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The best knife sharpener for 2024, tested and reviewed
Turn dull knives into razor-sharp tools with a sharpener from brands like Chef's Choice and Longzon.
You know that feeling when you break out a new chef's knife that's razor-sharp and cuts through everything like it's angel food cake? Ah yes. I love it, too ... but it only lasts so long. Eventually, all knives dull and chopping vegetables becomes a chore instead of a pleasure. That's when the best knife sharpener comes in handy. Whether you use a German knife or a Japanese one, prefer manual or electric and have a budget that's $10 or $200, there are excellent options to choose from.
I looked at loads of at-home sharpeners and chose to test the ones that seemed easiest for home cooks to use. While pro chefs would tell you that using a whetstone (a.k.a. sharpening stone) is the best way to sharpen your knives, this method isn't the most practical for most people. It can be quite challenging to get the angle right and maintain it in the process. Electric and manual knife sharpeners do take some practice, but they're much easier to get the hang of.
In the end, I tested nine sharpeners and two honing rods. What I found is that the best knife sharpener offers an easy solution to reviving dull knives and can even help bring knives that are chipped and damaged back to life. You can also use these gadgets for weekly maintenance. Scroll on for our guide to the best knife sharpeners on the market. We promise they're a cut above the rest!
Table of contents:
Best knife sharpener overall
The Chef'sChoice 1520 is Ina Garten's favorite sharpener, and I can see why. She adores the ease of use and so do I. It's about as foolproof as it gets.
It has three sharpening sections and utilizes abrasives made of diamond (the hardest material on earth — it can sharpen anything). One section is for Western knives, one for Eastern (Japanese) knives and one for polishing/honing all knives. The process is simple: Turn on the power and run your knife from the base of the blade to the tip several times through each side of the Western or Eastern sharpening section. Do this slowly (for about five seconds on each side), then run the blade several times through the honing section.
This electric sharpener is a solid piece of machinery at 4.15 pounds and about 10 inches wide and 4.25 inches tall and deep. It also comes at a hefty price — $190 — which makes it the most expensive of the sharpeners I tested. But if you are really interested in keeping your knives in tip-top shape and you have the space and budget for it, this electric knife sharpener is certainly the easiest and best I could find.
In less than five minutes, you will have a knife that's as close to new as you can get without taking it to a professional. I'd say that justifies the price.
- Easy to use
- Compatible with Western and Japanese knives
- Achieves a very sharp edge
- Ina Garten's a fan!
- Pricey
- Larger than most
More top knife sharpeners we recommend
Lisa Schweitzer/Yahoo
What a value this manual knife sharpener is! It costs just $13 — and that's when it's not on sale. The Longzon 4-in-1 offers three progressively finer slots for Western knives and one that's meant for scissors and shears. The directions were easy to understand and they included a QR code that linked to a helpful how-to video. The sharpener even comes with a pair of cut-resistant gloves for anyone brand-new to sharpening.
To sharpen a knife, you begin with the second notch (the coarsest grind) and run the blade through it from base to tip five to 10 times in only one direction. (Do not, I repeat, do not use a sawing, back-and-forth motion unless you want to ruin your blade). Repeat through the third notch and then the fourth notch (the finest grind). Follow the directions, and you cannot mess this up.
What I like about this sharpener is that it's a compact size (9 inches long by 3 inches wide) and gets the job done, though admittedly not quite as well as the electric Chef'sChoice 1520. It also offers so many safety measures at such a reasonable price point.
- Easy-to-grip, stable handle
- Tungsten and diamond abrasives
- Compact size
- Does not work with Japanese knives
Lisa Schweitzer/Yahoo
You're probably thinking that a sharpening rod sharpens knives, but in reality, it's more of an in-between tool that helps maintain the edge of the knife, or realign the blade, as opposed to truly resharpening it. What you can't see is that wear and tear on a knife results in tiny teeth, or burrs, on the edge of the blade that can make it feel dull. Honing the blade with a sharpening rod will realign these roughed-up edges until you have the time to do a proper sharpening.
This rod from Messermeister is ceramic, so it's durable, smooth and great for sharpening both Western and Japanese knives. At 12 inches, it's also long enough to use with an 8- or 10-inch chef's knife and forgiving if you're new to the honing motion.
A quick search online of videos on honing will show you how to use a rod properly and with even pressure. Basically, you invert the rod and hold it by the handle with your non-dominant hand. Then you place the tip of the rod on a cutting board or dishtowel that will keep it in place. Next you follow the motion of slowly dragging your blade down the rod from heel of the knife to the tip, applying even, light pressure at about a 20-degree angle. You do about five passes per side, and your knife is good to go.
