Kyocera Steel Knife Sharpener, Red Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I purchased this mainly because of Kyocera's good reputation for producing innovative products with ceramics. Their ceramic knives are an outstanding innovation, even if somewhat expensive. They also make well manufactured grinders, including a manual coffee grinder that is superb and only available in Japan and from one vendor in the United States. Google Kyocera coffee grinder if you're interested in that.

This product is also ceramic based, with an inclined pair of dual ceramic wheels doing the sharpening. It's similar to other sharpeners of the same general design, but using ceramic sharpeners rather than steel. I received it today and this evening I took all the kitchen knives and my pocket knife to a table and worked on them with this sharpener, and for some knives I was having difficulty with, a Chicago Cutlery set of crock sticks.

The key to sharpening is precision. You want to have an accurate flat bevel on both sides, intersecting at a 25 - 35 degree angle (depends on what kind of use the blade will get, rougher uses need bigger angles). The more perfect the bevel at the edge (and I mean high powered microscope level), the 'sharper' the knife is. The whole thing depends on the 1/1000 of an inch at the very edge of the blade. Back from the edge, it doesn't matter.

I would say that this sharpener works pretty well on high carbon steel (the kind that rusts), and not quite as well on stainless steel, depending on what kind it is. For some stainless blades, I resorted to the crock stick for most of the work, then the Kyocera sharpener. Very high quality stainless blades may be too tough for this sharpener, cheap stainless won't really hold an edge for long, no matter what you do to it. Reasonably good stainless steel can be sharpened by this thing, but it takes some time. A damaged or very badly worn blade will have to be reprofiled with something more aggressive like a diamond hone or wheel. This sharpener works best on blades that are properly ground but dull at the edge. It also will not work on ceramic blades, which must be sent back to the factory to be sharpened with a diamond wheel, but only every 5 years or so.

I was unable to create a "razor edge" with any of the knives I sharpened. "Razor edge" means able to shave arm hair without trouble or any significant pulling. The edges I did achieve were just this side of razor sharp, but sharp enough for many uses. Given the price, this would not be a bad item to take on a camping trip or put in a kitchen drawer for touch ups -- it's certainly better that a sharpening steel. However if you are looking for something to sharpen very dull or damaged blades, or to sharpen at a razor sharp level, I don't think this is your item.

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Product Description:
This hand-held knife sharpener has an advanced ceramic sharpening wheel. The strength of the ceramic sharpener gives a razor-like edge to steel knives. Simply place a knife in the slot and lightly move it back and forth several times to achieve the desired sharpness. A clear cover opens easily for rinsing the sharpener. For use only on steel, double-edged blades only; not for use on ceramic or serrated blades. Ceramic sharpening wheel manufactured in Japan.

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