Chef's Choice Electic Sharpeners? Good, Bad, or Ugly?

R

RagPicker

Banned
Joined
Dec 26, 2006
Messages
34
I have a nice Lansky set and am very satisfied with it for my best knives. However, I get really frustrated trying to sharpen mediocre knives, my 8 year old son's 5 knives, etc. with such a time consuming method.

I have been looking at the Chef's Choice 120. Finally picked one up even though my slim bank account moaned and groaned the whole way. It seems to be working fairly decently but being a relatively neophyte when it comes to cutlery I am still rather nervous about it.

Does anyone have any input?
 
i would never sharpen any really good knife with any electric sharpener myself, as far as kitchen knives and such i suppose it would be "ok".
 
SIFU1A said:
i would never sharpen any really good knife with any electric sharpener myself, as far as kitchen knives and such i suppose it would be "ok".
Click to expand...

What constitutes a good knife in your opinion?

My Opinel?

My Boker?

My beater Buck Light?

I am thinking that except for sentimental issues, if it's $25 and under I will use the electric sharpener.

I would like to offer some knife sharpening to my friends who all have dull kitchen, pocket, and hunting knives. None of them are into fine cutlery so it should be OK as far as the knife goes. Do y'all think the edge made with the Chef's Choice will be good enough to charge for?
 
Bought one a couple of years ago. Fine for kitchen knives and beaters. I made the mistake of sharpening one of my "good" pocket knives and "FUBAR'd" the blade when one of the sharpening wheels grabbed the blade and caused it to jump. Scratched the hell out the blade. I don't use the Chef's Choice for any of my good knives. Like I said, it's fine for kitchen knives, (I don't have the expensive kitchen knives....yet). Get a Spyderco Sharpmaker. The only sharpener that works (for me).
 
RagPicker said:
What constitutes a good knife in your opinion?

My Opinel?

My Boker?

My beater Buck Light?

I am thinking that except for sentimental issues, if it's $25 and under I will use the electric sharpener.

I would like to offer some knife sharpening to my friends who all have dull kitchen, pocket, and hunting knives. None of them are into fine cutlery so it should be OK as far as the knife goes. Do y'all think the edge made with the Chef's Choice will be good enough to charge for?
Click to expand...


to me a "good" knife is any knife over ~$50 , to make this simple lol.

i have a lot of knives, i collect them, range in price from ~$20 up to +$1000, i wouldnt use a electric sharpener on any of them.

like i said, for kitchen knives they are "ok", and i'm NOT speaking of a $100 kitchen knife here lol,

imho electric sharpeners can/do mess up the bevels and will ruin a good knife fast to were ya will never get a decent edge on it again, never have liked them myself.

BUT i've always been good at freeehand sharpening so i suppose i have never needed one.
 
I am looking at the 120 as well. How well do they work for shorter (2") blades, like on a Kershaw Chive?
 
i used a chefmate on a kitchen knife in school when i was helping out with a culinary class. all the edges were beat to nothing since the teacher loves her dishwasher there so much (industrial power).

i ran it through a few times and used my pocket stone to take off the burr, and it gave me a decent edge.

in my experience it leaves a noticeable burr...if you are resharpening from hitting plates and bones often anyways, it doesn't really matter. as long as you have a thin edge it will part food well.
 
Use a cheap 1" x 30" belt sander instead. Locally they're $70. Buy a bunch of $1 course/medium/fine belts, and one leather belt you can put green stropping compound on. You're set.

The Chef's Choice doesn't give you shallow enough angles for good slicing, and the coarse wheel which has the shallowest angle rips off too much metal.

If you try to just use the coarse wheel and skip the medium and finishing wheels so you have a keener edge, you'll rip off a lot of metal and have a large burr. You can't even skip the middle wheel and try to take off the burr with the finishing wheel because it isn't strong enough. I only use this machine for emergency cheap kitchen knife sharpenings, otherwise it would be in the trash bin.

Once you've sharpened a knife with a belt sander and finished it off with the leather belt w/stropping compound everything else cuts like a rusty mallet.
 
I think electric sharpeners mostly have to small stones of low quality resulting in blades of folder or fixed one getting stuck. Especially on the higher range cutlery with good steel or good quality Carbon steels. Resulting with dings and chips and scratches. Next to that you risk to overcook the blade messin'up the hrc and steels chemistry...

If i had space for a belt grinder i would rather go that direction. Using them i think you should not wear gloves so if the blade heathens up you feel it. And you should keep a bucket with water to keep the blade cool.

I went the DMT diamond stones freehand old fashioned kind way. Even Coarse (Blue) DMT stones work better then a lousy electric sharpener imo...
 
Maarten said:
I went the DMT diamond stones freehand old fashioned kind way. Even Coarse (Blue) DMT stones work better then a lousy electric sharpener imo...
Click to expand...

