Maintaining your blades increases a knife's lifespan. For this update, we researched the market before buying and testing the 9 best knife sharpeners on the market. Depending on how often you do it and your standards for sharpness, you might justify an expensive, large, and fast electric model, or you might choose a more compact and time-consuming manual model. Our hands-on assessments of many styles of sharpeners provide unique insight to help guide you to the best product for your needs. We tested and rated for speed, versatility, ergonomics, and storage. We honed this review to help you quickly and easily find the best blade sharpener for your cutlery needs.
A good knife sharpener needs some quality knives to sharpen. We've tested a variety of knives to help you narrow down the right ones for your home. Our gear experts shed light on different kinds of these sharp tools like the santoku knife, nakiri knife, and best bread knife and chef's knife on the market. A kitchen knife set will help you round out your collection, and we even have reviews of utility knives if you're seeking something sharp outside of the kitchen. Whatever you're looking for, we've got reviews to help you find what you need.Best Knife Sharpener of 2022
We tested knife sharpeners from Kitchellence, Chef'sChoice, Work Sharp, and others to find which sharpened best
By Jediah Porter ⋅ Review Editor ⋅ Feb 10, 2022
Our Editors independently research, test, and rate the best products. We only make money if you purchase a product through our links, and we never accept free products from manufacturers. Learn more
Versatile
Simple
Stable in hand and on counter
Bulkier than some alternatives
Won't sharpen the entire length of smaller blades
The Kitchellence 4-in-1 Kitchen Knife Accessories is simple, comprehensive, and reliable at sharpening a variety of blade styles across a vast range of sharpening needs. Whether you need to completely refurbish a neglected blade or simply resurface a well-maintained tool, the Kitchellence is our favorite manual sharpener. It features three different sharpening textures, a handle that accommodates a full fist, and rubberized surfaces that sit securely in hand or on your counter. In our opinion, you can't do better than this one when it comes to manual, guided sharpeners. The price is also accommodating to most budgets.
As expected, the Kitchellence is quite a bit slower than electric versions, especially when sharpening knives that have been neglected for too long. Kitchellence doesn't explicitly encourage the sharpening of serrated knife blades with this tool, but there is no reason you couldn't do so. For the typical domestic kitchen, this product hits the mark for performance, utility, and price over the rest, and it is the product we recommend to most people.
The Kitchellence knife sharpener is simple in all the right ways and versatile for all your knife sharpening needs.
Credit: Laura Casner
Fast
Robust
A clear step above other products
Requires great care
Expensive
We aren't the only ones to appreciate the performance of the Chef'sChoice Trizor XV Sharpener EdgeSelect 15. This heavy, sturdy, all-electric knife sharpener is widely regarded as the best on the market. We started our testing with a really old, really dull thrift store kitchen knife. This knife couldn't even cut potatoes cleanly. Efforts with other sharpeners slightly improved its state, but it wasn't until we undertook an extensive session with the Trizor, following all the instructions carefully, that we entirely refinished this particular blade. The result was a nearly factory-ready edge that smoothly cut even over-ripe tomatoes.
The main drawback to the Trizor is its prodigious speed and power. If you lose your focus, even just briefly, you can do irreparable damage to a blade. Like any powerful tool, it takes great attention to maximize the benefits of the Chef'sChoice without doing great harm. An experienced user of this product should be able to refurbish old blades for decades while also performing more routine, periodic resurfacing of knives in regular rotation. If you're willing to pay for premium performance and then use the tool with care, this option is an all-star.
The Trizor knife sharpener is fast, precise, sturdy, and creates a very refined edge every time.
Credit: Laura Casner
Small
Simple
Inexpensive
Slow
The KitchenIQ 50883 Edge Grip 2-Stage is a basic two-stage knife sharpener. We've seen the same design sold under different brands as well. Our lead tester has years of experience with a nearly identical product labeled with a different brand. His experience has been favorable, both with the older one and with the tested Kitchen IQ. The two-stage sharpening system can be used to resurface a rough, badly worn edge or to put a fine hone on a more slightly dulled blade.
The basic nature of this product has some performance drawbacks. A powered sharpener is way faster, and larger manual sharpeners include more gradations of texture and are easier to manipulate. Such are the tradeoffs you must accept to enjoy the low price of this model. You get significantly more than what you pay for with the Kitchen IQ.
This KitchenIQ is simple, small, and reliable, providing basic sharpening at a low price.
Credit: Laura Casner
Small
Sticks to table or counter
Extra simple
Only one sharpening texture
For anyone lacking time, space, or attention, the Sunrise Pro Supreme is a dream. It's small, with one coarse grinding sharpener surface, and it suctions securely to your countertop. For "quick and dirty" edge replenishment, this is our top recommendation. If you don't want to take up valuable time and space with sharpening tools and aren't particularly discerning about the final edge of your blade, the Sunrise Pro is for you. This model is faster and easier to use than any of the other manual options, especially if you seldom sharpen your blades. It is way less expensive and smaller than the powered choices.
