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Stay Sharp . . . With a Knife Sharpener

Let’s just start this page by saying one thing loud and clear . . . there is no such thing as a stay sharp knife, all knives need sharpening at some point in their lives, it’s just the way it is. Now that we’ve got that sorted (I bet you wondered why you were having trouble slicing the beef didn’t you), let’s take a look at some of the many different types of knife sharpener available on the market today, what they do and how they do it, then you can figure out the best way for you to stay sharp in the kitchen.

Blunt knives are no good to anybody, and, whilst sharp knives are dangerous and definitely need to be kept away from small fingers . . . well, any fingers in fact, they do make kitchen life so much easier.  Just imagine how easy it would be to fillet that fish with a sharp filleting knife, making a really professional job of it instead of it looking like it’s been mashed before it’s even prepared for cooking.

Types of Knife Sharpener

• Electric Knife Sharpeners – there’s a great range of electric knife sharpeners on the market today. Some of them are pretty expensive, some of them aren’t, some of them look kind of like toasters with smaller slots, some of them don’t.  Some of them do the job in two or even three stages and are able to cope with both straight and serrated blades. You can spend anything from around 20 bucks to 250 . . . yes, there really is that much choice.
• Kitchen Knife Sharpeners – of course, you don’t need an electrical gadget to do everything in the kitchen, there are also a wide variety of knife sharpeners which don’t need any power at all, well, maybe a little elbow grease. Some of them are designed for you to simply run the knife blade along the edge for time to time, some of the traditional steels do involve a certain amount of talent (knife sharpening skills) not to mention practice, and many of them are available on the market for less than $10. Some of these small, cheap, insignificant looking gadgets really can make an enormous difference in your kitchen. There’s really no excuse to struggle with blunt knives . . . stay sharp with a knife sharpener.
• Professional Knife Sharpeners – professional chefs and cooks need their knives to be razor sharp all of the time, and whereas some of the household knife sharpeners are designed to be used once in a blue moon (or every Sunday before carving the roast), chefs and cooks use their knife sharpeners very many times a day. If you want something which is really going to stand the test of time, then maybe you should invest in something which the professionals would be happy to have in their kitchens.

Did you hear that sales voice? Sounds more like she’s talking about shampoo or a two week vacation in the Caribbean.

It’s okay, I’m not on commission for any of these gadgets, I’m just trying to find examples of different types.

Hmmm, wonder what he thinks of all this . . .

You see, all of these experts have their own expert opinions!