We all need kitchen knives that can dice onions without sliding off the skin and slit fridge-cold large carrots lengthways without endangering your fingers. However, if you’ve splashed out on an expensive knife only to find that a few months down the line the meat is squishing rather than slicing and the carrots are bouncing off the chopping board, then you need to buy the right kind of knife sharpener.
Even the best knives will end up blunt after a certain amount of use, so unless you want to battle through carving every sunday roast, or end up relegating that hundred-pound Santoku beauty to its branded wooden stand, then our guide here will run through everything you need to know. It's just a question of how much you want to spend and how much time you want to invest in learning how to keep your blades as sharp as a razor – with a little effort, you can make your knives last longer and cut better.
How to buy the right knife sharpener for you
Knife sharpeners come in many forms and work in many different ways. The right choice for you depends on the quality of the kitchen knives that you own, how much you want to spend, and also on the time and effort you’re willing to expend. Your preferred choice may depend on how confident you feel in using the more challenging sharpening methods – make no mistake, qualified butterfingers should at this point pass blunt knives to their more co-ordinated sous-chefs.
What’s the difference between honing and sharpening?
Restoring the cutting ability of your knives is actually the product of two different actions: honing and sharpening. The process that you’ll end up doing most regularly is actually honing rather than sharpening, however. Honing a blade is the process of restoring a perfectly straight cutting edge, and this doesn’t necessarily have to remove any metal at all; it simply pushes the blade back into position. Sharpening is something that you’ll only need to do once you find that honing no longer restores a blade’s cutting ability.
What types of knife sharpener are there?
- The sharpening rod or honing steel: Think back to your childhood memories of Sunday roasts and you may recall the ritual of your mother or father preparing the carving knife by swishing it against a sharpening rod. In its cheapest guise, the rod is simply a coarsely ridged piece of steel that sharpens your knife, but also rips a good deal of steel off in the process. At the top end, rods can be fine-graded ceramic honing tools – also known as honing steels – which give an excellent finish without taking off more than a smidgen of steel. Technique is paramount with these if you want to preserve the blade, so you shouldn’t be tempted to mimic your memories of the Sunday-roast sweep. Instead hold the end of the rod on a base and very carefully draw the blade down at around 10º or whatever is most suitable for your blade and sharpener.
- The whetstone: Requiring considerable technique to both avoid damaging your knives and achieve the razor-sharp, perfectly-straight edge we're all looking for, the whetstone sits at the daunting pinnacle of knife sharpening. Understandably, the expense and the fear of getting it wrong understandably puts off many people but, with a little effort, a combination of different grades of whetstone can rescue even the most damaged of blades and restore the finest knives to their original glory.
- The V-sharpener: These gadgets are generally held to the kitchen surface with one hand while you draw the blade through a 'V' created by two abrasive plates. They can feature one, two or three plates to give different grades of abrasion, thus providing both honing and sharpening as required. The more plates, the more control you have over how you sharpen. A plus point is that almost no technique is required. You can only draw the blade through in one direction, and only overly rough treatment will damage the knife edge.
The best knife sharpeners to buy
1. AnySharp Knife Sharpener: The best knife sharpener for everyday knives
Price when reviewed:£9
This is a one-size-fits-all knife sharpener and for the price, it does a decent job – at least with less expensive knives. For standard kitchen knives in need of some serious attention, it will sharpen as well as is needed and give an excellent cutting edge that will rip through anything. It sharpens on both sides when you pull the blade through, so it’s not suitable for single-edged knives unless you don’t mind them becoming double edged. One thing we noticed is that you must ensure the surface you stick the suction cups on the base to is airtight. Most kitchen surfaces will be, but gouges and scratches will affect the AnySharp’s ability to hold firm which could lead to accidents. Be careful. We’d hesitate to recommend this for pricier knives, though – you’d be advised to buy one of the more refined alternatives below.
