How to Buy the Best Kitchen Knife Sharpener

A kitchen knife sharpener can save you money, and they are quite inexpensive. Believe it or not most people just throw away their kitchen knives when they get dull instead of just sharpening them. All knives, no matter the quality, cost or what the manufacturer says will require sharpening occasionally. A sharp knife is actually safer to use than a dull one since you don't have to press as hard to cut your food. Let's look at the basic kitchen knife sharpener tools, and how to use them.

Why do you need to use a kitchen knife sharpener?

A knife will become dull in two ways.

1. first, the edge itself can become out of alignment and crooked. It's still sharp, just pointing the wrong way. This generally occurs from abuse, such as storing your knives in the drawer without a cover.
2. The second way is when the edge simply wears down from regular use.

To properly sharpen your knives you'll need to straighten the edge, hone it, and then you'll use a kitchen knife sharpener to make it sharp again.

Use a sharpening steel before you use the kitchen knife sharpener

To hone the knife edge use a sharpening steel. This will re-align the edge before you actually sharpen it with a kitchen knife sharpener.

Simply hold the sharpening steel stationary and then run the knife down it at a 45 degree angle. Do this 3 or 4 times on each side.

What kind of kitchen knife sharpener should you get?

Well there are two types of kitchen knife sharpener. The manual and the electric kitchen knife sharpener.

They both do a great job. I tend to lean towards the manual kitchen knife sharpener because the electric kitchen knife sharpener can actually grind of too much of the edge if you're not paying attention.

In the end it's a personal choice.

Whichever type of kitchen knife sharpener you decide to get make sure there are guides to insure the proper grinding angle. The best kitchen knife sharpener will also have multiple grind levels. You'll start out course, and end with a fine grind to get the best results from the kitchen knife sharpener.

Here's an example of a great kitchen knife sharpener on Amazon.

How much does a kitchen knife sharpener cost?

This of course will depend on the type of kitchen knife sharpener you get as well as quality and whether it's on sale or not. I suggest you read knife sharpener reviews on such sites as ConsumerSearch or ConsumerReports. Reading unbiased knife sharpener reviews by users such as yourself can be a big help, in addition, those sites often list the current lowest prices available online. Of course you'll also find many useful links right here on this page to help you find the best kitchen knife sharpener.