Chef's Choice 130 Professional Knife-Sharpening Station, Platinum
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Chef's Choice 130 Professional Knife-Sharpening Station, Platinum
Customer Review: Somewhat of a love hate relationship.
Summary: 3 Stars
I'll put my conclusions first so you don't have to read through my ramblings.
The Good:
Small size
Looks nice, well built and professional.
Quiet
Will easily put a good edge on a good knife that's not too dull.
The not so good:
Required quite a bit of experimentation to get the advertised results.
The best results I've been able to achieve are somewhat sloppy and inconsistent.
The Bad:
The instruction booklet.
Despite its well made appearance, I really wouldn't expect this to last very long if subjected to heavy use like in a restaurant or as the guy in the neighborhood who sharpens everyone's knives. The motor heats up rather quickly and on several occasions, under the required pressure to produce the "burr", bound up and stopped.
After getting a good edge on the first wheel, the edge shaved pieces off the stropping discs. I expect these to fail relatively quickly.
The steel in the second slot is not installed very well and rotates when used.
I'm still waffling on whether I really like this thing or not.
I read all the reviews an discounted the few negative ones as people who just didn't use it right.
My initial impression was one of profound disappointment. The box arrived somewhat mangled, though well in advance of the proposed shipping date. shipping was free, which was nice. The price I paid was considerably under what it shows today.
Upon unpacking, I liked the fact that it's smaller than I expected, and looks like a well made piece of equipment. I carefully read the directions, which as most reviewers stated, left a lot to be desired.
I correctly guessed that this was going to take a bit of trial and error, so I started out on an old, bowling ball dull chef's knife made of cheap stainless that hasn't seen use in several years. I followed the directions as best I could and got less than mediocre results. The elusive "burr" simply refused to materialize. My interpretation of the directions led me to believe that the knife was to be held perpendicular to the floor (straight up and down. This didn't work. After MANY more attempts, I finally hit upon a method that seems to work. Basically, you must pin the knife against the outside edge of the guide and draw the knife through with a slight "twisting pressure". Counterclockwise for the left guide, clockwise for the right. This required more pressure than I thought it would from the directions. The result was s good, sharp though somewhat "sloppy" edge. (I'm no knife expert, so I apologize for my weird terminology)
Once I figured out the action required, I moved on to other knives and got better and better results. Finally, on my relatively still sharp Henckels, I was able to put a pretty good edge.
Customer Review: A sharp cut above the rest
Summary: 5 Stars
Sharp knives are not more dangerous than dull ones, because sharp knives do their job easily, whereas dull ones require you to use more force, leading to more risk of slipping and to not as good a job cutting. So, in short, you want a good sharp knife, just as anyone wants the proper tool to do the job.
This knife sharpener works really really really well on your kitchen knives. I have some top grade knives--they sharpen up well--as well a few sets of steak knives as well as lower grade knives as well as the knife my grandfather made in 1950 out of a single piece of metal (blade and handle) which now has the first sharp blade it's ever had on it. Oh, the point here is that this sharpening device produces a very sharp blade.
The manual is a bit confusing (although very thorough, and very helpful as to how to get a sharp blade) as it talks about all the options available to sharpen your knife, and doesn't distinguish between whether or why you would want a steel-sharpened or a diamond-sharpened blade. Whatever, your knives are gonna be much better than before, and while the manual doesn't really get into the differences between why you'd use the "second" and "third" grinding options, this device gives you really sharp knives in a variety of really sharp ways.
This also works well on bread knives and other deeply-serrated edges, as well as santoku blades, individual steak knives, roast slicers, boning knives, etc., based on what I've been able to do with sharpening them. Even second-class knives I delegated to limbo-land cuz they didn't work too well, have now sprung back into life. Again, a sharp knife is a good knife to use, not one to avoid cuz it's "sharp", and this sharpener does a wonderful (repeat, wonderful) job in preparing the right tool for a cook.
As in all my reviews, I have no financial or any other interest in this product or this company.
Occasionally, one buys something and then feels that if you had the chance to buy again, you'd pass on buying it. Not this sharpener, if I ever lost this or whatever, I'd buy it again since I've used it and have seen what it does.
Customer Review: No good for everyday knives
Summary: 1 Stars
Found a total of 4 or 5 reviews for the M130. All written by discerning buyers with expensive knives. I on the other hand have regular knives and just wanted them to be as sharp as they can be. Money wasn't an issue, so I bought the best sharpener I could find.
> Being an engineer, I read the instructions before and again while sharpening the knives.
> Even thought the M130 has 3 slots, it only recommends using the 3rd slot for serrated knives. Since most of my knives are serrated, I only got a third of the utility of the M130.
