Accusharp Knife Sharpener
Budget edge sharpener
One Amazon reviewer called it the “sharpening tool of the century.” I won’t argue. My knives have been getting progressively duller over the years but I’m not about to try to sharpen them myself with a stone, nor am I taking them in anytime soon for expensive professional sharpening. I’ve been content to use them as they are. Then I came upon the Accu-Sharp somewhere and read the Amazon reviews and decided to pony up $9.10 for one.
Amazing would be an understatement for the ease of use once I figured out I was doing it backward. I cannot recommend this tool highly enough after seeing the results obtained from a few swipes of the device along the blade. There are probably many who would tell me how I’m wrecking my knives (Henckels 5-Star) by using a $10 sharpener, but you know what? There’s an Arab proverb for that: “The dogs bark, but the caravans move on.”
After reading Joe’s review I ended up ordering an Accusharp to see if I could magically improve my inherited collection of dulled knives. Some of these knives had so little edge that they would turn tomatoes into a mushy watery mess on a cutting board.
After a few swipes with the Accusharp I could cut tomatoes into perfect slices, and it took a measly 15-minutes to clean up the edge on almost every knife I own (it even worked on my breadknife!).
The sharpener is a simple device built around two pieces of carbide that form a “V” in a plastic handle that when run along a blade shaves the edge to a sharpened point. Unlike a whetstone, the carbide pieces will eventually wear away and lose their ability to produce an edge, but the Accusharp is designed so that the carbide can be flipped or replaced. I’ve had mine for three months and see no sign of wear, and Amazon reviewers say that they get a few years of sharpening before they need to replace the carbide.
For $10, this sharpener was able to rejuvenate most knives in my kitchen. The few it couldn’t sharpen were blades that had been bent or misshapen beyond simple repair.
07/25/19(This is a Cool Tools Favorite from 2011 — editors)
AccuSharp Knife Sharpener ($12)