Key specs – Sharpening, honing or both?: Sharpening only; Holding method: One-handed; the sharpener attaches to the surface with suckers to an airtight surface so your other hand is left free; Single-edged knives?: No
2. Smart Sharp by Lantana: The best knife sharpener under £20
Price when reviewed:£13
One of the few sharpeners to offer three grades in one, the Lantana is a well-thought out product and does the job quickly but incrementally. It's braced with one hand (it works for right- and left-handed people) and then you have a quick three-stage process. First are the coarse diamond plates, which eliminate notches and prepare the knife for the sharpening stage. Next are the tungsten carbide plates, which sharpen the knife to a 'V' and finally comes the ceramic honing plates to remove burs and straighten the edges. It's not recommended for use on thinner blades, such as the Global brand, and it will turn single-edged blades into double edged, but for everything else, this does a good job at a very low price.
Key specs – Sharpening, honing or both?: Both; Holding method: Hand-braced on the kitchen surface; Single-edged knives?: No
3. TOG Knives Ceramic Honing Rod: The best honing rod under £50
Price when reviewed:£45
The TOG claims to be a 'double-action' tool, being both a fine sharpening tool and a honing tool in one. It achieves this by firstly having a 2,000 grade surface, which will take a tiny amount of steel off your blade and thus sharpen it, and secondly by being ceramic, which means it's so hard that the rod's surface can also straighten the finely sharpened edge created by the rods cutting capabilities. To get a really blunt knife ready for honing, TOG recommends using a 200 grade whetstone, followed by a 1,000 grade. It's a favourite of many chefs as a simple, finely-graded, and comparatively affordable sharpener. The brittle ceramic rod is protected from breakage by shock-absorbers and the materials used mean it's also light in the hand. Care must be taken with all handheld rods to get the correct angle, as there's nothing to prevent you dulling the blade by too great an angle or simply thinning the sides of the blade without sharpening the cutting edge. TOG therefore sensibly recommends holding the handle and placing the other end down on the surface to stabilise it and to ensure you can see you're maintaining the recommended 10º angle. All in all, for £45 you get a professional-quality tool that, with some care and technique, can keep your knives sharp and in perfect condition for many years, as the grade is not so coarse as to wear your knives unnecessarily.
Key specs – Sharpening, honing or both?: Both; Holding method: One handed, leaving other hand to hold the rod; Single-edged knives?: Yes
4. Kai Shun Damascus Combination Whetstone: The best double-sided whetstone
Price when reviewed:£55
This double-sided whetstone offers a practical solution to someone who’s serious about their knives but doesn’t fancy filling their cupboard with racks of sharpening stones. The coarse 300 grade will eliminate defects and notches, and then you can flip it over to use the 1,000 grade side, which will hone the knife's edge. It requires soaking in water for 15 minutes prior to use, and so isn’t a quick fix option for long-blunt knives, but get past that and it's a professional solution that's also easy to store and use. As with all whetstones, you'll still need to take care when using it, though, and we'd suggest the 300 is too coarse for everyday use and will take a fair bit off your knife, so most will be happy using the 1,000 grade on its own, while occasionally resorting to the coarser side when your knife collection starts looking a little worse for wear.
Key specs – Sharpening, honing or both?: Both; Holding method: One hand on blade, one on knife handle (the stone holds to kitchen surface on its supplied rubber base); Single-edged knives?: Yes
5. Shapton Ceramic Kuromaku #8,000: The best whetstone for high-end knives
Price when reviewed:£51 (not including customs charges)
Not for the faint hearted, using a whetstone requires a bit of technique and a lot of money, but the results are worth it. This 8,000 grade stone is excellent for the final sharpening to a (literally) razor's edge, but we'd recommend also buying two coarser grades, such as the 1,000 (£35) and 4,000 (£44) from Shapton's Kuromaku range. This would bring the total price to £130, but bear in mind that you may get stung at customs – these whetstones tend to make their way over from Japan directly. Still, there’s little better for keeping your kitchen knives in tip-top condition. If your knife has got really blunt and notched, replace the 4,000 with a course 320, then move to the 1,000, and finally work your way up to this 8,000 – you can step up to 12000 or 30000 grades if you’re a complete perfectionist. For technique, YouTube has some excellent tutorials. Give yourself some time and try it out on cheap old knives before working your way up to your treasured Japanese folded knives.
Key specs – Sharpening, honing or both? Both; Holding method: One hand on blade, one on knife handle (the stone holds to kitchen surface on its supplied base); Single-edged knives?: Yes