The single surface of the Sunrise Pro is very coarse. It removes significant amounts of metal with each stroke while leaving a workable, but less sophisticated, edge. If you want a lasting and super-refined edge, choose one of the other options identified above. But if you need a quick edge sharpener to live in the back of a kitchen drawer for occasional use, this model is undeniably handy and fast.
The SunrisePro Supreme is simple, secure, and fast. It is most suitable for rough and coarse knife sharpening. The whole package is best employed by those that will sharpen their edges relatively infrequently.
Credit: Laura Casner
Tiny
Affordable
Three sharpening options
Wide angle on the ceramic "fine" sharpening surface
Less ergonomic than bigger options
The Work Sharp EDC Pivot is the model we recommend for camping, traveling, hunting, and fishing. It is small enough to disappear into all but the tightest travel bags. It is versatile and can sharpen blades as well as fish hooks. The main, coarse sharpener surface is mounted on a flexible spring attachment that helps correct for sharpening sloppiness. You can also "lock out" the flexible attachment if you wish.
The most peculiar thing about the Work Sharp EDC Pivot is that its two main sharpening "V"s are set at different angles. For the most part, those with multiple texture options mount those options at the same angle as one another. This allows you to make rough and fast adjustments to a blade and then polish and refine that edge with the fine-textured sharpener. This isn't the case with the Work Sharp, and it is noticeable in use. Edges come out fine, but matching angles (or even angles closer to one another) would make for smoother edge surfaces. This minor issue aside, this is our favorite portable model to date.
The Work Sharp EDC Pivot in use and on the go. For portable use, this is the best we tested.
Credit: Jediah Porter
Fast
Sharpens many different types of straight blades
Heavy, solid, and stable sharpening surface
Only two grinding textures
Requires close attention and patience
The Sharp Pebble Premium Whetstone is both the simplest and arguably the most sophisticated knife sharpener we tested. It is simple because it is just a basic sharpening stone. The sophistication is in the skill and attention required to use it. You have nearly infinite options with the Sharp Pebble, but you need to have an attention to detail to optimize its function. With close care and careful usage, the Sharp Pebble will hone any straight edge to razor closeness.
With mediocre to sloppy use, you can readily ruin a blade with the Sharp Pebble. This is not a "plug and chug" tool. You need to pay close attention to what you are doing and have at least a rudimentary understanding of knife geometry. You also need to be able to maintain consistent angles and pressures using just your hands. Finally, with a required 10-12 minutes of water soaking prior to any use, this is not the product you will use at a moment's notice. This is for intentional, pre-meditated sharpening "sessions."
The Sharp Pebble Premium Whetstone is simple and nice. It comes with the shown clamp-on angle guide.
Credit: Jediah Porter
Fast
Sharpens scissors
Small for an electric model
Only two grinding textures
Requires attention
Generally speaking, we might envision power tools to require less effort and attention than their unpowered alternatives. A power drill, for instance, is way more forgiving than a hand-powered version. This is not the case with knife sharpeners. The Work Sharp E2 is a great, relatively compact electric option for resurfacing your blades. Used carefully, it will make a fine, smooth edge. It works fast, can be configured to sharpen scissors, and has a hand-powered finishing slot. It's also compact and takes up less counter or closet space compared to other electric options.
It isn't as sophisticated as the top-scoring Chef'sChoice. The electric Work Sharp has only two sharpening textures, whereby the Chef'sChoice has three that allow for a more refined finish. This powered sharpener requires a great deal of attention and care not to overdo your sharpening task. A moment of inattention can entirely ruin an otherwise great knife. However, its price undercuts more expensive models, and it's a solid buy for an electric sharpener.
Small
Inexpensive
Hard to hold onto
Only two texture options
The Smith's CCKS 2-Step is small and very simple. It is a direct and close competitor to the Work Sharp EDC Pivot. The Smith's model lacks some of the features of the Work Sharp, but does the main tasks similarly. Smith's, notably, better matches the edge angles of their two steps.
For portable use, we have little to complain about with the Smith's 2-Step Knife Sharpener. In the kitchen, however, you will probably appreciate a larger, more stable sharpener with more options, such as the Kitchellence. In your tackle or toolbox, the Smith's 2-Step sharpener is great.
This miniature sharpener is a handy, inexpensive tool that our testers found useful for blades in the kitchen and tackle box. It's limited by only two sharpening textures, though, and that one's hand comes very close to the blade during use.
Credit: Laura Casner
Approved for serrated blades
Two stages
Rattly Construction
Sticky action
The PriorityChef 2-Stage Diamond Coated Sharpener is fairly standard in appearance and function. It has one coarse and one fine sharpening element, both attached to a handled platform. We like the padded, grippy bottom to augment the handle's stability. Priority Chef approves this sharpener for serrated blades.