- Ergonomic handle
- Long enough for 10-inch chef's knife
- Fine grit is forgiving for beginners
- Length makes it tough to store
What to look for when choosing a knife sharpener
You want a sharpener that restores knives to as close to new as possible, but you should also consider these factors:
Ease of use: If you're an experienced cook familiar with various types of sharpeners, you'll be able to experiment to find the one you prefer. But if you're a sharpening novice, choose one that takes the guesswork out of the equation. We love the Chef'sChoice 1520 for this reason.
Compatibility: Do you have both Western/German knives and Eastern/Japanese knives that require sharpening? If the answer is yes, you should only choose a sharpener that can accommodate both types of knives.
Abrasive material: The best sharpeners use the toughest materials to create the perfect edge — namely diamond and tungsten. There are many sharpeners out there that use abrasive paper or ceramic blades. These will be less effective, but they also cost less.
Stability/safety: Whatever sharpener you choose should enable you to protect your fingers and offer a stable base. If it's wobbly, it's not safe.
How we tested
First I chose two excellent chef's knives — the Mercer Culinary Genesis 8-Inch Chef's Knife ( a German/Western-style knife) and the MAC Knife 8-Inch Chef's Knife (a Japanese-style knife) — both of which I included in our guide to the best chef's knives of 2024. Against all my instincts, I dulled and damaged the blades by running them over both coarse and fine sandpaper.
Then I brought out the knife sharpeners, following the manufacturer's instructions for using each one. Some sharpeners accommodated both types of knives and some only Western-style knives. A few boasted that you could use them to sharpen serrated knives and/or scissors, but I did not use those utensils in this round of testing.
After using each sharpener, I sliced a piece of paper with the knife to see if it would cut cleanly or tear. I then sliced tomatoes to see if there was resistance or pressure needed to move through the delicate flesh and diced carrots to see if the blade would cut through in one go, or if the carrot would break.
Other knife sharpeners we tested
Work Sharp Electric Culinary E2 Kitchen Knife Sharpener ($60): This sharpener was a runner-up in the electric category. It's easy to use and I had no trouble gliding my knife through the angled guides that house the ceramic abrasives. But the automatic shut-off function, which at first seems like a plus, didn't end up working for me. I didn't feel I was finished sharpening when the machine turned off and therefore I had to run my knife through the cycle several times, which ended up taking longer than the Chef'sChoice 1520.
Presto EverSharp 2-Stage Electric Knife Sharpener ($45): I'd be hard-pressed to recommend this electric sharpener, as it took awhile for me to get the hang of it. When the knife hit the abrasive wheel at the wrong angle, the wheel stopped repeatedly. I finally gave up on it.
Zwilling J.A. Henckels 4-Stage Pull-Through Sharpener ($44): If this manual sharpener had been more stable in hand, it might have taken the top spot. It offers coarse and fine sharpening notches with ceramic abrasives for both Western and Japanese knives that were fairly easy to use.
Smith's CCKS 2-Step Manual Knife Sharpener ($7): This little guy is so inexpensive, and it's often on sale for even less. It's not a powerhouse or particularly stable, but it would come in handy in pinch on a camping or road trip when a dull knife threatens to ruin dinner under the stars.
Kitchellence 3-Stage Knife Sharpener ($14): Amazon's No. 1 bestseller in knife sharpeners wasn't a bad bet. It's inexpensive and comes with a cut-resistant glove. I wish it had a heftier feel and was a bit more stable in hand. But with diamond, tungsten and ceramic abrasives, it does a decent job of restoring a sharp edge to chef's knives.
Idahone Fine Ceramic Sharpening Rod, 12-Inch ($48): This high-quality ceramic sharpening rod was not as comfortable or easy to grip as the Messermeister one I tested. It felt a bit unstable and not as easy to use for honing a knife between sharpenings.
Tumbler Rolling Manual Knife Sharpener ($130): I like the idea of this rolling sharpener, which uses a powerful magnet to keep your knife at an exact 15- or 20-degree angle. It works on both Western and Japanese knives and appeals to me in a fancy-gadget sort of way. It seems like a great gift for a knife enthusiast, but didn't feel easy enough to warrant the price for the average home cook.
Knife sharpener FAQs
How often should you sharpen your knives?
On this topic, I have two things to say: You'll know it when you see it! And, a dull knife is a dangerous knife. If you encounter resistance when cutting through vegetables or proteins or if your knife slips when you're trying to slice through something, it's time to sharpen it. The frequency depends on how often you use your knives. For daily home cooks, it's probably about once a month. To maintain a knife's edge, you may want to run it over a honing steel several times every few days.
What is a sharpening stone or whetstone?
A whetstone or sharpening stone can be made of various materials (both natural and manmade) and is used to sharpen the edge of knives through grinding or honing. Most stones are rectangular and come in different grades, which refer to their level of grit or abrasiveness (usually denoted in numbers from 100 to 5,000). The lower the number, the coarser the grit. Some stones have two sides, a coarser side for regaining the angle of the blade and a finer side for polishing.
We received complimentary samples of some products and purchased others ourselves, but we reviewed all products using the same objective criteria.
