Chef's Choice(Edgecraft) sharpeners opinions?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Stay away from these. They butcher the steel (remove way too much), and leave scratches on the blade. The manual one's do less damage, but they're still worthless in my opinion. Save your cash and buy a Spyderco Sharpmaker.

-Al-
 
Well, that's one side of the story.

If you look in some of the other recent sharpening threads you'll see that there are other folks who think these auto sharpeners are the good deal to use on longer knives, especially kitchen knives.

I agree that they strip a lot of metal off the blade, but it may be what you need in the kitchen. Depends on how sharp you want them, how much time you want to spend getting them there, and how often you're willing to resharpen.

-- PG
 
comments on the EdgePro 120 3-wheel motorized unit:

Actually, for kitchen knives, which I must inform you up front I consider to be wasting assets and very replaceable, the EdgePro stuff that is motorized works great, and works very quickly.

Once you reprofile the edge, i.e. put on the double or triple bevel edge (2 or 3 wheel), there is not need to remove a bunch of steel after that.

You can:
1. use an edge straightening steel to keep the edge lined up and sharp
2. use only the 2nd and 3rd wheel to put on a burr and then strop off
3. use the 3rd wheel to straighten out the edge, kind of like a steel.


Would I use them on my folders or big fixed blades? No. Why?:
1. too hard to control to keep a really clean bevel on the knife
2. doesn't handle thicker stock well
3. doesn't put the refined edge on folders or fixed carry blades that I prefer.

I.e., the story isn't one sided... there are pros/cons. I consider my Henckels kitchen knives to be decent quality knives that are utility in nature, and I don't hesistate to grind off a bit of metal WHEN they need such treatment....that takes a while if you are cautious and don't rub off the edge on a cutting board. Usually on veggies/meat, you just roll the edge, so you can steel.

Since I can take a dozen kitchen knives from not-so-sharp to scrapey/shavey in literally 30-60 seconds per knife w/ the EdgePro, i consider it a good tool.
 
It's nothing wrong with V-style sharpeners, especially in the kitchen where you should deal mostly with pretty soft blades. Just touch them up frequently and you will never need coarse stone for edge restoring or reprofiling. The rods can be cleaned easily with water and any kind of coarse kitchen cleaner.
Quite important thing - some kitchen knives have pretty long blades and here is preferable to have the sharpener with possibly long rods. This is the matter why I prefer my Lansky V-style sharpener over SPYDERCO Sharpmaker in my kitchen. GATCO, KATZ and some other brands offer very similar ones...

Returning to EdgeCraft, I have very positive experience with their Model 420. It's the magnetic holder with 3 interchangeable diamond abrasive plates - coarse, medium and fine, 150-mm long and 30-mm wide. This system can be used as file as well as bench stone.
All you need to use it - to master freehand sharpening ;)
In my opinion this is much better way than use of "super-tools, do it in my place".
 
I think it's called the Edgemaker, WWW.Edgemaker.com . It comes with a blue handled course set of steel rod sections , followed by a Green handled sharpener that has a slighter less coarse set of steels in a 'V" and then a Finishing "V". Sells for about 20 bucks at shows. Anyone ever use one?...wolf:confused:
 
I f*cked up the edge of my Emerson Mach 1 with one of those Chef's Choice sharpeners.
 
I have a manual version, with diamonds that I only use for kitchen knives. My parents(I am still living with them while in school) have a set of cheap Henkels kitchen knives that won't really take a nice edge, and the Edgecraft works well on them. Actually it doesn't work that well, but when they get real dull from never being sharpened, and it would take way to long to sharpen with my Sharpmaker, it gets an edge quickly. I feel that for cheap knives it will give you as good an edge as you could get using any other method.

Now my expensive pocket knives are a whole nother story. I would never put that thing anywhere near a quality knife as it will destroy the knife by removing to much metal, and not putting on an edge as sharp as the knife will hold.


Erik
 
I f*cked up the edge of my Emerson Mach 1 with one of those Chef's Choice sharpeners
Click to expand...
I'm not surprised at all.
If Emerson's Mach 1 has the edge sharpened on the single side (like other Emerson knives) it is impossible to use on it any kind of preangled sharpener intended for normal edges...
 
Why is the sharpmaker better than the Lansky Croc? Is it faster? If I buy this sharpmaker and it doesn't perform....
 
If I buy this sharpmaker and it doesn't perform....
Click to expand...
No one tool will work in your place.

The Sharpmaker is more versatile and sophisticated tool than simple crock sticks. You can use it to sharpen scissors, pointed tools, also in bench stone mode putting the roads with the flat surfaces upwards into the base. It cuts faster working on the angles and calmer working on flat surfaces.

The set of crock sticks like my Lansky one has only two rod positions - for 40 degree (totally) bevel and for 30 degree one. And two pairs of rods - medium and fine. The rods are round, this makes them somewhat easier to use but provides less versatility. But the main advantage of Lansky over Sharpmaker is the longer rods - 9" Lansky and 7" Sharpmaker. This wouldn't be essential working with 4" long blades and here I considerably prefer Sharpmaker. But working with long and relatively soft kitchen knives I definitely prefer Lansky crock sticks.

No one of them cuts fast enough for edge reprofiling, even on relatively soft kitchen knives. Both are intended rather for edge maintenance than for creating. If you want to do such reprofiling or edge restoring after heavy damage you should add coarse diamond stone, in fact it is marginal difference what brand. The length is much more essential, to work comfortably with 6" long blades you need at least 8" long diamond surface.

Proper tool for each work - this is nothing new.
 
Avoid the Chefs Choice model 120 or 130 -- the $130 high-end one.

I used mine for a while -- actually worked reasonably well on a bunch of old, dull kitchen knives, and all the "garage sale" knives in the camper, but will seriously mess up nice stuff.

Mike
 
Garbage. I had the 440 I think, it is was horrible. it coudltn sharpen any of my blades, ranging from stockmans to my customs, to some of my stuff by other makers. the edge was jagged and coarse, even with the fine stone. It doesnt really sharpen the edge. Why? Cuz the stones form a V, and the edge itself get hit by the diamonds. A spyderco 204 sharpens 1 side at a time, not both sides and the actual cutting edge at once. These things remove metal from the bevels, as well as the actual cutting edge, leaving the edge coarse and ragged and with a HUGE wire edge.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top