Goodbye whetstone...almost!
...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 11/29/2010 This 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... Read more