The knife is an important tool to the cook. Thus, when it goes blunt, you would face great difficulty cutting, chopping, or slicing through your ingredients, making a short and simple meal, a long and difficult one to prepare. To overcome this problem, you will need to sharpen your knife. Yet, knives sharpeners come in two types – the manual, and the electric. Which should you choose? The answer is a matter of preference.
Compared to electronic ones, knives take a longer time to be sharpened on manual ones. You basically need to pay attention to detail onto where you have sharpened, need to sharpen, and try to maintain enough pressure so that the knife will be sharpened evenly. But the good thing about manual sharpeners is that you have control over the area you sharpen. It is also a cleaner way of sharpening the knives, especially since you can wipe off the burrs, wash the sharpener, and then wipe off any residue. For most butchers and kitchens, the preferred choice of sharpener is the manual sharpening steel.
For electronic versions of knives sharpeners, it is a quicker way to get your knives sharpened evenly throughout its length. It can be used for any knives as it has springs that helps hold the knife in the angle guide to secure the knife properly. It usually comes in two or three stages of sharpening. The first two or the first level is meant for first time sharpening. If they come in three levels, the first two are usually for different levels of bluntness. They also tend to come in diamond abrasives so that you can get the sharpest edge your knives can get. The last level would be for re-sharpening and polishing, which is the level most frequently used. A plus side of this is that you also do not need to use lubricants like oil or water to sharpen the knife. The only downside of this is sharpener is that although you can empty off the burrs, you might not be able to clean the disks well, especially if your knives were not clean to begin with. sintered diamond paste