2008. They owned excellent quality knives, but they were sharp only for the first few months after they bought them. After that, I discovered they may as well have used a butter knife because that's the condition these knives reached pretty quick. The knives also suffered from the very bad habit of being stored loosely in a drawer. Consequently they had nicks in addition to just being dull. I was afraid that my daughter in law would end up with a nasty cut. The situation got so bad that instead of sharpening the dang things, my daughter in law would just buy a new knife each year!I used this device for the first time just last week only because I remained as stubborn about my son learning how to use it as I did about my own traditionalist methods. He and a buddy tried using it...without looking at the instructions... and didn't get anywhere with it. I learned very quickly that had I been smart, I would have bought one of these machines for ourselves when we started our deli business in 1994 !!It is important to read and follow the instructions to get the best service from this machine. Starting with the dullest 10" knife and using only the weight of the knife, I drew the knife blade in 10 alternating passes. This very quickly produced the burr sought in the instructions for stage 1 along the entire length of the blade. (Normally, a knife in better condition would need only a total of 2-4 alternating passes to produce the same result.) After reaching the burr stage, only 4 alternating passes (2 on each side) in stage 2 produced an edge on this knife that I could use to shave the hair off the back of my left index finger! I gave that knife one more stage 2 pass for each side and went on to the next knife. This time fewer passes...same results! My daughter in law gave it a shot with another dull knife that would only smush a tomato and produced an edge in only seconds that would cut tomatoes paper thin! She also got razor sharp results on a short bladed paring knife!Once a knife is this sharp, the machine won't be needed for quite a while. Generally, only a pass or two with a high quality ridged sharpening steel such as those offered by Forschner or Mundial will be enough to maintain the edge for months of household kitchen use. This is because the edge of a razor sharp knife becomes so thin that it will "fold over" in the shape of a J during use. The steel straightens the edge and restores it's razor sharpness with just a few VERY LIGHT strokes. The vision you might have of the butcher flailing his knife 10-20 times with the steel to restore the edge is really overkill and mostly for show. The two light strokes should do it...and as quietly and lightly as possible. I have even used the bottom of a ceramic coffee cup or the back edge of another high quality knife in place of a sharpening steel, although the coffee cup will remove some material from the blade of the knife.In just minutes with this machine, we had 8 razor sharp knives and accomplished what could have literally taken HOURS to achieve with traditional methods. If you are not getting the same results with your machine, my humble guess would be that you are not using it properly. the steel in your knife is very hard or they are in really bad shape. Only as a last resort would I fault this machine. We were even somewhat saddened when we were done!Remember to store your knives in a way that keeps them banging against each other. We prefer wood blocks designed for storing knives. They can get pricey if you buy them retail. We managed to pick ours up at Goodwill for $2....a real bargain. They have them every time I go in there.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------UPDATE 11/29/2010This sharpener worked so well on my daughter-in-law's knives that I took one of mine that I have been maintaining the traditional way on this trip to sharpen it on her sharpener. The knives I did for the above review needed only touch up sharpening and was done with them in a few seconds. My 10" kitchen knife, on the other hand, needed a lot of work. I was getting nowhere on the 1st stage and thought I might be using it wrong. In reality, the angle I had sharpened mine to manually was incorrect and the machine was putting the correct edge on them. I lost count of the # of 1st stage passes made to get the burr, but when I did, a few passes in the 2nd stage had the knife razor sharp. If you are not getting anywhere with this sharpener, you need to make sure you are following the directions and be persistent to get that "burr". Then you will be only seconds away from the sharpest edge you've ever had...

I’ve owned an older version of this sharpener for many years. Bought this for second home. This model is improved by adding plastic blade guards which ensure the proper angle for sharpening. Pays for itself vs paying for vendor sharpening. Easy to use. This basic model seems more than adequate for home use.

We had a Chef's Choice 300 for about ten years and wore it out. All of our knives were like Lightsabers - really a good sharpening tool. Got this sharpener today and it took awhile to figure out how to get quality results. I will give it time and hopefully can figure out the "finer points".

Im a Carnivore. I buy meat in bulk to save money. I bought my first real knife when I started eating this lifestyle. It came with a metal stick to "sharpen it". Well, after cutting up my first couple whole ribeyes, it was dull. I tried the metal stick it came with, ( can't remember what that thing is called) anyway, um, no. So I looked on YouTube, how do I sharpen my dull knife? Turns out, there's all sorts. Wow! Some people use wet blocks and rub at precise angle to achieve edge needed. Also, um wow! Not for me. This counter top electric knife sharpener is super easy to use. For me, and my needs it works! The angle needed, is built into it, no stress just follow the directions, BUT MAKE SURE YOU READ ALL DIRECTIONS BEFORE USE!I acctually put off using it for a while because the directions booklet is bigger than I expected it to be. But once you read the whole thing, you'll easily and completely understand why you need to proceed in the order they tell you to. I didn't know there was so much going into the making of my knife blade, but now I do. That is way people spend so much time with thier stones to sharpen them. But with this sharpener, you won't need to worry about it. It's done for you. Just read them first!

It takes quite a product to make my husband comment about it, but we hadn't had this very long before he said "hey, by the way, that knife sharpener works great!". That's a good enough vouch for me, honestly. I have since watched him use it (so I didn't mess it up) and used it myself, and it does seem to do a good job.We've used manual knife sharpeners which do work, more or less, but this one is much more dummy-proof, which is great when you're clueless like me. Quicker too, as you'd expect. It has gently flexible guards that guide the blade at the right angle against the grinding wheels. It's a little noisy but I wouldn't expect anything less for a knife sharpener. End result is a sharper knife, so we've been very satisfied with this bad boy.

This product was an easy sell for me, I am a line cook and we use this same product at my place of employment, easy to use,sharpens blades very nicely, this product won't break the bank, it doesn't take up much space, and is designed to fit most areas without any hassle.

I purchased the Model 320 to sharpen my 15 year old Twin Signature J.A.Henckel 13 piece knife set that has a 20 degree edge. It was easy to use per their instructions and they all ended up cutting easily through the paper edge test. They required going through the first stage a couple of times since they were so dull. Now I hope I didn't make them to sharp.

Pretty darn good for kitchen knives. Really doesn’t work for thicker camp knives though. Overall I am satisfied.