The construction of this sharpener feels a little sloppy, but that doesn't seem to hamper its function. Our primary functional complaint is that the sharpening elements both feel sticky. On blades of all different shapes, the grooved, spiraled sharpening components grab the blade periodically through a stroke, which creates an uneven feel. The blades still get sharpened with no noticeable issues.
Testing a knife sharpener and assessing the results on the go, with ripe tomato cuts.
Credit: Jediah Porter
Why You Should Trust Us
We've had lead test editor Jediah Porter reviewing blades, in the form of pocket knives and multi-tools, since 2013. It was thus logical to put him in charge of this assessment of knife maintenance tools as well. The review of this category involved conducting each protocol with every model, dimensional measurements, fine-tuned sharpening of kitchen and pocket knives, and reconditioning of very badly worn and neglected blades. Needless to say, Jed's collection of both vintage and in-use knives is now very well-tuned.
In use and testing, we compared each sharpener's speed, versatility, ergonomics, and storage size. We tested speed by reconditioning very old blades. We acquired a selection of beaten and worn blades and used each sharpener while resurfacing them. Versatility is a function of a sharpener's different degrees of sharpening resolution, sharpening angle(s,) and its ability to sharpen serrated blades. Each of these is largely defined by manufacturers' recommendations and design. We tested ergonomics by using each sharpener on a variety of knife shapes and sizes and in a few different settings. We looked for sharpeners that run smoothly, do so without striking the blade towards the tester, and do so in a comfortable angle and position. Storage size is a function of the measured footprint, as well as overall volume.
Analysis and Test Results
In testing knife sharpeners, we discovered some clear differences between various products and have compiled our summaries to empower you to make the wisest choice. Our information is sorted between objective and subjective measures and accounts for the relative importance of each metric. We consider, for instance, speed and ergonomics to be more important than versatility or storage size.
Every knife edge requires resharpening from time to time. Select a knife sharpener carefully and that task will be unobtrusive and fast.
Credit: Jediah Porter
Speed
Perhaps the biggest differentiator between knife blade maintenance tools is the speed of their work. All else equal (blade steel, hardening, and degree of sharpening required), one sharpener may do a job orders of magnitude faster than another. The primary difference is whether a sharpener is electric- or hand-powered. That being said, even hand-powered sharpeners come with slightly different sharpening speeds. The differences among the hand sharpeners are much smaller than the differences between them and powered units.
The fastest sharpener in our review is the Chef'sChoice Trizor 15. Its coarse grinding wheel can completely recondition a dirt and rock-dulled blade in mere seconds. The same task on something hand-powered like the Kitchellence sharpener could take hours. The other electric option in our test, the Work Sharp Culinary E2, isn't quite as fast as the Chef'sChoice, but it is way faster than the hand-powered models.
The Trizor takes blades from dull to razor-sharp faster than any other model we tested. This is very convenient, but also requires attentiveness to avoid removing too much metal in the process.
Credit: Laura Casner
Small, handheld, unpowered options, like the Work Sharp EDC Pivot, are slower than bigger, handled unpowered options like the Kitchellence.
Be careful with the speed of your powered sharpener. The highest-powered sharpening options require the most care and attention to the instructions and process. A high-powered option, especially when working with thin and precise kitchen blades, can ruin a blade with seconds of inattentiveness.
Be careful with your high speed powered knife sharpener. Let your attention drop and you'll do decades (centuries?) of "sharpening" in mere seconds.
Credit: Lindy Taggart
Versatility
Yes, there are multiple things that a blade sharpener can do. More accurately, there are different ways that a product can sharpen your edges. Mainly, you can choose the number of different gradations of sharpening texture. "Coarse" texture sharpening surfaces work faster and remove larger amounts of material, which is good for badly damaged or very dull blades. "Fine" textured surfaces work to polish existing major knife edge structure. Other versatility differences include the angle of edge construction and whether the tool can be used to sharpen serrated blades and/or scissors.
The products we tested have between one and three different textures. The Sunrise Pro Supreme is the only sharpener we tested with just one texture. It is comparable to the "coarse" texture on other sharpeners. We think the Sunrise Pro is a good choice for those that want simplicity and won't sharpen their knives very often. At the other end of the spectrum are the three texture options on the Kitchellence and Chef'sChoice Trizor products. Three options are potentially more than most will need, but having too many options isn't a bad thing, and a discerning knife user will appreciate the added refinement of the third sharpening texture. The remaining products in our test all have two different textures to sharpen against.
All these different blades require different sharpening approaches. Few products will effectively resurface all of these different edges.
