Customer Reviews

Chef's Choice Pronto Santoku/Asian Manual Knife Sharpener

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I am a personal chef and caterer and use my Asian Shun Kershaw knife 6 to 8 hours a day, 6 days a week. Of course that will dull any blade and so far the only good solution was for me to send my knife back to the factory every 6 months to be re-sharpened. Losing the use of my knife for 3 weeks was never fun; I do have a replacement, a Victorinox Fibrox chef knife, but it is not quite same.

So I tried a sharpening stone, the kershaw electric sharpener (mistake, I had to send the knife to the factory right after using that), the Wusthof santoku sharpener (not effective enough), a diamond coated steel, built a wood stand for my sharpening stone at the required 15 degree angle (that worked pretty well). And then I found this.

I have used it and it is wonderful! The blade is back to factory sharpness and it is very easy to use. Plus I can use it to hone the knife everyday before using it to maintain the edge. My search is over! Thank you Chef's choice. To my knowledge it is the only easy to use sharpener on the market that works for Asian knifes.

I have never had any luck with manual or electric knife sharpeners and was hesitant to try and sharpen my expensive knives on one only to have the edge completely trashed, which has happened. However I have been without the use my santoku for too long and decided to purchase this item. I didn't expect much, however it was recommended by cook's illustrated so I figured I would give it a try. I got it today and tried it and was amazed at how it put a razor sharp edge on all my dull knives. I highly recommend this product to anyone with Asian style knives that need a good sharpening.

I own a nice set of Global knives and I got tired of using their "waterstone" to sharpen them (nice job but tedious). I've tried both this product by Chef's Choice and the MinoSharp (also available from Amazon). I found the MinoSharp to be far superior. Both products are easy to hold and use. They have, however, very different methods of sharpening. Chef's Choice uses two abrasive bars in a V shape configuration. MinoSharp uses small round sharpening stones over which the knife glides (one for course, the other for fine sharpening). With Chef's Choice you need to use a lot of pressure to sharpen the knife and it does not sharpen as well as the MinoSharp, which requests you to use light pressure. The difference in pressure also makes me feel that a lot of steel is being taken with the Chef's Choice. I've read the testimonials of the "5's" but their results have not been mine. If you do select the MinoSharp my only caveat would be that you need to be very careful once you sharpen your knife--it really does come out razor sharp.

One of the few tasks my ex-husband was good for was sharpening my knives. I love to cook and I need those babies wicked sharp at all times. Now that I'm divorced, I have to do this task by myself and I was a bit nervous about doing it properly and not ruining my knives. This sharpener kicks butt! Quick, easy, perfect. I had my doubts about how well this gadget would work, but it DOES work and I am very happy! My knives are deliciously SHARP. Fantastic product! Well worth the price!

The fact that there are actual wheels on this unit was impressive. Wheels are less harsh on the actual blade and refine it more. Cheaper Chef's Choice sharpeners use a static sharpening edge. If you own Japanese knives, you need to sharpen with the correct angle. I cannot stress that enough. I own a $200 dollar Shun Ken Onion knife and I cook every day. It's not an option to send it off for sharpening to Shun, although it's free, I'd be without my baby for 2-4 weeks. I was hesitant to use a device on my beautiful knife, but it became factory sharp in 5 swipes. I took it to my buddy, a professional sharpener, (he still sharpens my German blades) and asked what he thought. He was impressed and a tad sad I wouldn't be bringing my shun in anymore. VERY VERY nice product.

I purchased this knife sharpener after reading about it in Cook's Illustrated, where it was highly recommended. I have a mix of German and Japanese knives and the two have different angles on the blades, which means that you need sharpeners designed for each type. Since I only had a sharpener suited for German style knives, my Japanese knives were not being sharpened properly, and they were not performing to their full capabilities.

After purchasing this sharpener, I used it on my Japanese knives, and they are now performing like I knew they could, and were, when I purchased them. Personally, I don't like electric sharpeners, but if you do, there are excellent ones on the market. If, like me, you prefer manual sharpeners and have Japanese knives, then this is the tool for you.

I purchased this based on all the glowing reviews here. The item arrived and the first time I ran my knife through the 'stage 2' slot, I could feel the knife hanging up on the rollers as it ran through. To my shock, I noticed that my knife had a series of gouges all along the blade at even intervals. I looked in the sharpener and could see that one of the rollers had a big chunk missing from it. Again, based on the reviews here, I just figured I got a bad one - no company's quality control is perfect, so I ordered a second one with the intention of sending the first one back. Well, the second one came and I gave the wheels a visual inspection, and since it looked ok I ran my knife through it. On this one the knife went through stage 2, but it also felt kinda rough and wouldn't go through smoothly. Sure enough when I looked at the blade, once again, more gouging and scratching all along the blade. So I am done with this item. Now I have 2 useless knife sharpeners to return which have most likely destroyed the knife they were supposed to have improved. Either I have the world's worst luck, or this company REALLY needs to take a look at their quality control standards. In either case, I will never buy another Chef's Choice product. Never.

I used to run a restaurant. I've spent years in kitchens of others and have always used traditional hand knife sharpening. First I used Arkansas stone the later Japanese water stones. With those it's possible to put a scary sharp edge on a knife. Does the Chef's Choice sharpener do that kind of job? No. But it does put a decent working edge on a knife, much sharper than most home cooks are used to. That's important for Japanese style knives as their finer edge is more quickly dulled than western knives. It's simple to use, takes little time (unless your knives are extremely dull to start with) and reasonably priced. After putting an initial edge on a knife, it's possible to keep the blade sharp with little effort and without the need to learn esoteric knife sharpening skills. Bottom line, it sharpens knives easily, quickly and adequately.

The Chef's Choice Pronto Santoku knife sharpener is good for maintenance in keeping a nice edge. However, if you're expecting the razor sharpness you had at purchase time, you'd better send it Shun for re-sharpening.

First of all read the directions. I did not and pulled the knife one way with poor results. If you push and pull as instructed you can get a very sharp blade.. Yes it does seem to scratch the sides of the blade but the sharpness makes it worthwhile to me.