7 Sharpening Stones Vs Electric Sharpeners For Knives Old Chefs Swear By
While electric sharpeners offer speed, seasoned chefs often prefer stones for their precision, control, and ability to preserve a blade’s longevity.
There’s a unique frustration in trying to process a pile of garden vegetables with a dull knife, where every slice of a tomato feels more like a crush than a cut. A sharp knife isn’t a luxury; it’s a fundamental tool for safety and efficiency, whether you’re in the kitchen, the barn, or the workshop. The real question isn’t if you should sharpen your knives, but how you should do it to fit your needs.
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Manual Whetstones vs. Powered Sharpening Systems
The choice between a sharpening stone and an electric sharpener comes down to a simple tradeoff: control versus convenience. A whetstone puts you in complete command of the angle, the pressure, and the amount of steel you remove. It’s a skill, like learning to properly tune a small engine.
An electric sharpener, on the other hand, is about speed and repeatability. The machine sets the angle for you, ensuring a consistent result every time, even if you’ve never sharpened a knife in your life. It’s the fastest way to get a dangerously dull knife back into working condition.
The main drawback of powered systems is that they tend to be more aggressive. They grind away more metal, which can shorten the lifespan of a quality knife over time. Whetstones are far more gentle, allowing you to preserve your best blades for decades.
Think of it this way: for that expensive chef’s knife you use for processing your harvest, a whetstone is an investment in its future. For the rugged utility knife you use to cut open feed bags and slice twine, an electric sharpener gets it back in the game with zero fuss.
The King KW65 Combination Whetstone for Versatility
If you decide to go the manual route, the King combination stone is the classic starting point for good reason. It’s a Japanese water stone, meaning you use water as a lubricant instead of messy oil. It’s approachable, effective, and won’t break the bank.
This stone typically comes with two sides: a coarser 1000-grit and a finer 6000-grit. You use the 1000-grit side to do the heavy lifting—re-establishing the edge angle and grinding out small nicks. Then you flip it over to the 6000-grit side to polish that edge to a razor finish. This two-step process is all you need for most kitchen and processing knives.
The King is a relatively soft stone, which means it cuts steel quickly but also wears down with use. You’ll eventually need to buy a flattening stone to keep its surface perfectly flat, which is crucial for a consistent edge. It’s a small bit of extra maintenance, but it’s part of learning the craft.
Shapton GlassStone: The Professional’s Choice
For those who master the basics and want to upgrade, Shapton GlassStones are the next logical step. These are high-performance ceramic water stones bonded to a glass plate for stability. They are engineered for speed and incredible consistency.
Their biggest advantage is being "splash-and-go." Unlike a King stone that needs to soak in water for 10-15 minutes before use, a Shapton just needs a quick spray of water and you’re ready to sharpen. This is a huge time-saver when you just need to touch up a blade before starting a big butchering or canning project.
Shaptons are much harder and denser than King stones, so they cut very fast and wear down extremely slowly. They provide excellent feedback, letting you feel exactly what’s happening at the edge of the blade. They cost more, but for someone who values precision and efficiency, the investment is easily justified.
Norton India Combination Stone: An Oil Stone Classic
The Norton India stone is the old, reliable workhorse you’d find in a grandfather’s workshop. This is an oil stone, made from tough aluminum oxide. It’s designed for durability, not necessarily for creating a delicate, surgical edge on a high-end kitchen knife.
These stones are incredibly hard and wear-resistant; you can buy one and expect it to last a lifetime. They cut more slowly than a Japanese water stone but put a tough, toothy, and long-lasting edge on a blade. The use of oil instead of water means cleanup is a bit messier, but the oil also helps prevent the stone from clogging with metal particles.
This is the perfect stone for the barn or the shed. It’s what you use to put a working edge on your pocket knife, your pruners, and even the blade on your push mower. It’s less about refinement and more about pure, rugged utility.
Chef’sChoice Trizor XV for a Consistent 15° Edge
Shifting to powered options, the Chef’sChoice Trizor XV is one of the most popular and effective electric sharpeners on the market. Its entire purpose is to take a standard factory edge (usually 20 degrees per side) and convert it to a screamingly sharp 15-degree edge.
The machine uses a three-stage process. The first two stages use diamond abrasive wheels to reshape and sharpen the blade, while the third stage uses a flexible stropping disk to polish the edge and remove any microscopic burrs. The built-in angle guides are foolproof, delivering a perfect result every time.
The convenience is undeniable. You can take a completely dull knife to a state sharper than it was from the factory in under two minutes. The tradeoff, as with most electric systems, is that it removes a visible amount of steel. It’s a fantastic solution for your primary kitchen knives, but you might hesitate to use it on an irreplaceable heirloom.
Work Sharp Ken Onion Edition: A Flexible Belt System
The Work Sharp Ken Onion Edition is a different beast altogether. Instead of grinding wheels, it uses flexible abrasive belts, essentially a miniature, precision-guided belt sander. This design makes it arguably the most versatile sharpener you can own on a farm.
Its key feature is the adjustable angle guide, which can be set anywhere from 15 to 30 degrees. This allows you to sharpen a vast array of tools correctly:
- 15-20 degrees: Fillet knives, slicing knives
- 20-25 degrees: Kitchen knives, pocket knives
- 25-30 degrees: Hunting knives, axes, mower blades
The flexible belts also create a convex edge, which is slightly rounded rather than a flat "V" shape. A convex edge is exceptionally strong and resistant to chipping, making it ideal for tools that see hard use, like a machete for clearing brush or an axe for splitting kindling. It can handle nearly every blade you own.
Presto EverSharp for Simple, Two-Stage Sharpening
If you just want a sharp knife and don’t care about angles, bevels, or different grits, the Presto EverSharp is your answer. It’s an inexpensive, no-frills electric sharpener that gets the job done without any complexity. It’s the definition of a utility tool.
It uses a simple two-stage system. You pull your knife through the "coarse" slot a few times to grind a new edge, then pull it through the "fine" slot to hone it. That’s it. There are no settings to adjust and no technique to learn.
This is not the tool for your prized Japanese santoku knife. It’s aggressive, and the edge it creates is functional rather than refined. But for the cheap paring knife you use to cut open bags of soil or the old cleaver you use for chopping chicken bones for broth, it’s perfect. It brings a nearly useless blade back to life in 30 seconds.
Choosing Your Method: Control vs. Convenience
Ultimately, the right sharpening method is the one you will actually use. A fancy set of whetstones does no good if it sits in a box because you find the process intimidating. An electric sharpener is useless if you’re afraid to use it on your good knives.
The decision boils down to your priorities.
- If you value control, knife longevity, and enjoy mastering a skill, a set of whetstones is the clear winner. Start with a combination water stone like the King.
- If you value speed, repeatability, and versatility for many different tools, a powered system is the way to go. The Work Sharp is a do-it-all powerhouse for a farm, while the Chef’sChoice is a specialist for kitchen knives.
- If you just want a sharp knife with zero effort, a basic electric model like the Presto is a perfectly valid choice for your beater knives.
Don’t fall into the trap of thinking there’s only one "correct" way. Many practical people end up with a hybrid approach: a good whetstone for their cherished kitchen knives and a fast, powerful electric system for every other blade that needs to be put back to work. The goal is a sharp edge, and both paths lead there.
A dull tool is a dangerous and inefficient one, and a knife is no exception. Whether you choose the meditative practice of a whetstone or the instant gratification of an electric sharpener, the important thing is to keep your blades ready for the task at hand. Choose the method that best fits your tools, your temperament, and your time.
