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: Finally, a knife sharpener that meets my expectations
Summary: 5 Stars
I've purchased a number of manual knife sharpeners over the years. None of them have really met my expectations.
Specifically, I recently purchased two of the manual sharpeners rated highly by Cooking Illustrated: the ANOLON Universal Sharpener, and the Messermeister Chantry Sharpener. They simply don't compare to the Chef's Choice sharpener, which is Cooking Illustrated's highest rated power sharpener.
I wish I had simply purchased this sharpener first. Not only does it sharpen a knife to factory, hair-shaving sharpness, but it doesn't damage the sides of the blades like some manual sharpeners do after repeated strokes. The bottom line is that it leaves you with a knife that could easily pass as brand new.
Note that there are three sections to this sharpener:
1) Course powered sharpener
2) Non-powered steel
3) Fine-grain powered sharpener
All three sections have blade guides that hold the blade at just the right angle. Section 2 is not powered at all: it's just a steel, but it steels the blade at just the right angle.
To sharpen a knife, generally you are suppose to use section 1 followed by 2, which results in a very well steeled blade with a little "bite" which is most suitable for cutting course food, OR you are suppose to use section 1 followed by 3, which results in a hair-shaving sharp blade suitable for cutting ripe tomatoes.
You can also resharpen a knife using just section 3, which is effortless and takes just a few seconds.
I was skeptical of going electric at first, but now I'm glad I finally did.
Customer Review: Quite Satisifed
Summary: 5 Stars
I like to work with wood and demand that my chisels and planes be mirror smooth and sharp enough to easily shave hair off the back of my hand. This takes, um, a lot of time to say the least. In the kitchen I want a knife that can do its job and be thrown in the dishwasher. This means my kitchen does not contain high end carbon steel knives. I own a basic set of stainless steel Gerber knives and a few odd blades and a pair of cooking scissors. Having said that I wont say that this device will put a razor edge on your blade but it will allow you to take a very dull kitchen knife and put a very good working edge on it in about 24 seconds with no effort. Plug in the unit, drag through the progressively finer grinding slots and keep on cooking. The knives are sharp and very ready to work but I wouldn't describe them as razor sharp like a chisel. Later touch ups would need about 8 seconds because you skip the first to slots. The sharpener is sturdy and the motor sounds substantial. Its heft and quality remind me of a Kitchen-aid mixer.
In use:
At each slot you drag the blade through the left side and then the right side before proceeding through the next slot.
Step one if starting with a very dull blade drag through slot one for a gross grinding.
Step two drag through slot two for a finer sharpening.
Step three drag through slot three for a good polishing.
Skip step one if the knife is not very dull. Later touch ups will likely only need to be dragged through slot three.
Now you are ready to use the blade on food.
Jim
Customer Review: Excellent device
Summary: 4 Stars
This product does quickly what no other device has done for me before. It truly sharpens knives to a fine honed edge in just a few seconds, with very little skill required and a short learning curve.
Purists will still want the kind of shape and edge that a stone will produce after many minutes of careful (and often unsuccessful in my hands) work. But this product has been well thought out, seems pretty sturdy and it works. Large thick blades may not fit well.
It allows you to get two types of edge. One is a smooth, finely honed edge that cuts very smoothly. I don't prefer that. The other is also a finely honed edge, but there is just enough irregularities on the edge to give a momentary sawing action as it starts to cut. I am not enough of an aficionado to have different knives with different types of edges. I prefer the "bite".
There are a couple of ways to know your knife is well honed. Look at the edge while holding the blade directly perpendicular to your line of vision. A well-honed edge will not reflect any light, because the edge is actually thinner than the wavelengths of visible light. The other way is to touch the edge to your thumbnail and try to pull it sideways (NOT in a cutting direction) across the nail. If it is dull, it will slide. If it sharp, it will "stick".
The Chef's Choice M130 achieves that level of sharpening in moments.
Customer Review: Wonderful Product
Summary: 5 Stars
I have owned a Chef's Choice knife sharpening system before but it was an old lesser model. It performed ok and made my knifes useable. I read a lot of reviews for this product and decided to get one for myself and I also sent one to a friend. I love to cook and I have a nice set of knifes that I was going to take out to have professionally sharpened. I got this system and was a little skeptical due to some of the negative reviews. I followed the directions and took my time with the sharpener. I was AMAZED with the results; it performed just as I hoped it might. I prefer a steeled edge so I followed the directions for a fine steeled edge using step one until I got a consistent burr on one edge. I then ran it through step two for 20 passes on each side and then did a very light and quick two passes through step 3. I got an amazingly good edge on my knifes and they cut through things so smoothly. This is a wonderful system but you have to take your time and pay attention to what you're doing. The biggest key is to let the system do the work and not force the blades through the steps. I will recommend this system to all of my friends and I will send one to my brother who owns a restaurant. This system makes a huge difference and for the person that likes to slice easily through food instead of sawing through it you will be pleased with the results.Customer Review: Exceptional Sharpening
Summary: 5 Stars
You hear a lot of comments on risking your good knives to an electric sharpener. Not willing to send mine out and without a convenient location nearby (unless I trusted some kid at the mall cutlery store), I went with one that even Cooks recommends. Sorry Alton.
My knives are all Wusthof Classics, so, a mistake here would have been costly. Even though I steel my knives all the time, three years of use had taken the edge off. I was building up calluses from cutting and using excess force, so something had to be done.
This thing worked wonders. My knives slice tomatoes again with no force. Amazing. I took this thing in to work to sharpen my co-workers blades. All of their knives of various quality (Chicago Cutlery, Henckel, farberware) all could cut soft tomatoes again.
Downsides, which really aren't...
Really cheap stamped knives are going to get eaten by any grinder.
Although you can strop serrated blades, you aren't putting a grind on them. Then again, serrated blades don't lose their edges in the crescents like your regular knives.
My wusthofs have a heel on them that can prevent the new edge from going to the end. Wusthof has a new line that doesn't have this issue. My Wusthof santoku also doesn't have this issue. This isn't the sharpeners fault.
It's big. No kidding.