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Nov 01, 2024

The 6 Best Knife Sharpeners, Tested & Reviewed

We independently evaluate all of our recommendations. If you click on links we provide, we may receive compensation. Extending the life of your knives is easy with these top picks. In This Article

We independently evaluate all of our recommendations. If you click on links we provide, we may receive compensation.

Extending the life of your knives is easy with these top picks.

In This Article

Food & Wine / Nick Simpson

Those crisp, clean, precise cuts we all love from a brand-new chef's knife won’t last forever — unless the blade is maintained correctly. You could leave knife sharpening to the pros, but it’s possible to sharpen your knives safely and effectively right at home, minimal skills or training required. All you need is one of our favorite knife sharpeners.

Sharp knives make kitchen prep faster, but they also make it safer. Dull knives require more force to push through food, which increases the risk of slipping and catching a finger instead of a vegetable. To help avoid this problem, we tested 42 electric, manual, and rolling knife sharpeners from brands like Chef'sChoice, Mueller, and Tumbler. We evaluated each model's design by taking scientific sharpness measurements and cutting through lots of produces to find these best knife sharpeners.

One set of passes through this ultra-effective machine was all we needed for near-perfect sharpening.

It's fairly expensive and quite bulky.

A single session with the Chef'sChoice 1520 was all we needed to make the sharpest blade in all of our testing. After we sharpened our knife, it easily sailed through our paper, carrot, and tomato tests. We were particularly pleased with how it handled tomato skin, which many other sharpeners' knives struggled with.

During testing, the electric operation was extremely efficient. There's a separate pair of grinding wheels in each of its different slots — 15 degrees and 20 degrees for different types of knives, and a polishing slot to finalize the edge and make it last longer. It'll even work with serrated knives, a rarity in home sharpeners. Plus, a removable magnetic block on the bottom collects steel dust and shavings for easy cleanup.

In our tests, we felt this sharpener required some practice. It holds the angle steady for you, but you must pull the knife through at just the right speed (around a second per inch) with just the right amount of pressure for optimal results. You can feel it when the grinding wheels contact the blade, which helps manage things correctly. Knife sharpening requires a specialized technique no matter which method you use, so there will be a little learning curve with any model.

The Chef'sChoice 1520 is on the pricier side of knife sharpeners, and it's also pretty bulky and a little too tall to tuck in the back of most drawers; it'll need a spot in a cabinet most likely. Unless space is at a serious premium in your kitchen, though, it's a good investment over the long term.

Type: Electric | Dimensions: 10 x 4.25 x 4.25 inches | Abrasive Material: Diamond | Options: 15 degrees, 20 degrees, polishing

We were really impressed with how easily this inexpensive model put a like-new edge on knives.

The grip is hard to hold steady, which felt unsafe at times.

This Zwilling earned great marks as our best manual model because it yielded an ultra-sharp blade with little effort. It was a top finisher in both sets of testing, and actually did the best job of all in the second round. The finished blades were sharp and smooth, and they sailed through all of our tests. After sharpening, they looked polished and showed no scratches or chips.

The manual sharpener has four slots: fine and coarse at both 10 and 15 degrees, so it works with Japanese and Western-style knives. Despite the Zwilling being completely manual, we felt like the slots held the knives securely and allowed us to get an even amount of sharpening across the entire blade. It's also quite a bit less expensive than an electric model. Our only complaint is with the grip. It wasn't the most comfortable to hold stable, and we feel like it could have a safer, more slip-resistant design.

Type: Manual | Dimensions: 7.63 x 1.81 x 10.5 inches | Abrasive Material: Ceramic | Options: 15 degrees (coarse and fine), 10 degrees (coarse and fine)

This unique rolling model makes precision sharpening foolproof.

It's not equipped to handle extra-large or extra-small knives.

A rolling sharpener is an unusual new design, and the Tumbler stood out among the three rolling models we tested. It uses a diamond abrasive wheel that slides against a stationary blade held at the perfect angle by a magnetic base (it has 15- and 20-degree options). This was one of the easiest sharpeners to use since we didn't have to worry about the knife orientation or applying the right amount of pressure. You roll the sharpener back and forth a few times against one side of the blade, then flip it around to get the other side.

The Tumbler set also includes nice post-sharpening accessories. The opposite side of the roller has a steel plate to remove the burr, and then you can run your knife across the leather strop to give the edge a final clean and polish. The included display stand is also practical, keeping the roller and base from getting separated in a random jumble of kitchen tools.

