Chefs Choice knife Sharpener??

[rcmodel]

Anyone have one of these, or any experience using one?
Chef's Choice® Diamond Hone™ No. 120 Knife Sharpener

http://www.cabelas.com/product/Camp.../browse.cmd?N=1100734&WTz_l=SBC%3BBRprd714819

I did a search and found a thread with about the same question.
But it quickly degenerated into a bench grinder vs belt-sander vs too dumb to sharpen a knife by hand debate.

I suspect they do a good job on kitchen knives, and others with thin blades.

But specifically, I want to know how they work on bigger folders and hunting knife blades?

rc

 

[janobles14]

my in laws got one for xmas a few years ago and never even opened it. i snagged it from them and decided to use it on a set of old kitchen blades. it works pretty well. even the finest wheel, however, doesnt put a very "polished" edge on anything i tried. but they were quite functionally sharp.

moving on to your question...

i whipped out an older (and someone abused) buck 110 and an even older Kabar 5". they sharpened up just about as well as did the kitchen knives but just took a little longer pulling though the slots. no problems getting any parts of the blades through at any point and it was fairly easy to tilt the kabar to accomidate the sweep of the blade tip.

my only "complaint" was that it put a different angle on the edges than i liked. im not great at guessing these things but it looked to be around 25-30 degress maybe??? i prefer less. this is the only reason i stopped using it.

hope this helps!

 

[rcmodel]

Thank you!

Good info to know.

rc

 

[DM~]

I saw them tested on America's Test Kitchen, and they said it was a pretty good sharpener, in fact, said it was the best sharpener they tested. Of course, that was on kitchen knives too.

DM

 

[stan rose]

The company also makes a diamond crox-stix sharpener, which allows for 20, and 25 degree edge angles. I use that for tough blades such as D2, then put a realy fine edge on with the Lansky ceramic crox-stix. I know that doe snot answer your question but that is a system that I find gives the best results for the effort put in.

 

[Zeke/PA]

I once worked asa a Tooling Consultant for the Edgecraft Corp., Manufacturers of the Chef's Choice products.
The sharpners DO sharpen knives, the Sicssor sharpners DO sharpen Sicssors to a degree un- atainable by the average Joe.
The only drawback is that in most knives,the entire blade cannot be addressed from the tip to the "hilt" of the knife so consecuently the blade geometry eventually changes at the "choil" of the blade.
However, if the instructions are followed, a mere "touch up" of a knife blade is all that is usually required so this is a moot point as far as the life of the blade is concerned.
ALL of Edgecraft"s Products are the result of thorough research and their cutlery,though expensive, is among the worlds finest.

 

[Resist Evil]

I own one of these sharpeners. Using myself as an example, it is a very foolproof way of sharpening knives. Yes, I am too stoopit to sharpen my knives by hand, although until the machine, I did OK with my Lansky set.

I use this machine to sharpen all of my knives for the kitchen and for the field. My hunting buddy bought one on my recommendation and was very pleased with the results he received. In the field, we bring our animals back to the cabin for skinning and elementary butchering. We string a cord out from the generator just to run the sharpener to touch up our blades on the third stage.

I use a Chef's Choice manual sharpener for touch ups in the field when skinning and butchering elk so it will fit the horse panniards (sp?).

 

[22-rimfire]

I have one of these and use it for kitchen knives primarily. They are very easy to use. Make sure you pull you blade evenly over the grind point.

The thing I have against them is that they take a lot of metal off quickly. But sometimes I honestly don't care.

I always had trouble sharpening machetes with a file. I'd watch others do it and it just never worked for me. Tried my 12" Ontario in the Chef's Choice and the blade would just barely fit in the slot. But it sharpened the machete better than I could up until that point. I don't know if I would recommend doing this.

I have since moved to diamond stones (sort of a file type affair) and have great success with machetes, law mower blades, hatchets, and axes.

I sharpen most of my knives free hand with DMT diamond stones.

As far as sharpening "good" knives (hunting or pocket), I would try the least abrasive slot and give it a try if you want to. The fine grit does not take much metal off but it may change the edge profile. Most people caution against using a Chef's Choice on good knives.

 

[rcmodel]

Well, I bought a Cabala's model Chefs Choice yesterday evening!
It's just a Cabala's branded #120 with two diamond grit disks & one flex-hone.
http://www.cabelas.com/product/Hunt...Rprd714819&WTz_l=SBC;BRprd714819;cat104560380

Came home and sharpened a 7 knife kitchen set, a couple of old abused hunting knives, a big old meat cleaver with nicks in the edge, and an old Benchmade folder.

All 10 knives & the cleaver will shave hair off my arm now!
And it took less then 30 minutes to do all of them.

Overall, I am happy with the purchase so far.
We shall see how the Trizor® edges hold up.

The Cabala's adds say 28 degree edge angle.
The operating instructions & brochure included say 20 degree, which seems much closer to what it does on the shaping stage #1 disk. The #3 Flex-Hone might be 28 degrees, but who knows?
All it does really is put the final buffed edge on, and it doesn't really change the actual angle.

Anyway, Thanks to everyone for all the helpful information you gave me!!

rc

 

[1KPerDay]

I have one of these that I use on my crappy, stamped-steel backup kitchen knives. I use a steel on my Wusthofs.

Works fine.

I have also used it on a machete. Worked fine.

 

[rcmodel]

Well, that is the next project.
I have a couple of WWII GI machetes that really need some attention.

We shall see how that works out!

But if it works out like the other knives did?
I will probably cut my foot or hand off this fall cleaning up the place with a razor sharp one for a change!

rc

 

[Cougfan2]

I have one. It does a pretty decent job on kitchen knives, but I still like to give them a couple of strops on my Shun steel when I'm done.

 

[DAdams]

Price varies from $110-169 on Amazon depending on color/finish? I'm not sure I understand that? Black versus brushed metallic $50? I'm not putting it on display.