What is the Best Kitchen Knife Sharpener?
This should be a subjective choice since each person’s needs will be a little different depending on their knives, interest in knives, interest in sharpening those knives, available budget for sharpening, and probably a couple of other matters that are specific for each kitchen chef.
Well, I will make a stand on this one and pick out my favorite sharpener for kitchen knives. We will take a couple of things into consideration:
- In the kitchen, you might discover you need to sharpen a knife just before you start cooking. For that case, you need to be able to start and finish sharpening in just a couple of of minutes so I know our choice needs to be an electric model. There is no way around it. Sure, with a fully manual sharpening system you could put a triple beveled, chisel edge on your favorite knife but that takes some time to maintain.
- This also assumes that you want to have pretty darn sharp knives, maybe sharper than the factory edge. That’s is what I want – why not, if you can manage it. Along with this assumption goes that you won’t be need to sharpen your hunting knife, survival knife, or pocket knife. (You can sharpen those items but you will have to sharpen them often due to the very sharp angle of the cutting edge.)
Best Kitchen Knife Sharpener is…
Chef’s Choice 15 Trizor XV EdgeSelect Electric Knife Sharpener
The Chef’s Choice 15 Trizor Sharpener is appropriate to use for American-style, European-style, and Asian-style knives, even serrated knives can be sharpened on this model. The differentiator for this Chef’s Choice model is the sharpening angle targeting Asian-style knives.
EdgeCraft dug deep to provide an innovative solution to the electric sharpener market. They filled the need of being able to sharpen knives to an even sharper angle than what is considered “standard.”
Just as the name implies, this sharpener can sharpen your knife blades down to 15° which is the normal angle for many of the Asian manufactured knives. It can even sharpen, actual reprofile, the cutting edge of other knives, making them sharper than straight out of the factory.
Similar to some of the other three stage electric sharpeners from Chef’s Choice, the Chef’s Choice 15 Trizor Sharpener boasts three sharpening stages, included 100% coated discs in the first two stages (Stage 1 and Stage 2).
This sharpener has the capability to sharpen standard, straight edged knives as well as serrated knives, like bread knives or some steak knives.
The final and finest stage, Stage 3, can be considered a stropping or polishing stage which is patented by EdgeCraft. This final stage guarantees a finely honed sharpness for your knives.
Sharpening Stage 1
Stage 1 can be considered a type of “pre-sharpening stage” as Chef’s Choice describes it, meaning that it can sharpen very dull, damaged, or reprofile another knife. It also means that this stage has the coarsest of the 100% diamond coated discs and will remove the most metal. So, use this stage sparingly and only when needed. For normal usage in the kitchen, this amounts to once or twice a year depending on the knife and how much you use it.
Sharpening Stage 2
Stage 2 can be used for your routine sharpening tasks and is less coarse than Stage 1. Stage 2 also uses diamond coated discs and at a slightly different angle which creates another bevel for added durability. Stage 3 is made of a flexible abrasive and only removes a fraction of the metal that Stages 1 and 2 remove.
Sharpening Stage 3
Stage 3 provides the stropping and honing that your knife needs as the final stage of sharpening. Stage 3 is also the one to use for your serrated knife sharpening needs.
The Chef’s Choice 15 Trizor XV EdgeSelect Electric Knife Sharpener is one of the best kitchen knife sharpeners out on the market and can handle any sharpening task for high quality gourmet knives, filet knives, sporting knives, and serrated knives. For butcher knives, pocket knives, sporting knives, and, survival knives, I would recommend using Stage 1 and 2 in many cases. The slightly coarser grit and grind that is provided by Stage 1 and 2 can make the blades have a better “bite” which can be helpful depending on the task.
As a word of caution, the 15° angle that this sharpener provides directly impacts the durability of the knife blade.
For this reason, I do not recommend that you use this sharpener for hunting knives, survival knives, pocket knives, or butchering knives since they would likely need to be sharpened after each use. The fact is that a sharper blade means that the amount of metal actually doing the cutting is less which makes the knife blade wear down more quickly.
This model also comes in two color options: Brushed Metal or Platinum. Chef’s Choice offers a three year warranty on this model for normal home use.
Cons:
- The Trizor XV is not ideal for non kitchen knives. This sharpener takes the blade down to 15° which is very sharp. This also mean the durability is reduced compared to a more standard 20° angle. If you need a sharpener for your other knives like your survival knives, pocket knives, machetes, or hunting knives, you may want to consider another model.
- The Trizor XV is not ideal for European or American knives that you want to preserve at a blade edge angle other than 15°. There are other models of Chef’s Choice Sharpeners that can sharpen to 15° and 20°, like the Chef’s Choice 1520 Angle Select Diamond Sharpener. Compare the Chef’s Choice M1520 versus Trizor…
- The Trizor XV is not ideal for boning or butchering knives that may see more harsh action, like cutting bones. This goes back to the durability factor of such a sharp blade.
Pros:
- An electric sharpener in the kitchen is ideal since a like-new to sharper-than-new-edge can be obtained in under 2 minutes! A quick touch up in Stage 2 or Stage 3 will only take about 10 seconds.
- Asian-style and Japanese-style knives can be sharpened to an angle that is typical of the style.
- European-style and American-style knives can be sharpened to an angle sharper than the factory in some cases, essentially going from 20° to 15°.
- Diamond coated discs are used so sharpening damaged or very dull knives is fast and easy.
The Kitchen Professor has more recommendations where that came from… Next, check out my post on the best water filters for well water.
What is your opinion of the best kitchen knife sharpener?
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Bryce is not a real professor, but he's real nerdy in the kitchen. He's been barbecuing, chopping, and generally blazing food for many decades. He thinks there's definitely a better spatula or utensil out there that hasn't been invented yet.