See the Chef’s Choice 315S Diamond Electric Sharpener for Asian-Style Knives at Amazon.
Chef’s Choice knife sharpeners are made by the EdgeCraft Corporation out of Avondale, Pennsylvania.
They make a variety of equipment for home and commercial kitchens aside from their line of knife sharpeners, including cutlery, food slicers, waffle makers, and hot beverage appliances.
They were founded in 1984 and right out of the gates, EdgeCraft released the Chef’s Choice line of electric sharpeners and have remained a powerhouse in the electric knife sharpening arena.
Chef’s Choice 315S Diamond Electric Sharpener for Asian-Style Knives
This review will focus on one of the premier electric knife sharpeners on the market – the Chef’s Choice 315S Diamond Electric Sharpener for Asian-Style Knives.
This sharpener is targeted at serious home chefs with Asian-style knives or that has knives that can handle the 15° cutting edge.
Learn about knife angles and edges.
This sharpener has two stages:
Stage 1 with 100% diamond coated disks and stropping/polishing disk in 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.
This final stage guarantees a finely honed sharpness for your knives.
The thing I like about this sharpener is that you can reprofile your American or European style knives, most typically with a 20° angle out of the factory.
20° is pretty darn sharp if you have a high-quality knife with high-quality steel.
Now, imagine that blade at 15°… I think you’ll be able to tell the difference immediately!
It is important to use the right stage for the sharpening job. Stage 1 is the coarsest of the two stages and should be used for dull blades when a new edge needs to be created.
This actually does remove some metal from the knife blade but that is a fact of life when sharpening blades. You cannot obtain a like-new cutting edge without removing some metal.
Learn about honing steels.
Chef’s Choice states that 98% of the resharpening will take place in Stage 2, the stropping/polishing stage so rest assured that only microscopic amounts of metal are removed.
If you are reprofiling your blade, then you will want to be sure to use Stage 1 to do the bulk of the work.
The Chef’s Choice 315 has the capability to sharpen serrated knives and Stage 2 should be used for this task.
This will realign and straighten all your serrated knives. Stage 2 will also sharpen each of the serrated tips on your knife blade.
However, since Stage 2 is the stropping/polishing it is worth noting that I believe you will not be able to sharpen a very dull or damaged serrated knife.
Please keep this in mind when selecting a sharpener. In the case of a very dull or damaged serrated knife blade, I would recommend a manual sharpening system like the KME KFS Knife Sharpening System.
Chef’s Choice 315S Diamond Electric Sharpener is a highly versatile sharpener and can handle any sharpening task for high-quality gourmet knives, butchering knives, sporting knives, pocket knives, survival knives, and serrated knives.
For butcher knives, pocket knives, sporting knives, and, survival knives, I would recommend using Stage 1 only many cases. The slightly coarser grit and grind that is provided by Stage 1 can make the blades have a better “bite” which can be helpful depending on the task.
This sharpener provides your blades with a 15° angle which is ideal for a wide range of blades that will be used in the kitchen. However, the 15° angle is not a very durable angle for butchering knives, sporting knives, pocket knives, survival knives — it is not a deal-breaker but you might need to sharpen those types of knives more often, maybe after each use.
If you do have a sporting type knife with very good, very hard steel, and don’t mind the extra sharpening, then this sharpener will suit you just fine.
Pros and Cons:
Owner Reviews from Amazon are very positive with the majority being super happy with this sharpener.
It’s worth noting though that reprofiling can take some extra time but is well worth the effort and your patience will be rewarded.
See the Chef’s Choice 315S Diamond Electric Sharpener for Asian-Style Knives at Amazon