Credit: Jediah Porter
Pretty much all of the products we assessed have fixed angles for final edge tuning. The different textures in a single product might present slightly different angles, but not by much. Only the Work Sharp EDC Pivot has noticeably different pre-set angles. The coarse sharpener is a visibly smaller angle than the fine sharpener. If it is going to be different, this is the way to do it, but we don't know why it needs to be so different. We noticed no significant impacts from this differential.
The flat surfaces of the Sharp Pebble Whetstone allow for an infinite range of sharpening angles. This is both a blessing and a curse. You get to pick, and you have to maintain, the sharpening angle for your task. Sharp Pebble includes a rudimentary blade clamp that can help guide your moves, but we found it to be very limited in its utility.
The Whetstone from Sharp Pebble is extremely versatile in experienced hands, but might not be very intuitive or easy for beginners to pick up and use.
Credit: Jed Porter
The manufacturers of half of the products we assessed claim that their sharpeners are suitable for tuning serrated edges. What they mean, without exception, is that their products will sharpen the pointed portion of serrated blades. The points do the most work, so this is acceptable. On the other hand, the points are easy to sharpen, and all of the tested products (whether "approved" for such use or not) can be pressed into that surface. As it turns out, a manufacturer approving their sharpener for serrated blades seems to be essentially meaningless.
Sharpening scissor blades is trickier and less common than sharpening serrated blades. In our test, only the electric Work Sharp Culinary E2 and the Sharp Pebble Whetstone are set up to sharpen scissor blades. Doing so, even with a product designed to help you, is difficult and high-consequence. If you elect to resurface scissor blades, do so carefully and consider practicing with an unimportant set of scissors first.
Few of the compact options have three gradations of sharpening texture. We like this about the Kitchellence sharpener.
Credit: Jediah Porter
Ergonomics
What does it take to actually perform the sharpening? Ideally, a sharpener would be large and heavy for stability and include clear guidance for angles and such. The electric options and the Sharp Pebble fit this description. Next best is the set of unpowered sharpeners with larger bodies and dedicated handles for stabilization. The Kitchellence sharpener fits this description. The Priority Chef sharpener is in this form factor as well, but its sharpening element is "grabby," which detracts from its ergonomics.
The Work Sharp E2 is a relatively compact, affordable, and fast electric knife sharpener. It is also more versatile than most.
Credit: Jediah Porter
The Sunrise Pro Supreme is in an ergonomic class of its own. It is compact and simple, but it attaches to a table or countertop with a strong suction action that makes it usable with one hand. Its simplicity, security, and compactness are what earned it an award.
Securing the SunrisePro to a smooth countertop by lowering the handle is easy and bringing stability to the tool while working on blades.
Credit: Laura Casner
The Kitchen IQ is surprisingly easy to use, given its small stature. The rubberized base and grip make it stable and secure in use, and the notch along the base allows you to key it over a counter edge for additional security.
With the Kitchellence, our hands and blades fell naturally into place while sharpening, creating a nice ergonomic feel.
Credit: Laura Casner
The smallest "portable" products are the least friendly ergonomically, but they still work mostly fine. The Smith's Two-Step and the Work Sharp EDC Pivot are both optimized for portability at the expense of some usability. Nonetheless, you'll figure out how to optimize their use, and you will reap acceptable results. One problem with these models is that one's hands remain close to the moving blade while sharpening.
Portable models like this one are convenient. Their biggest drawback in ergonomics is how close the fingers are to the blade.
Credit: Laura Casner
The Sharp Pebble Premium Whetstone is, as noted, the trickiest to use. Ergonomically, you have to manually create and maintain an even angle and pressure with every stroke. Further, prior to every use, Sharp Pebble requires that you soak the stone for 10-12 minutes in water. You won't be using this for quick sharpening; you have to both plan ahead and be ready to pay close attention to what you are doing.
Storage
Most of us are tight on space and don't want to add more clutter to our kitchens. Storage is not a complicated metric to examine. From smallest to largest, our tested products shook out like this: Work Sharp EDC, Smith's, Kitchen IQ, Sunrise Pro, Kitchellence, Priority Chef, Sharp Pebble, Work Sharp E2, Chef'sChoice Trizor.
There are significant bulk differences between the tested knife sharpeners. The powered versions on the left are much bigger than the fully portable options on the far right.
Credit: Jediah Porter
For tight spaces, a compact "portable" knife sharpener is the only way to go. The Work Sharp EDC takes some attention to use, but it virtually disappears into crowded compartments.
Credit: Jediah Porter
Conclusion
Every knife needs sharpening. Every knife owner needs a knife sharpener. Despite what the manufacturers of knives might purport, every edge needs a tune-up at some point. Doing so can be a breeze or an ineffective (or even counter-productive) waste of time. We've thoroughly assessed each model in this review and compare our findings here. Hopefully, our recommendations and overall assessments help you sharpen your knives for many tomato slices and sushi nights to come.
— Jediah Porter
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