Chef’sChoice Professional Electric Knife Sharpeners With 100-Percent Diamond Abrasives And Precision Angle Guides For 20-Degree Straight-Edge and Serrated Knives, 3-Stage, White

Where's the 6th star?? This is an EXCEPTIONAL product, worth a PERFECT rating. I am a tough grader, but this thing is just wonderful:1. It just works, very little skill or time required.2. No water, no significant maintenance, no mess no fuss.3. Compact, space efficient4. FAST (maybe a minute or less per knife)5. SAFE - - the abrasive wheels are spring-loaded, so you can't easily make a big "ding" in the edge of a blade.My wife loves it, I love it, we're throwing out all of our other miserably ineffective sharpening tools. I have no idea about longevity of the abrasive wheels -- but I suspect, with the spring-loaded design, that they will not suffer premature wear-out (because you can't press the knife into them too hard). Time will tell.Read the instructions well and follow them closely, for the best initial results. But honestly even if you don't you'll get sharp knives. Just draw the blade fairly smoothly through the slot (no pauses). I did notice that the edges produced by this system do not have the razor-sharp "feel" on fingertips that I am accustomed to with hand-sharpening, but they ARE SHARP and they CUT VERY WELL. I attribute this to the dual-bevel structure of the way the 3-stage (really 2-stage) process works. Another thing I was concerned about was getting the blade sharp all the way down to the hilt. No worries, the design of the machine allows the wheels to contact the blade down to within about 1/8" of the hilt.I have a 30x magnifier, which I used to examine the process and nature of the new cutting edge. This is a very useful method to understand what's happening with the sharpener and with your knife blades. I highly recommend a 10x or 20x magnifier (jeweler's loupe), they're cheap and you can really see what's going on with your fine knives.I don't normally rave on and on about any products, but this puppy is a gem and I've never been happier with a purchase.

Does the job. Knives sharpened well.

Very effective sharpening machine

I really needed a good knife sharpener and have been researching and searching all types. I have been using one of the counter top "pull-through" type sharpeners but could never get a super sharp edge on my Henckels kitchen knives. I even have Henckels own pull through sharpener, which is just OK. These pull through sharpeners can give you a respectable edge that doesn't last very long. The best way to have a knife sharpened if you are not capable of doing it yourself is professionally. The cost of having that done is between $5 and $12 a knife. Not horrible but then again, you should have them sharpened at least once a year. I've owned my Henckels now for 18 years. If I took all but the Santoku and serrated knives a professional, it would cost me roughly $80 a year to have them sharpened. Not horrible but if you calculate $80 x 17 years (they wouldn't need to be sharpened the first year or two)that comes to $1,360. In less than two years time, I could own a decent sharpener that I will have at my disposal any time I need it and wouldn't need to wrap up and take my knives to a pro and be without them for a week.I had been looking at this sharpener and similar sharpeners for a while but didn't want to spend the $150 on one. Over the past year or so I had watched several YouTube vids on different sharpeners and read many reviews. After seeing this sharpener on sale here on Amazon for $89, I decided to buy it and see how it does. It got delivered yesterday and I was anxious to try it out. The first knife that really needed a good sharpening was my 8" Henckels Classic Chef's knife. This knife gets used 10x more than any of my other knives and was getting pretty dull. Having watched so many vids and am very familiar with sharpening tools as well as knives, I didn't even bother with the instructions. I just plugged it in and went for it. I started with the #2 slot. I knew that the #1 slot would really take the knife edge down quite a bit and the knife was dull, not blunt. Chef's Choice even has a piece of tape over the slots on the #1 stone to warn you about that. So, again, I went straight to the #2 stone. I pulled the knife through at the pace recommended by the videos and followed the curve of the knife. After 3 pulls on each side I progressed to the #3 slot to put a fine edge on the blade. Three pulls through that slot and I was off to test it on the famous "Paper slice" test. I was pretty impressed. The knife sliced straight through the paper with no snags or tears. Cool. So in less than 3 minutes and without any prior practice or experience with this type of sharpener, I had a razor sharp knife. I was thrilled.The results were as good as I hoped for. Now, is this a better sharpener than using a set of progressive whetstones? No, of course not. But unless you have a good set of whetstones and have been taught exactly how to use them, this is a much better option. Is it better than having a professional do it? No, again, of course not. But it certainly is way more convenient. You don't to have pack up the knives, drive to the pro, go back a week later to pick them up, pay the pro $80 and transport them back home, and do this every year. Plus, I can sharpen any knife any time it needs it. In my opinion, this is well worth the money at the regular price. Even more so if you get it on sale as I did. I highly recommend it, and if you knew me, that says a lot.