The best sharpener for the job.

A few days ago we received an email from our friend Ken at Cooks Den…

I’ve got a diverse set of edges — a single-beveled Santoku, a convex Shun Chef’s knife, and an old Henckels set that I’ll be working on. What’s the best sharpener for each?

Smith’s resident sharpening guru, Richard Smith, responded with the following suggestions…

For the single edge Santoku you really need a flat stone to do these. This is why the water stone is so popular for this type of knife. Our Santoku sharpener would double bevel his single edged knife and this would not be good.

The electric (Diamond Edge Gourmet Electric Knife Sharpener)would do great on the Shun, and several manual sharpeners would work on his Henckels.

As you can tell, certain sharpeners (manual, electric, or stones) work best for certain types of knives, so make sure you pick the right one for the job! Have questions? Email us and we’ll gladly respond in a future post! (Be to sure to also view our series of “how to videos” available on our website, SmithsEdge.com. Here’s an example of our Electric Sharpening model in action!