We didn't get quite as sharp an edge with the Tumbler as with the best traditional models, but it was near the top of the overall list — and well ahead of its fellow rolling models. It's almost entirely foolproof with medium-sized blades like an all-purpose chef's knife. However, it's a little harder to use with very small or very large blades. The magnetic base is taller than some paring knives, and the abrasive wheel touch can't reach the edge without some finagling. You also might need to elevate the rolling piece with a wooden cutting board so it'll be tall enough to reach the edge of a big cleaver blade. The Tumbler is pricy in terms of knife sharpeners in general, but it was the cheapest rolling model we tested.

Type: Rolling | Dimensions: 3.5 x 2.25 x 2.25 inches | Abrasive Material: Diamond | Options: 15 degrees, 20 degrees | Includes: Dual-sided roller, dual-sided magnetic base, leather strop, display stand

The single cheapest sharpener we tested, this model still finished near the top of the pack.

It offers just one angle option.

Longzon's budget sharpener has a smart design, effective non-skid padding, and a handle that ensures your off-hand stays clear of blades, at the lowest price in all our testing. It has three successively finer slots for regular knives, plus an extra-wide opening for scissors and shears, an unusual option for manual sharpeners.

The Longzon significantly improved the blades' sharpness in testing. Its abrasive may not have made them quite as razor-edged as the slightly more expensive Zwilling above, but it was nonetheless one of the best. We could slice tomatoes precisely with a knife that previously couldn't break the skin.

You really can't go wrong with this Longzon. Its straightforward design makes it beginner-friendly, and the price means you don't have to feel bad about pushing the gadget to its limits. If you're an advanced enough knife-sharpener to care about the blade angle, however, you might want something that gives more than one choice.

Type: Manual | Dimensions: 9 x 1.75 x 3 inches | Abrasive Materials: Tungsten steel, ceramic | Options: Coarse, medium, fine, scissors

This cordless sharpener will give your knives a precision edge with ease, anywhere you can take it.

It didn't sharpen the entire length of the blade evenly.

This sharpener is simply a cordless, battery-powered version of our top-rated Chef'sChoice 1520 above. It has all the same features, with 15- and 20-degree options, a polishing slot, and a removable magnet that collects debris. A single charge is enough for up to 45 minutes of sharpening, perfect for bringing to your friends and relatives' houses to freshen up their knives before, say, carving the Thanksgiving turkey.

In testing, the rechargeable 1520 made our blades almost as sharp as the corded version and was one of the best overall. We loved the angle of the slots; it was easy to fit different types of blade. However, it didn't do as great a job at the very beginning of the blade; the heel of our test knife was duller than the rest and had an uneven bevel angle.

Type: Cordless electric | Dimensions: 7.6 x 4.2 x 2.9 inches | Abrasive Material: Diamond | Options: 15 degrees, 20 degrees, polishing

This travel-sized sharpener makes it simple to improve the edge of any standard knife and is attractive enough to be left on the counter.

It sharpens to an unusually shallow angle and takes more passes than competitors.

Material makes stylish versions of all kinds of kitchen essentials, from nonstick pans to cutting boards, and this simple sharpener fits well in the brand's lineup. It's truly handheld and can be tucked away in a drawer or even a pants pocket. However, like all of Material's products, it looks great left out on the counter when not in use, too.

Its nonstick base didn't move on the counter during testing, which was surprising considering its lightweight construction. We loved how approachable this sharpener is to beginners; it was so easy to follow the instructions and get started. After sharpening, we saw significant improvement; our knife had absolutely no problem working through the tomatoes and carrots in our tests.

However, you'll likely need to run the blade through the single slot more times than you think for consistent results. The edge varied from one end of the blade to the other after the first round of sharpening, but it was much more even after a second set of swipes. This sharpener is set to a 13-degree angle, narrower even than typical Japanese blades. This matches Material's knives, but if you're used to a different angle, this sharpener will make your blades feel different (not sharper or duller; just different).

Type: Manual | Dimensions: 6 x 1.4 x 1.7 inches | Abrasive Material: Ceramic

The Chef'sChoice 1520 Professional Electric Knife Sharpener edged out the competition by creating the single finest blade of our entire testing. For a budget-friendly manual unit, though, the Longzon 4-in-1 Knife Sharpener did a stellar job at an exceptionally low price.

