Knife Sharpening Information and Equipment

Sharpening Home Page

Sharpening Made Easy Book

Sharpening School

Start Your Business booklet.

Shear Sharpening booklet

Knife Sharpening DVD

Chapters 1, 2 and 3 were printed in the June and July 1999 issues of Knife World as A PRIMER ON KNIFE SHARPENING.
Copyright 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
Updated April 18, 2008

Quotes about our website and book from eGullet.com:
"Sharpening Made Easy by Steve Bottorff. This slim book is a good starting point if you’re just getting into knife sharpening. Give it as a gift ... to the sharpening-challenged."

"There are several different grit rating systems, and unfortunately it is very difficult to correlate these different systems. For example, Japanese waterstones are graded differently than diamond stones and both have different numbering systems than the codes found on powered grindstones. Steve Bottorff, author of “Sharpening Made Easy” has taken a stab at it here if you’re interested."

"Everyone knows you need to lubricate your knife sharpening stone with water or oil, right? So the question is which one is better. Neither. The purpose of a knife sharpening stone is to grind the edge and remove metal. Oil reduces friction and makes the process much slower.  Supposedly oil helps float away metal particles that would otherwise clog the pores of the stone. You can do the same thing by wiping the stone with a damp cloth when you’re done. Steve Bottorff reports that you can clean your Arkansas stones with paint thinner. Synthetic stones clean up with a scouring pad and abrasive cleanser."

"Steve Bottorff has tried just about every knife sharpening system available. Here’s his take on the Lansky, Gatco and DMT systems.  The Lansky has an aluminum guide that goes from 13 to 25 degrees in 4 steps; each angle is 3 to 5 degrees lower than indicated. The GATCO guide is aluminum and reinforced plastic and goes from 17 to 34 degrees in 6 steps, each step is about 6 degrees greater than indicated. I prefer the GATCO to the Lansky because of the GATCO's larger stones and selection of angles. The DMT Aligner guide is all plastic, and goes from 12 to 35 degrees in 7 steps, which are not marked. With DMT hones, which I do not have, the Aligner would be the pick of the litter for this size of system.”

According to Steve Bottorff, there is even one gem among all of the gadget dross.

“There is one class act in every category, and the Meyerco Sharpen-It is it for slot gadgets. Designed by Blackie Collins to be so simple that it could be used on horseback, the Sharpen-It features tungsten carbide wheels for the first stage and fine ceramic wheels for the second. The ceramic is so hard and fine-grained that it is more like using a steel. With this combination, the Sharpen-It performs well at both knife sharpening and honing.

Just as with the pull-through sharpeners, there is a gem among the electrics. Both Steve Bottorff and Cooks Illustrated rated the Chef’s Choice model 110 (since replaced by the 120 and 130) as the best electric sharpener available. It puts a very nice edge on knives, sets a back bevel for performance and doesn’t remove metal at an alarming rate. It does have a tendency to scratch the blade, however.

End quotes.