ChefsChoice Professional Manual Knife Sharpeners Pronto Hone for 15-Degree Straight-Edge and Serrated Knives with Precise Angle Control Compact

I have a couple of Shun knives as well as a Wusthof santoku knife. I've been using a DMT sharpening stone with an alignment system to sharpen these knives. I'm usually pretty good with things that require patience and precision like knife sharpening, but while I could get my knives reasonably sharp, I couldn't really get a great edge. Frustrated, I bought the Chef's Choice. First of all, the packaging is frustration free. I didn't require a sharp or dull knife to open it. Bonus. The instructions were clear enough, though they do indicate that you are to hold this with your left hand and draw the knife through it with your right. As I'm a lefty, the first time I used it was rather awkward. However, since you're instructed to draw the blade through the sharpener in both directions, I threw caution to the wind and spun the sharpener around and did it the comfy way for me. Worked great! The sharpener is slightly asymmetrical, in that the entry on the 'correct' side is slightly rounded. That just doesn't seem to matter. I was able to put a great edge on all my knives. In fact, they seemed almost too sharp on the first use as the blade would 'bite' the cutting board a little too aggressively. I actually used a leather strop to smooth this out but it isn't necessary. So now each couple of uses, I just draw the blade through the fine side a couple of times and I'm good to go. So, nice, quick, sturdy, and more than adequate for most people. Just remember that unless you want to put an entirely new edge on a western knife (20-25 degree blade angle), keep this away from those. That being said, there's nothing wrong with taking those knives down to 15 degrees. However, those knives may not hold that edge well depending on a number of factors. Read more

Sharpens like a Sword! Make sure if you don't know how to use this sharpener YouTube has a lot of videos on this particular Knife Sharpener and how to use it the right way, I followed some great videos and boy does this sharpener work like a charm, Best Bang for the Buck, Follow the instructions and you will get it down, Very easy to use! Read more

First I am a home kitchen cook who likes SHARP kitchen knives and have several . I bought this because of the 15 degree angle . The first two knives I sharpened were a Petty/Utility 6 inch and a 4 1/2 inch paring knife, Stainless Japanese made . The Petty Knife has a HRc 56,the paring knife HRc 61 . It took a lot more strokes to finish the HRc 61 but did a pretty good job on both, but I did a final touch up with 1 Micron Borium Carbide on a Basal Strop . One thing that did happen on both of those is there was a line of rubbing on both sides of the knives which I thought was from contact with the rubber on the sharpening slots . But under magnification I found they were very fine scratches . That I didn't like, almost rubbed the logo off the paring knife . So be warned that can happen . I then used a French made K-Sabatier 10 inch slicer, Hrc 56 which has a good patina . It did a good job on it and no scratches to the sides . So I liked it better . Then I used a Victorinox 10 1/2 inch Stainless Chef Knife, HRc 56-57, and it did well on it with no scratches . I could shave hair on the arm with that knife when done but not as smoothly as my Shapton Ceramic Stone work . I have 7 Japanese Western style Stainless Clad and clad Carbon chef knives I probably will not ever use in this since I don't want to have any scratches on the sides of them . Now honestly the scratches may have been due the the narrow height of the smaller blades and taller ones may not have that happen, even if thin blades, like the Victorinox and K-Sabatier knives I sharpened . One thing if you don't really let you knife become DULL the #2 honing slot is all you will need to use and it is a very fine Diamond grit that polishes pretty good . That will provide an edge that most home users will be happy with . I may try one of my thin Japanese Western Chefs knife in this and if I do will post the results . ADDENDUM: I did try one of my Japanese Chefs knives and it did Ok, but probably will stay with the stones for those. But a warning for Petty/utility/paring knives it will leave rub marks down the sides of those smaller blades (tried 3 different ones 4 and 6 inch and the same thing on all) . That bothers me so I won't ever use it for any more of those . Read more

Very happy that about this All my knives are sharp now Read more

You won' be disappointed in this manual knife sharpener. It is GREAT!! I like it so well I bought a second one for my grandson. It is easy to use and just does a great job on all my knives. Read more

It works pretty well but if you arent right handed its a bit of a pain in the a** its doable but having to hold the nub end is very not ideal, and if you flip it around you miss about a half inch-ish of the blade. I also have the electric 15 degree one recommended by ATK, picked this one up because Im moving somewhere with 220 and its not coming with. (this one https://amzn.to/3xSWy4g) Compared to, its not all that (they are very different beasts), eventually I got the knife fairly sharp, but Im a bit spoiled. For a hand held pull through it works about as well and any other I have used over the years. Read more

I have always been skeptic of this type of sharpener. However this is the real deal. I have been using an expensive sharpening kit that was complicate to use. This new sharpener is easy to use and has gotten my knives sharper than when they were new. The cutting paper test really sold me. Not a snag. Read more