knife sharpener??

[edb]

I am looking for a electric or battery knife sharpener for my kitchen knives. Any recomendations on price and where to buy.

[professorpaul]

I can't recall the name, but any good kitchen store has them. Diamond cutters, I think. Maybe around $100. AC operated. Frankly, I prefer a good flat bench stone. Check out over under rec.knives. They are on the cutting edge....

[trader4]

IMO, for good knives, the best practice is to send them out to a pro when they really need to have the edge ground. In between, you just hone them using a honing steel.

[cm]

I have a Tormek with small and large knife jigs. I think I paid around $400.00 with the machine and almost every jig they make. Makes my knives razor sharp. Great for the shop also. You can get one here:

cm

[HeyBub]

$19.84. Also opens cans and bottles. Sooths bee-bites. Assists in winching boats and refinishes fine leather.

[JoeSpareBedroom]

Chef's Choice. Buy it at Bed, Bath & Beyond.

[Stubby]

Get one that has rotating grinding stones. Most of the knife sharpeners I've looked at recently have two little white things that don't move. They don't sharpen either.

[Mortimer Schnerd, RN]

I've got the Tormek also. There's not a knife in the house I've run through it I can't shave with.

[Father Haskell]

600 or finer grit wet-dry sandpaper spray-glued to a square of plate glass makes an excellent "bench stone." Google "Scary Sharp" for details.

[bamboo]

For cutlery you rubber cement strips of we tor dry to wooden paint stirrers. Most kitchen knives need to start at about 180 grit and finish with 600 or finer.

I sharpen for a living. Can't seem to recall a good homeowner machine but a 1x30 enco belt sander and fine belts would be killer and under 60 bucks or so.

[Father Haskell]

Good method. I have a few "slips" made from scraps of hardwood shaped for honing curved edges.

My best wood plane irons get taken to 2,000 wet-dry, from the Pep Boys paint aisle, followed by a buff with green chrome oxide to knock off the wire edge. 600 would give me a nice shaving edge. 2,000 gives me a finishing tool capable of leaving wood with a mirror surface.

SiC paper cuts faster than the equivalent grit diamond and costs a whole hell of a lot less while leaving a less scratchy bevel. If I had known about it earlier, I'd never have spent hundreds of dollars on various Arkansas stones and diamond plates.

[Bob]

I've been making and sharpening knives for nearly sixty years, and the basics have not changed.

Know what the knife will be used for. A meat cutting knife will have a different angle than a general use knife, like a paring knife used for veggies.

When sharpening, keep the angle the same as the original. Most commercial sharpeners use only one fixed angle, and this has ruined more knives than it has sharpened.

It also depends on how dull a knife is. You should never let a knife get real dull before sharpening. But if it is very dull, I use a bench mounted belt sander with about 400 grit to get some edge on the knife. Then I go to a soft Arkansas stone to improve it, and lastly, if I want a super sharp edge (not generally desirable for kitchen knives), I finish with a hard Arkansas stone and perhaps a strop.

A steel does not hone or sharpen a knife, nor is it meant to. The purpose of a steel is to remove a wire edge. A wire edge is when the sharp edge tends to have bent to one side.

Hope this helps.

[Anonymous]

When I put gas in my car, I don't care where the oil was drilled, I don't care about the refining process, I don't care how it got to the gas station.

I feel the same way about sharp knives in the kitchen. I want a "gadget" that'll sharpen a knife with a minimum of thought, effort ( or worship ) on my part.

I'm sure that most housewives feel the same way.

[Rob Mills]

[Father Haskell]

Paint the bevel with a Sharpie marker. The sharpener will take the ink off where it makes contact, revealing its angle setting.

Knives that don't get abused can be kept sharp forever with the steel alone. Use a soft cutting board, never a ceramic plate, give the knife a couple of light licks across the steel every time you use it, and you might never have to hone it again.