I am not opposed to trying freehand, but in my limited experience the biggest hurdle is getting the correct angle consistently. Does anyone have experience using angle guides (like the ones sold by Razor Edge)?
 
bltkmt said:
I am not opposed to trying freehand, but in my limited experience the biggest hurdle is getting the correct angle consistently. Does anyone have experience using angle guides (like the ones sold by Razor Edge)?
Click to expand...

The problem with the electric sharpeners I'm familiar with, as well as devices like the Razor Edge angle guides, is that the fixed angle they give you is unlikely to be optimal for the knife. FYI, John Juranitch of Razor Edge System has argued that angle isn't that important, that you can get an edge sharp regardless of the angle, but IMO that overlooks the vast differences in performance -- both edge retention and cutting ease -- you can achieve by selecting an appropriate edge angle.

IMO this is why adjustable angle systems like the Edge Pro are popular: you can both adjust the angle as desired, and sharpen consistently at whatever angle you choose. And truly, it doesn't take that much practice or skill to become reasonably good at freehand sharpening, which although not as precise, allows you to set the edge angle to be more acute, or more obtuse, depending on the knife and the job.

Don't forget, too, that many electric sharpeners remove metal way too fast, much faster than needed. This is a huge advantage of working freehand, or with devices/jigs like the Sharpmaker, CrockSticks, or Edge Pro.
 
Don't be afraid of angles. I used a lansky for over a decade because I have zero manual dexterity and I was scared to death of sharpening without an angle guide. The beauty of a belt sander is it's cutting for you, so all of your concentration is just holding the blade at the angle you desire as the belt does all the work.

Even a clod like me can hold a knife at the same angle for 10 seconds as you guide it along the belt. Stand close to the sander and hold the knife securely.

The best part is once you quickly sharpen the knife at the angle you desire, touch-ups are just with the leather belt and stropping compound or the 1200 grit belts if need be, so you're not removing much metal and the knife will last a long time. You find yourself no longer dreading having to sharpen.

Dip the blade in ice water after each pass and you don't have to worry about over-heating either.
 
Learn how to do it freehand with an 8", fine, single-cut flat file.
I've thrown away all the round steels, all the "Samurai Sharks" and other carbide "sharpeners". If you don't like the toothy edge left by the file, move to 600 SiC paper to smooth up the edge. Close enough for cutting veggies, meat, etc.

The beauty of the manual method is that you can easily control the amount of metal you remove...your blades don't wind up with that unententional 'recurve'.
 
Dog of War said:
The problem with the electric sharpeners I'm familiar with, as well as devices like the Razor Edge angle guides, is that the fixed angle they give you is unlikely to be optimal for the knife. FYI, John Juranitch of Razor Edge System has argued that angle isn't that important, that you can get an edge sharp regardless of the angle, but IMO that overlooks the vast differences in performance -- both edge retention and cutting ease -- you can achieve by selecting an appropriate edge angle.

IMO this is why adjustable angle systems like the Edge Pro are popular: you can both adjust the angle as desired, and sharpen consistently at whatever angle you choose. And truly, it doesn't take that much practice or skill to become reasonably good at freehand sharpening, which although not as precise, allows you to set the edge angle to be more acute, or more obtuse, depending on the knife and the job.

Don't forget, too, that many electric sharpeners remove metal way too fast, much faster than needed. This is a huge advantage of working freehand, or with devices/jigs like the Sharpmaker, CrockSticks, or Edge Pro.
Click to expand...

I think the benefit of learning free hand sharpening is that it does not matter so much if one side of blade is say 21 and other side 18 degrees sharpened off factory. If you pay close attention to putting the blade to the stone matching the edge to the stone and keeping them that way you have more flexibility as the edge and hand holding will be in line.
Next to that you won't have the problem that to much metal will be taken off or even worse in small area if the blade gets stuck in these small electric ones.
On belt grinders however i think you have the same flexible add as on stones.

Most electrics come in 40 degrees with to narrow and small openings for certain blade sizes or thickness.

Next to that i think sharpening as a therapeutic hobby for resting my nerves after stressfull work days...;)
 
I have used the Chef Choice model 110 sharpener. I read a review in Tactical Knives By Steve Dick and he rated the sharpener very well. I found it to sharpen well...... BUT it screwed up the finish on my knives no matter how careful I tried to be. I used mainly inexpensive kitchen knives but I did sharpen a Schrade UH897 and a Spyderco and it really marred the finish. The knives function fine but look very used. I actually finished the sharpening process on a Spyderco sharpmaker.The knives got very sharp but what happened is the Chefs Choice thinned the knives and the Sharpmaker finished the edges. I tried a manual sharpener by Chef Choice where you pull the blade between two rollers but I did not think it worked very well. I would not recommend them as the Chefs Choice ruined the finish on my knives.

RKH
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top