Anyone who has heard me ranting about kitchen tools knows that I’m adamant about sharp knives. There is nothing more dangerous than a dull knife. Let me say that again: There is nothing more dangerous than a dull knife. A dull knife makes you work harder, meaning two things: (a) you are going to “push” harder on the knife than you should, resulting in slipped blades that are sharp enough to hurt you and (b) you are going to hate cutting things because your knife sucks so bad. There is nothing so bad as a dull knife.

How do you keep them sharpened? Well, that’s a problem I’ve dealt with for a while. I’ve used stones. They suck because they are too difficult to master. I’ve had knives professionally sharpened, but that’s a hassle (since you need to sharpen them often). I’ve heard good things about the zip-zap, but never got one. As for electric, well a lot of them don’t work very well. Though, not too long ago Cook’s Illustrated did an updated review on the electrics, giving the Chef’s Choice Model 130 the highest rating.

So that was the object of my desire. However, the $150 hit to my wallet was something I wasn’t willing to do. Their low-end model, the old 110 is around $85, which is better, but still pretty pricy.

Well, the other weekend Evelyn and I were checking out the local resale shops and lo-and-behold, there was a 110 Model in pretty good shape. I plugged it in and it seemed to run fine. Brought it home, tried a cheap-o knife, and *DRAT* one of the diamond plates fell off–in the 3rd (and most important) stage, no less. But never fear, I grabbed my handy screwdriver, took the sharpener apart, dabbed some superglue, wedged a Q-Tip in the works (to hold the plate in place), and let it cure.

Next day, I put everything back together again. (An aside: I love it when stuff is made by hand in the factory. It’s so much easier to disassemble and repair thing that were originally assembled by human beings. The Chef’s Choice sharpeners are made in the USA.) I fired it up again and slipped a knive though. Success! The plate held.

So, how well does it sharpen? Well, it took my sadly neglected Henckels chef knife and brought it up to razer sharp–without removing excessive material–in about 30 seconds. And when I say “sadly neglected” I mean dull enough that I haven’t touched it in a long time. Horray!

Two things to be careful of: (a) Unless the knife is very dull, you only need to do stage 2 and 3. Sometimes just stage 3. Stage 1 should be reserved only for very dull blades. (b) Do NOT put a Japanese-type blade in here. It will be destroyed! Why? Because Japanese blades–the good ones, made by the swordmakers, are only honed on one edge. That is the key to their super-sharp-super-accurate knives. That’s why they are used for things like sashimi–a “European” blade is not fine enough.

If you are in the market for an excellent electric knife sharpener, take a look at the Chef’s Choice line. And keep an eye out for them in second hand stores. As long as it runs, and has the diamond plates there (even if loose–you can fix them), pick it up. How much did this $85 shapener run me? Six bucks. Not too shabby.