Comparing Electric and Manual Knife Sharpeners: Pros and Cons

A knife sharpener is a device that would restore your knives’ cutting capabilities and blade edge from being dull to outstanding.

Additionally, they enable you to increase the knife’s lifespan as well as its efficacy in utilising knives thus minimising the need for regular buying of new knife sets.

However, all sharpeners are not the same so choosing a good sharpener is a must. Factors to be considered are also many, including the nature and material of your knives, frequency as well level at which you need the sharpening accompanied with ease of use.

Therefore, in this piece we shall share with you various types and uses of knife sharpeners as well as shed light on what to consider when purchasing an ideal one. 

With this, you will know what types of sharpeners are included in manual and electric categories, and hopefully, we can give a little information that is unknown to you so let’s start!

Types of Knife Sharpeners

The place to start when choosing the best knife sharpener for your knives is learning all types of sharpeners that are compatible with various sizes of blades.

Knife sharpeners can be classified into two main categories:

Manual and Electric

Naturally, each category has its share of advantages and disadvantages – depending on what kind of knives you have to sharpen (concave or convex), their condition as well as the time and labour resources that can be allocated.

Manual Sharpeners

In this class, these need a little bit of work from you. Then, when you hold the knife against the surface of the sharpener and establish just enough angle – voila.

However, because manual sharpeners are relatively inexpensive in comparison with electric ones that provide little else other than time-saving if you know your blade, their low cost allows them more control.

But manual sharpeners also may be harder and take longer than electric versions and need more expertise to be utilised properly. If, for example,  you are in a commercial kitchen with expensive blades like Victorinox butcher’s knives and are not experienced in sharpening, a manual might not be a wise move. 

The Kinds of Manual Sharpeners

There are variations of manual sharpeners that can be used for specialised blades or be purely down to the choice of the butcher, chef or home cook who’s using them.  So, let’s take a look at three of them. 

Honing Rods

Honing rods are long, cylindrical rods that do not sharpen your knives but rather ensure alignments and straighten the edge of your knives. 

Honing rods are perfect for regular maintenance and touch-ups because they help enhance the cutting ability of the edge as well as prevent it from getting dull. These honing rods can be made of

• Steel
• Ceramic 
• Or Diamond…

Also, they can have various degrees of abrasion and hardness. 

In order to sharpen with the honing rod, you hold it vertically, placing it on something stable; this is followed by sliding the knife along up 15%/20 degrees, changing sides until alignment.

Pull-through Sharpeners

Pull-through sharpeners are knives that have one or more slots with abrasive materials such as:

• Ceramic
• Carbide 
• And Diamond… 

Whatever the composition, they sit in the slot to help you while pulling out your knife. 

Pull-through sharpeners are convenient and safe for quick, one-time use to get a dull edge sharp in minutes. The grit levels and angle settings of pull-through sharpeners can vary according to the type as well as the conditions of your knives. 

When using a pull-through sharpener, you stand the unit on a stable surface, and by pulling your knife through at one consistent speed with pressure that ought to be repeated, you’ll soon re-establish its sharpness.

Sharpening Stones

Sharpening stones are flat, rectangular blocks that are used to sharpen the knife by rubbing its surface against it. 

Sharpening stones are also multi-purpose in that any size of knife can be sharpened, as well as the angle and pressure are set according to one’s needs. 

Sharpening stones come in natural or synthetic materials like: 

• Oilstone
• Waterstone 
• And diamond Material…

These can be categorised according to the amount of sharpening one needs. In order to use a sharpening stone, you should wet it with water or oil before holding the knife at a 10-20 degree angle and moving back and forth across its surface, alternating sides until the edge is sharp.

Electric Sharpeners

Electric sharpeners do the same job as their manual counterparts but naturally have a motor that moves the rough material to enable you to sharpen to your liking.

Generally, electric sharpeners tend to be pricier, bigger, and, of course, more intricate than manual models, but they can also provide the advantage of being quick, consistent and easy. therefore making them suitable for those with less skill or who are very busy. 

Grains and angle options for electric sharpeners can vary for wider or thinner blades, and you can consider what one to use depending on the condition of your knives.  

Belt Sharpeners

Belt sharpeners are electric knife sharpeners where flexible belts with abrasive substances such as:

• Ceramic
• Silicon Carbide
• Or Aluminium Oxide…

All help in sharpening a knife while moving it against these special materials along all perimeters of the belt. 

Belt sharpeners are considered to be high-performing and appropriate for intensive and professional sharpening, as they allow their users to work with different knives of any size or type. 

Certain sharpeners can vary in coarseness, as well as size to accommodate wider Western blades.  

Belt sharpeners work in the following way: you start it up and then set it accordingly based on the parameters desired. When using a belt sharpener, be sure to hold your knife at angles while moving it along the blade to opposite ends; then sharpen to your liking. 

Wheel Sharpeners 

Wheel sharpeners can be called electric as they function with the help of rotating discs or wheels that have abrasive materials, in this instance

• Ceramic
• Diamond
• Or Steel…

Which works to sharpen your knife once you carry it towards this slot. 

Wheel sharpeners are also effective since they offer convenient and consistent use, as most forms of knives can be sharpened regardless of size.

As always angles come into play and you need to maintain a steady pressure on the blade. 

The abrasive composition and the taper angle of wheel sharpeners can differ from one model to another, depending on your knife’s type and sharpness will decipher which model you choose. 

When using a wheel sharpener, you power the machine on and make your adjustments, then place the knife at 90 degrees to the slot as you move it through while repeating until it is paper-cutting sharp.

Factors to Consider

Be sure to analyse different aspects that may play a role in your decision-making, such as the types and materials of knives you own along with the angle at which the manufacturer tells you to sharpen. 

Also, take into consideration the frequency length and depth needed to achieve the sharpness that you need for whatever food you need to cut and present. 

There is a learning curve associated with sharpener use so inexperienced users tend to be better off using an electric sharpener.  The chef, butcher or kitchen manager would have the knowledge to make that kind of judgment call. 

Another factor is to weigh up the convenience-to-price ratio and the manufacturer. If it is a well-known company you know you’ll get a decent run with it, all you need to know is whether it is suitable for the specific knife or set of knives currently in use. 

SUMMARY

It is well-known not all sharpening tools are made the same for the same job. So it doesn’t hurt to do a little research, whether on Google or by asking someone wherever you work who has experience of using them what to buy. If you are a budding chef in waiting at home, why not ask your the cook in your house when growing up, maybe a grandparent, no doubt they will have had to sharpen a few knives over the years.  At the end of the day, there is no definitive way to go, a lot comes down to preference and what knives you