I am in the market for an electric kitchen knife sharpener.
Can anyone recommend a decent one?

Thanks!

I don't have a recommendation, but curiosity compels me to ask if it's for personal use, or if you need to sharpen a whole shipment of knives?

I have this mental image of a guy sitting next to a huge pile of knives. He's holding one he just finished sharpening, and saying "That's one!"

Coincidentally, I just received the new Hammacher Schlemmer catalogue. They proclaim this one below to be "The Best Electric Knive Sharpener."

I seem to recall that electric can openers used to have knife sharpeners on the back. I like my old-fashioned diamond sharpener that I can also take camping.

http://www.hammacher.com/Product/76987?promo=search&query=gf-76987


The Best Electric Knife Sharpener.

This electric knife sharpener earned The Best rating from the Hammacher Schlemmer Institute because it recorded a perfect score for sharpening ability and was the only model that also sharpened kitchen sheers. The Best model uses a patented sharpening process that combines the sharpness of a hollow ground edge with the durability of a flat ground edge. The Best model ground edges that sliced through a tomato's firm skin on the first pass and chopped through spaghetti squash with minimal force, while lesser sharpeners created edges that cut ragged slices of vegetables and could not penetrate squash. Unlike other models, The Best Electric Knife Sharpener created edges that retained their sharpness even after repeated strikes on a cutting board. The Best Electric Sharpener has two slots--one with interlocking diamond-coated wheels that restore the original factory sharpness of any blade and a finishing slot that allows you to manually polish a freshly ground edge or sharpen serrated blades. Plugs into AC. 9 1/2" L x 7" W x 4 1/2" D. (4 3/4 lbs.)

Personal use

I'd suggest skipping the electric aspect and getting a Spyderco Sharpmaker. It is by far the best and easiest to use sharpening system I've used.

Ken

I'm kind of, well ... pretty much all, 'old school', and lean toward a simple sharpening stone/s and developing some manual skills. But if you want a quick and easy solution, perhaps you have a lot of knives and use them a lot, and are willing to pay the price for quality (over $160), the Chefsdhoice -120 got good reviews on Americas Test Kitchen. Uses diamond wheels and is supposed to last a long time.

http://www.kaboodle.com/reviews/chefschoice-120-stainless-steel-electric-knife-sharpener

Being a dedicated preper your going to want to keep a stone around and practice enough to know how to use it because the depends on line power. So the real saving is in time and labor.

PLEASE don't use an electric sharpener (at least of the kitchen type). More knives have been destroyed with them than anything else

KenK recommended a Sharpmaker - they are very very good, but a tad slow if you let your knoves get really dull

An Apex Edgepro is great if you want to spend some $$

A nice set of stones (I have natural Arkansas, Manmade Oil, and manmade Japanese water stones) is a wonderful way to get an edge, but requres some skill - I love the waterstones, and for my woodworking gear, it's the way I go - for normal knives and everyday use, I tend to use the Edgepro, but I'll say I can get a better edge with the waterstones

I believe you can get a set of diamond rods for the Sharpmaker if you wish to do some massive blade reshaping. They are somewhat pricey, about the original cost of the Sharpmaker. I really like my SM, and my knives(as well as scissors and chisels) have never been sharper.

I got one of these (this exact model, I think) for my mother-in-law as a present one year, and I'd suggest you avoid it. These contraptions chew up the blade, don't work well if you have a heel and don't get it all that sharp to boot.

If you really want something for speed, maybe see if you can find a wet grinder like the Tormek T-3.

What I'd really like is a Tormek with the Japanese water stone wheels.

That said (and it may be heresy) you can get a quick and dirty edge by first using a 'diamond steel' and then using a 'ceramic steel'.

In general tho, I tend to do most of my sharpening on a 1000/4000 combo Japanese water stone, and typically only using the coarse side. If the blade is badly munged, I'll work on it a bit with the diamond steel to get it into shake, then finish it up with the water stone.

For $160, I think you'd be much better off getting yourself a diamond steel, a ceramic steel, and a 800-1200ish Japanese water stone.

And this is from someone who likes gadgets. :-)

-john


Oh, the Sharpmaker is a decent "system". I have one and sometimes will use in combination with the other methods. For example getting a good clean angle on the 1000 water stone, then putting a slight micro edge with the Sharpmaker.

Edit2: Note the Sharpmaker is kinda small to handle big kitchen knives.

If you're really considering Tormek, I suggest you check out

http://www.paperwheels.com/
http://www.sharpeningwheels.com
~$80 for a bench grinder
~$80 for a set of wheels