Over the years, I have acquired numerous sharpening and honing devices: whetstones, carbide rods in holders, diamond stones, and more. While the carbide “pull it down the blade” sharpeners work, they do no produce an edge that lasts. Invariably, I keep returning to the whetstone.
But I loathe using the stones, probably because I’m not very good at it. It takes me a half hour per knife to get something resembling that super-sharp factory edge. Because it takes so long, I don’t sharpen them often enough. So I start using the santoku knife instead of the chef knife, and a carving knife instead of a paring knife. Until there’s not a sharp knife left on my magnetic knife bar.
Then, finally, I spend a half day sharpening all my knives. Which I did, last week. And by jove, they are much sharper. But it’s also obvious which ones I didn’t spend enough time on. My chef’s knife no longer glides through raw carrots like it did 15 years ago when it arrived from the Henckel factory. And I lack the sharpening skills to get it there.
I considered hiring a service to sharpen them all, setting the edge for me. Then I could continue touching them up with the stones. But for the same money, I found and purchased a knife sharpener. My review is on Amazon’s site.
[amazon asin=B000TYBWJ0&template=iframe image&chan=default]