> The flimsy owners manual sets lofty expectations by suggesting you only need to run the knife through about 8 times to get them sharp.
> Excitedly, I got some sheets of paper and celery and did a before and after test. Pre-sharpening, the knives didn't cut the paper and cut the celery with some effort. I then ran the knife through the sharpener 8 times, paying close attention to the amount of effort I applied as per the manual. Then I got my wife to witness the "AFTER" result: The paper still couldn't be cut and the celery was just a hair easier to cut.
> Another 8 passes, and still the same glacial progress.
> Exasperated, I decided to 'sacrifice' one of my serrateds and ran it through the 3 slots to get the full benefit of the M130. Progress was again glacial. The manual talks repeatedly about forming a 'burr', which seems crucial to getting a really sharp edge. Despite my best and extended efforts, the burr never formed.
> Inspected the edge of the knife repeatedly and saw that the M130 took guite a bit of the metal off. NO I WAS NOT HAM FISTING IT!!! YES I WAS PAYING CLOSE ATTENTION TO THE ANGLE AND SPEED AT WHICH I RAN THE KNIFE!
> I'm now resigned to months of sharpening the knives and getting them up to speed by sharpening them a little every time I use them.
> My best guess it that the M130 is best for knives whose metal is a bit malleable, whereas the same effort applied to lesser knives just crumbles and destroys the edge.
> If I'd known, I'd have bought a sharpener costing a 10th of what I paid for the M130.
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Customer Review: Good but not great
Summary: 3 Stars
As a user of Chef's Choice model 110 and 120 for over ten years I had greatly anticipated the release of this new model.Unfortunately some poor design choices prevent me from fully recomending this product.The older M120 provided 3 stages and created a triple bevel edge.The new M130 can create at best two bevels and only one if you use the sharpening steel.The first stage creates a single edge that can then be steeled with the second stage.If the third polishing stage is used the steeled edge is ground away.That being said the number of bevels is secondary to sharpness of the blade.In comparing the sharpness of the two machines they are very similar with the new 130 seeming slightly sharper.The major issue with the machine is the need to have it out on the counter at all times.The whole point of a sharping steel is to hone your knives each time you use them in order to maintain an edge.This means you need to lug out the box every time you cook, or to have it out on the counter taking up space.If you are model 120 owner looking to the M130 as an upgrade you are much better off buying the Chef's Choice 470 SteelPro.That way you only need to have the larger machine out for major sharpening and can quickly grab the small steel for honing.You'll also notice the M470 has two steeling rods versus the M130's one rod.
I would like to add one note of warning to anyone new to the Chef's Choice line.If you have a collection of knives with heavy bolster heels, know that Chef's Choice models have problems with sharpening all the way to the base due to the heel not fitting into the sharpener.Most Japenese(Shun,Global,MAC, etc) knives aren't effected since the blade extends the full lenght of the knife.Many European(Wusthof,Henckels,Sabatier) knives have the heavy metal heel, and will over years of sharpening develop a gap as the metal from the blade is ground down and the bolster remains.meaning the base of the knife will no longer be flush with your cutting board from the heel extending below it.
Customer Review: Super Sharp (not Razor!) and Easy to Use
Summary: 5 Stars
Like other reviewers, I will agree that this unit will not make your knives razor sharp. It will however make them very sharp and it's convenient enough and easy enough to use that you should run your favorite knives through it once a week or more.
Just remember to warn other people that use your kitchen about how sharp the knives are after you use this device! It's very easy to have a HUGE difference in sharpness after using it, and if you have people used to dull knives they might cut themselves because they habitually put too much pressure on a dull knife when cutting through food.
The first stage you'll most likely only use once or twice per knife, as it's a coarse grinding stone that's designed to bring life back to very dull knives. Second stage is basically a non-powered honing steel, third stage is the fine grind sharpener that you'll be using most of the time. Weird that the steel is in the second slot, as that is usually the third thing you do when sharpening a knife.
The instructions are a bit misleading, because there are two separate sections telling you when to use the first station (but skipping the other 2 stations), and then another area telling you to basically never use it. Kind of confusing, but the basic process is to use the first station once per dull knife when you get it out of the box, then for daily/weekly use the third station and then hone it with the second station.
It does sharpen serrated bread knives, but it only sharpens the "tips" of the serrations. I haven't noticed a huge diference in cutting through bread with my "freshly" sharpened serrated knives.
Also note that if you have a $30 set of those cheap-o micro-serrated "eversharp" stamped kitchen knives this sharpener won't be much use to you, Spend the money on 2 or 3 decent kitchen knives instead, and then get this item after a few months of use to keep them super sharp.