For the average user an electric knife sharpener will produce a great result
Sharpening knives isn’t easy, and for many people an electric knife sharpener may well be a good option. For the average user an electric knife sharpener will produce a great result. Lets look at how electric knife sharpeners work and what options you have if you would like to consider this type of sharpener.
Whilst a simple stone may well be a good solution that is very effective at sharpening your knife and is also, in many cases, cost-effective, an electric knife sharpener will produce a consistent result for you unlike the result you are likely to get learning to use a stone, at least at the beginning.
The beauty of an electric sharpener is that it is easy to use and is consistent. Most electric sharpeners work in stages, commonly either 2 or 3 stages. When switched on the device will circulate a diamond grinder which is used to bevel the knife where the knife is significantly dull. This will produce a basic bevel which can be worked on in the later stages.
When producing this bevel it’s very important to keep the knife at the right angle, commonly around 20 degrees. This is one of the difficulties found by people learning to hand sharpen knives on a stone, for example. Keeping the knife at the right angle, by hand, is not easy and takes significant practice.
An electric sharpener on the other hand has guides, and often magnets, which will allow an inexperienced user to maintain the right angle throughout the sharpening process. This produces an effective result even for people not experienced in sharpening knives. This is one of the major advantages of electric knife sharpeners (and some other non-electric sharpeners as well).
And many have 2 sides to each stage, left and right. Commonly you will alternate between drawing the knife through the left, then the right side to grind evenly. Some will only feature a single slot where the grinder grinds both sides of the knife at the same time.
The first stage produces the basic bevel and the second stage fine tunes the bevel with a finer grit. In some cases the first stage, being a coarse grit, can produce some scratches on the surface of the knife and the second stage, being finer will help remove these scratches.
The third stage, or what can be a second stage in some sharpeners, is effectively a honing stage, putting the final edge on the knife, and this is usually done mechanically rather than electrically.
If you have a particularly dull knife you begin at the first stage to reproduce a bevel angle. However where your knife has been recently dulled and is not seriously turned over then a quick go with the third stage will hone your knife to a good edge. This is what you’re doing when you are using a honing steel on a knife. And just like using honing steels, if you do it regularly and don’t allow your knife to become too dull then this is all that is required most of the time.
So if you’ve bought an electric knife sharpener remember you don’t need to use the first stage all the time if you regularly hone the knife using later stages. You only need to use the first stage where your knife has become significantly dull and needs grinding.
We should mention here that most electric knife sharpeners are made to sharpen European knives, which are the most common types of knives that you are most likely to have in your kitchen. European knives are different to what are sometimes called Asian knives or Japanese knives, and not all electric sharpeners work on Asian or Japanese knives. That’s because on European knives the bevel angle is commonly around 20 degrees, whilst for Asian knives to bevel angle is narrower at around 15 degrees.
There are however specific electric sharpeners made that will work on Asian knives, particularly some of the Chef’s Choice sharpeners such as the Chef’s Choice 1520 Angle Select Diamond Hone Sharpener. This model, however, is considerably more expensive and not necessary unless you use both types of knives.
The Presto Knife Sharpener. Electric Knife Sharpening At A Value Price
The Presto knife sharpener or what is technically called the
Presto EverSharp Electric Knife Sharpener, is manufactured by National Presto Industries. The company was founded in 1905 in Wisconsin and manufactures small kitchen appliances for use around the home. It is not a specific manufacturer of knives but does offer around half a dozen Presto knife sharpeners, both manual and electric.
But the most commonly known and most popular of these is the Presto Eversharp knife sharpener.
This electric sharpener is designed to sharpen kitchen knives and a range of sports knives made of alloy or stainless steel. It cannot be used for sharpening other implements such as scissors or electric serrated knives, though it can sharpen some serrated knives, though not knives with serrations on both sides.
It is not perfect for sharpening serrated knives however as it will gradually wear down the high points of the serrations which slowly degrades the serrations on your knife. However as a general rule serrated knives are not particularly expensive, and will cut well for a considerable amount of time, so you may well find that it’s easier, when necessary, just to buy a new one.
Use of the Presto Knife Sharpener
Being an electric sharpener the use of the Presto knife sharpener is relatively simple. Wet the rubber suction cups on the bottom of the sharpener to help improve suction and then place your knife sharpener on a smooth surface where it will be easy to use. Push down to create the suction and, provided you’ve selected a smooth surface your sharpener should remain in place during use.
Plug it in. (Note that this particular electric sharpener has a polarized plug, i.e. one blade wider than the other). Once plugged in switch it on by the on/off switch.
This is a two-stage sharpener, with guides for both stages 1 and 2 for left and right side. Begin sharpening in stage I which is a precision grinding stage to create the bevelled edge. Draw the knife gently towards you without pushing down too hard and keeping the knife moving at all times. Then do the other side. Hold your hand so that the knife remains parallel to the bench. Only when you reach the curved tip should you slightly lift your hand up to ensure contact right up to the point of the knife.
Allow roughly one second for every 2 inches of knife blade, so a 6 inch knife blade should take around 3 seconds to draw through. Do this 3 or 4 times on both sides.
The second stage of the Presto 08800 Eversharp Electric Knife Sharpener is for fine honing of the edge you have created in stage I. This polishes the edge you have created. Do the exact same thing on the 2nd stage as you have done for the first.
This should produce an edge noticeably sharper than when you began. It is unlikely to be as razor sharp as if it would be if you used a manual stone, but will still produce a very useful edge. It may be useful, if you have a sharpening steel, or honing steel, to run this over the edge of the knife lightly after sharpening in case there are any burrs.
And remember, not just after sharpening with the Presto knife sharpener, but after sharpening your knife by any method at all, give it a quick wash before use as there will be superfine pieces of metal left over from the process, which you don’t want in your food.