Food & Wine / Nick Simpson

We tested 42 knife sharpeners for this story across two separate testing sessions. That included 17 electric machines, 22 traditional pull-through manual models, and three rolling sharpeners. We tested all the sharpeners using the same inexpensive model of Henckels chef's knife, which we dulled before testing by running along a very coarse-grit whetstone. We performed a series of cutting tests on the dull knives, followed each sharpener's directions to sharpen them, and then repeated the tests.

After completing our tests, we revealed the retail prices of the sharpeners to consider value. At the time of testing, the sharpeners ranged from $5 to $210, with an average of $70. Electric models are generally slightly more expensive than manual ones, while rolling sharpeners are the priciest style.

In a traditional manual knife sharpener, you pull the blade across a stationary abrasive. This offers a lot of control but takes a elbow grease. An electric model uses rotating abrasive wheels or belts to save time and effort, though this convenience comes with a higher price tag. The rolling knife sharpener is a newer invention. It holds the knife stationary while you move the abrasive back and forth against the blade.

You need a tough abrasive to sharpen knives made of hard metal. The best option is diamond, which is quite common in knife-sharpening gadgets. As the hardest material on Earth, diamond can sharpen anything. A ceramic abrasive will also work for most types of steel, though not necessarily ceramic knives. Be wary if a sharpener uses steel; it might not work very well on knives made of extra-hard carbon steel.

Any sharpener should work on a standard chef's knife, but they can't all handle every shape and style of blade. Some models also have an extra-wide slot or can adjust their width to accommodate thicker blades like cleavers or kitchen shears for added versatility. One important consideration is whether the sharpener can deal with serrated knives; if you plan to hone bread knives, steak knives, and other slicers, you'll want to choose one of these. (Don't use a serrated knife in a sharpener not designed for it! This will ruin the serrations, and possibly the sharpener.)

Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore

“I sharpen my knives once a month, but that might be overkill for someone cooking infrequently,” says Jessica Randhawa, a chef and recipe creator at The Forked Spoon. “If cooking regularly, sharpening knives at least once a month is good practice. Otherwise, sharpening knives every 2 months is a safe practice.” To maintain the edge between sharpening sessions, it's a good idea to run the knife over a honing steel a few times before every use,

A whetstone is a block of rough stone that acts as an abrasive against metal and is the most traditional way to sharpen a knife. It can give you incredible precision and a better edge than any machine method, but it takes a lot of practice to hold the right angle and use one correctly. The knife sharpeners we tested for this story all help automate the process to make it beginner-friendly.

Though it's possible to sharpen an ultra-hard ceramic knife yourself, Randhawa doesn't advise it. “Ceramic knives are known to chip when sharpening at home,” she says. “It’s best to have a professional with experience in sharpening ceramic knives handle them accordingly.”

Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore

HORL 2 Walnut Rolling Knife Sharpener ($189 at Amazon)

This rolling model works quite similarly to the Tumbler above but costs more and doesn't include a strop or stand.

Work Sharp Ken Onion Knife Sharpener ($140 at Amazon)

This machine is for the experienced only. It can handle scissors, garden shears, axes, and all kinds of other blades, with an angle guide completely adjustable from 15 to 30 degrees. It isn't very easy to use, though, and more than most home cooks need.

Kitchellence 3-Stage Knife Sharpener ($13 at Amazon)

There are a lot of manual models out there with this same basic design and budget price. This one worked well but didn't stand out, as neither the best-performing nor the cheapest.

Cangshan SHARK 4-Stage Knife Sharpener ($20 at Amazon)

This manual model has separate fine and coarse slots for both Asian-style and European-style knives, so you can custom-hone either edge, but it didn't perform as well in testing as cheaper competitors.

Presto Professional Electric Knife Sharpener ($70 at Amazon)This is Presto's higher-end sharpener, costing almost twice as much as another Presto sharpener we tested but much more versatile. It can handle serrated blades, has an adjustable width, and offers three sharpening stages. It improved edges significantly in testing, but we wish it worked better on the very tips of the blades.

Chef'sChoice 130 Professional Electric Knife Sharpening Station ($123 at Amazon)

Chef'sChoice offers a wide selection of excellent knife sharpeners; we tested many of them. This model is great, but it has only 20-degree slots. We think the two angle options of the Chef'sChoice 1520 above are worth the extra cost.

The best knife sharpeners are largely quite similar in design, but we found wide gulfs in performance. With manual models especially, price and test results did not seem to correlate, and some budget sharpeners did far better than their costlier counterparts. Electric sharpeners are much more costly, but some just didn't measure up to the price. A few sharpeners we tested performed fine but were challenging to use or geared toward a more experienced audience.