Chef choice 130?

[ncage1974]

Anyone had direct experience with this sharpener? I have a chef choice 310 and ive had it for awhile. I can't ever remember it working "that great". A couple weeks ago i tried to give it another go with lackluster results. It tried with some of my cheaper knives and it did sharpen them but it seemed to scratch the blades and it didn't get them "that" sharp. Maybe its because i don't have the manual and im using it wrong. I don't know. I went to their home page and they don't have the manual online you can get.

Now i heard they have made a lot of improvements with the 130. I heard its light and day difference. They no longer use magnets to keep the blade in place but some time of mechanism that supposedly you can not get wrong. I would hope this would prevent scratching the blades of expensive knifes. I would also help you would be able to get them to near new sharpness. I have checked in my area and i can not find a good professional sharpener and i really don't have the time to mess with manually sharpening them. This thing would be PERFECT if it works but its $140 which is very pricey for a knife sharpening system but it would be worth it if it works well for me. I just got my new issue of cooks illustrated and they rated this knife sharpener as highly recommended and they didn't mention anything about scratching the blades. They did mention that the accusharp manual sharpener was also very good but it said the manual sharpeners wouldn't produce a new burr which i have no idea what that means but im assuming it would better to go with the electric sharpeneer. So anyways im thinking on buying the chef choice 130 and i want to make sure this knife sharpener is going to produce excellent results before i spend all this money on it. Like i said the money will be well worth it to me if the results are good. Any help would be apprecaited.

thanks,
ncage

[DaCook]

IMHO, the stone and the steel are the only good friends for good knives.

[ncage1974]

Originally Posted by DaCook

IMHO, the stone and the steel are the only good friends for good knives.

Sorry but i don't mean to sound rude or anything like that but i pretty clearly stated above that i don't have the time/patients to manually sharpen my knives.

[GB]

I do not have an experience with that particular model, but I have used another Chefs Choice model and disliked it for the same reasons you did. My personal opinion is that you are going to find those same problems with any electric sharpener. They are not very good for your knives. For a cheapo knife that you do not care about they are fine, but I would NEVER use on on my good knives.

I know you said you don't have the time/patients to manually sharpen your knives, but may I submit that you are wrong, at least about the time part. Manually sharpening takes a matter of seconds so time really should not be a factor.

If you do not feel comfortable with keeping the correct angle (which many people are not comfortable with) then there are a number of great systems which take care of that for you. Lansky is one of the most popular brands. I personally like the Lansky Crock Stick system, but they have other options too if that does not work for you.

If you have good knives then stay away from the electric sharpeners. JMO.

[TexanFrench]

Hi,

I use a Chef's Choice 360 diamond hone. It's a manual two-slot thing--slot 1 sharpens, and slot 2 hones. I've used this sort of thing for years (needs replacement every so often), and even my oldest knives have maintained good cutting edges. I like it!

Now I'm sure that someone is going to pop up and say that I should just learn to use stones and do it properly. Let me say that when I was about 12 and tried to learn this, my dad/teacher went absolutely ballistic and screamed at me for ruining the edges during my first lesson.

Haven't tried since, and I'm not gonna.

And the professional sharpening guy around here is a person who does lawnmower blades. He says there's nothing to doing kitchen knives, too, but I've seen his work, and I think he takes off too much metal.

[ncage1974]

Originally Posted by GB

I do not have an experience with that particular model, but I have used another Chefs Choice model and disliked it for the same reasons you did. My personal opinion is that you are going to find those same problems with any electric sharpener. They are not very good for your knives. For a cheapo knife that you do not care about they are fine, but I would NEVER use on on my good knives.

I know you said you don't have the time/patients to manually sharpen your knives, but may I submit that you are wrong, at least about the time part. Manually sharpening takes a matter of seconds so time really should not be a factor.

If you do not feel comfortable with keeping the correct angle (which many people are not comfortable with) then there are a number of great systems which take care of that for you. Lansky is one of the most popular brands. I personally like the Lansky Crock Stick system, but they have other options too if that does not work for you.

If you have good knives then stay away from the electric sharpeners. JMO.

GB do you know what particular model you used?

thanks,
ncage

[GB]

I use the professional.

[GB]

I have also used this system as well. It also does a great job, but I find the crock stick easier to use and quicker as well.

[ncage1974]

Originally Posted by GB

I have also used this system as well. It also does a great job, but I find the crock stick easier to use and quicker as well.

Sorry i actually meant which chef choice unit did you use? I was interested to find which model you had bad luck with.

thanks,
ncage

[GB]

Oh sorry, that I am not sure of. I got it as a gift about 4 or 5 years ago. I used it a few times on some junk knives I had and then never used it again.