As with some other electric knife sharpeners the Presto Eversharp knife sharpener will remove metal from the blade during use, particularly during stage one. This is perfectly normal and is part of the sharpening process. However these small metal filings will accumulate, and the Presto sharpener has a dedicated receptacle on the bottom for collecting these. From time to time you should empty the receptacle, which can be done by removing the small plugs on the bottom and shaking out the metal filings. It only needed occasionally, say once a year.
The biggest plus of this particular knife sharpener is that, if you buy it on Amazon, where it is called the Presto 08800 EverSharp Electric Knife Sharpener, it will cost under $30, though is listed at retail for almost $40. Most other electric knife sharpeners of reasonable quality, notably the Chef’s Choice electric knife sharpeners, are considerably more expensive. Probably the closest Chef’s Choice electric sharpener to compare with the Presto knife sharpener is the Chef’s Choice 220 Hybrid Diamond Hone Knife Sharpener. This sells on Amazon at around $40, considerably more expensive.
And what do the user reviews say?
And looking at the user reviews, on Amazon, of both knife sharpeners it’s interesting to note that both the Chef’s Choice and the Presto received a 4.4 out of 5. This is a particularly good score but it’s also interesting to note that both sharpeners get the exact same rating. At the time of writing there were 1028 reviews for the Presto, a considerable number and more than enough to get a very clear picture of the quality of the sharpener.
As we always suggest, for knife aficionados a stone will produce a better edge, however the Presto 08800 EverSharp Electric Knife Sharpener will produce an edge for very little effort, and with very little expertise, that will keep the average knife owner very happy.
And then there’s the Presto 08810 Professional Electric Knife Sharpener
As we mentioned previously there are other Presto knife sharpeners, both manual and electric. The second electric sharpener offered by Presto is the Presto 08810 Professional Electric Knife Sharpener.
This sharpener is one step better than the 08800, offering 3 stages of sharpening rather than 2. One of the primary differences between the 08800 and the 08810 is that with at the professional model it’s possible to change the sharpening angle at which the knife is held, allowing users to sharpen a wide range of knives including sports knives such as hunting knives as well as kitchen knives and even a dedicated angle for very thin light knives such as fillet and paring knives.
This is also a 3 stage electric sharpener.
The Positives of Electric Sharpeners
1. The best models used diamond abrasives. Diamond is the hardest substance and is the best abrasive to sharpen a knife.
2. The best models also guide the knife using a slot which makes it very difficult for even a beginner to get the angle wrong, whereas other knife sharpening systems, particularly hand sharpening systems, can produce an inferior result because the user cannot hold the correct angle.
3. Most, particularly the Chef’s Choice Electric Knife Sharpeners, come with small suction cups on the base. Provided you are sharpening on a slick surface which allows the suction cups to grip this is a significant advantage as it stops the sharpener moving around and avoids the necessity to hold it still.
4. Once you’ve bought your sharpener it’s unlikely you’ll need to replace the diamond abrasives for a long time, they have an extremely long life.
5. A good electric sharpener can be used to sharpen any type of knife which fits in the slots, including pocket knives and others, (though not serrated knives in some cases, see below, or in some cases Asian or Japanese knives).
6. Quality models should provide a solid warranty of at least 2 if not 3 years.
7. The best models have magnetic filters or pads to collect the microscopic pieces of metal shaved off knife during sharpening. You don’t want these on your bench.
The Negatives of Electric Knife Sharpeners
1. They aren’t cheap. It is possible to get much cheaper knife sharpeners than most of the common electric knife sharpeners on the market. For instance the Chef’s Choice 110 electric knife sharpener, whilst being a great sharpener, retails for slightly over $100. (Note that it is generally much cheaper on Amazon, who routinely offer good discounts).
2. Whilst these sharpeners are effective they are also bulky, and either take up bench space or will need to be put in the cupboard, where space needs to be found. If our kitchen is anything to go by finding space for more appliances isn’t easy.
And if you hone your knife regularly, or polish it using the final stage of a sharpener, then it’s annoying to have to pull it out of a cupboard and put it away regularly, so leaving it on the bench is quite an advantage, but it takes up quite a bit of space.
3. Some models, though not necessarily all models of electric sharpeners will not work on serrated knives. Some, for instance the Chef’s Choice 110 will, but will not sharpen the whole knife, generally only the tip. If you’re looking to sharpen serrated knives you will need to choose a more expensive model like the Chef’s Choice 120.
4. Whilst some knife sharpeners will sharpen scissors electric knife sharpeners are not suitable, and if you want to sharpen scissors then you will need to purchase scissor sharpeners. Some hand sharpeners can also sharpen scissors.
5. Some models can be annoyingly noisy to use.
6. Not necessarily a negative feature but certainly something worth mentioning is that if you’re left-handed check the sharpener you’re planning to buy to see if it can be used with the left hand instead of the right, not all can.
Overall
There is no doubt that an electric knife sharpener is an expensive piece of equipment, and it’s possible to buy quality knife sharpening equipment cheaper. However the reality is that for many people learning how to sharpen a knife to a very fine edge using hand sharpening equipment takes a long time, and often produces an inferior result.
An electric knife sharpener is a significant investment but will produce a superior result for most people and will do so for a long time. It’s easy to learn to use and will produce a great result right from the start for anyone who is just beginning on an electric sharpener.
Experts at hand sharpening will probably produce a better result, but most cooking enthusiasts are not experts. Even some chefs will send their knives to a professional knife sharpener, and it’s unlikely that your average enthusiast will learn to hand sharpen a knife any better than the result they will get with an electric sharpener.
But if you buy one you will also need to put up with finding space for it and finding it annoyingly noisy during use. Everything has its downside as well as its upside.
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