Electric Knife Sharpeners - Easiest Method of Sharpening!

One of the quickest and easiest ways to keep your kitchen cutlery sharp is by using an electric sharpener. Powered and thereby taking you off the hook from hand sharpening and honing, electric knife sharpeners do it all in a matter of minutes or seconds.

Getting the Best Reviews from Cook's Illustrated:

Chef's Choice Professional 110, a 3 stage sharpener with magnetic guide. This sharpener is good for flat edged blades only. It is reliable and can sharpen even the dullest knives

Chef's Choice 120 or 320 for serrated blades

Other choices include: Presto Eversharp, Sabatier Cuisine France, and Oster Cutting Edge.

Electric versus hand

Using an electric knife sharpener does not require you to have sharpening skills as is the case with hand sharpeners. One of the most challenging aspects to hand sharpening with a steel or wet stone is maintaining a constant angle from the blade's bolster to tip. A good quality electric system will have a built in angle guide ensuring a constant angle and sharp edge.

Also, with 2 and 3 stage electric knife sharpening systems you do not have to use a steel and then use an abrasive stone to sharpen. You've got essentially both components housed into one sharpener.

How they work

Stage 1: grinding or pre-sharpening - removes the dull edge and creates the first bevel, or angle
Stage 2: sharpen/honing stage -a slightly more steeply sloped bevel (the sharpening angle) that comes to the point of the edge
Stage 3: stropping stage -produces a third bevel for an even stronger edge

Also see; knife sharpeners