Presto 08810 Professional Electric Knife Sharpener, Multi/None

I've been sharpening knives for over 40 years using good stones and honing steel rods. But I hate doing it. It's laborious, and there are other things I'd rather do. But I can always get a very sharp knife. Unfortunately, my wife does not know how to sharpen or hone a knife, nor does she care to learn. She dulls them and expects that I will sharpen them. I wanted something both of us could use, that would make life easier when it comes to knife sharpening. My knives range in quality from very high quality to low quality, but regardless I want them sharp! So I started buying a lot of different hand-held knife sharpening gadgets. They all suck. Don't bother. Next I spent hours reviewing electric knife sharpeners - narrowing my choices down to two; (1) Chef's Choice 120 Diamond Hone 3-Stage Professional Knife Sharpener for $120.00, or (2) the Presto 08810 Professional 3-Stage Electric Knife Sharpener for $43.00 (that's what I paid). I watched a lot of videos and actually saw the Chef's choice demonstrated live at a show; even had the guy try it on my own pocket knife. For $120, I was unimpressed with the Chef's Choice. Don't bother. So instead, I bought the Presto 08810 Professional 3-Stage Electric Knife Sharpener for $43.00. As with all knife sharpening systems, technique is needed, so read the instructions. Done right, you can get an amazing edge with very few passes; very sharp. I try not to over-sharpen. When it's sharp, I stop - mission accomplished. Continuing to make more passes after the knife has reached sharpness can possibly dull the blade. I only repeat if sharpness was not achieved after proceeding through the stages the first time. For my first try with the Presto 08810, I used a very crappy, very dull kitchen knife. It was so dull, I knew I needed to start with the coarse Stage 1. The directions said to make "three" alternating passes each side. I stopped after only "one." I already had a nice edge after just one pass each side. Don't over do it if you don't need to. Once you have a good edge, stop and move on. I test my knives by cutting into the edge of a piece of paper. The instructions say to test on vegetables. Paper is cheaper, especially when sharpening many knives in a session. If you do test sharpness on vegetables, you must clean the knife before putting back into the sharpener or you will ruin the sharpening wheels. I proceeded to Stage 2, making only about two passes, and also two on Stage 3. After only a couple of swipes, the knife was already super sharp. It sliced clean through a full sheet of paper like it was nothing. It was razor sharp. Wow! All this time I've been sharpening by hand (the hard way). I felt like a dope. The Presto 08810 is my new quick and easy sharpening tool. Granted, very expensive professional belt drive sharpening systems with leather stropping can probably achieve surgical scalpel sharpness, but who cares? Or who wants the cost and complexity of such machines for their average daily use? I'm not "shaving" with my knives, nor performing surgery. The Presto 08810 made my knives super sharp (VERY sharp). More than enough for the kitchen. [My Recommendations] Wipe your knife blade clean of any metal tiny filings after a couple of passes, and absolutely before proceeding to the next sharpening stage. This will keep the blade guides clean and free of any particles that could scratch your blade. That being said, I sharpened a bunch of knifes, and not one knife was ever scratched or marred (like the Chef's Choice is known to do). For most knives, I even recommending skipping "coarse" Stage 1. You can re-sharpen, or touch-up knives using only the "fine" Stage 3, or by sharpening in Stage 2 and finishing in Stage 3. I only used all three stages, starting in "coarse" Stage 1, for knives that had completely lost their edge. For those with small pocket knives and sport knives... yes, it sharpened mine. The smallest knife I sharpened so far was a 2.5" (9 cm) blade on a pocket knife. Because of the thickness of the handle, the Presto 08810 could not reach the final quarter inch (0.25" or 0.5 cm) of the blade, near the hilt/handle. But I was Ok with that. It was better than I expected. This was my exact same pocket knife used by the guy in the demonstration on the Chef's Choice. I can tell you for a fact, the Presto 08810 sharpened my knife better. I also sharpened my USMC KA-Bar knife with a black painted blade (gutsy, I know). Not a scratch in the paint. But remember I tend to wipe off the metal filings with each pass, just to be careful. I don't plan to do that again, as I suspect the blade guides will ultimately wear or scratch the paint if subjected to frequent passes. I just wanted to give it a try at least once. As for my stainless kitchen cutlery, no worries, all my knives were just fine. No marks, no scratches. Just sharp! Although it didn't happen to me yet, I do see the potential that possible scratching or marring of the blades could occur, depending on the knife, not resting the blade against the blade guides, or simply a build-up of filings on the blade guides. If it does happen to my kitchen knives, I'm not that overly concerned. They're just tools to me, not decorations. As long as they're usable and sharp, I'm Ok. So far, after sharpening many knives, it hasn't been a problem. [Summary] I'm so glad I didn't spend $120 on a Chef's Choice 3-Stage. What a waste that would have been. Save your money. I paid $43 (on sale) on Amazon for the Presto 08810 (3-Stage) knife sharpener, and it works just as good, if not better, as I discovered. I've seen the Presto 08810 for as high as $48, and usually for $45. Check also on eBay if Amazon is too high. But either way, it's cheaper than the expensive Chef's Choice.

The Presto knife sharpener is a practical investment for any home cook who values sharp, reliable knives and wants an easy, affordable way to keep them in top condition. The sharpener arrived ready to use right out of the box, with a compact design and non-slip base. Using the sharpener is straightforward. The device features a two-stage sharpening system: the first stage grinds and reshapes dull or damaged edges, while the second stage hones and polishes. I tested the sharpener on various kitchen knives, including chef’s knives, paring knives, and even a serrated bread knife. The results were consistently impressive. Noise level is tolerable and worth putting up with for the benefit of having sharp knives! In summary, the Presto knife sharpener is a good value for its simplicity, speed, and effectiveness.

This Presto electric knife sharpener does everything for you to get a sharp knife without the manual labor. My father has been sharpening knives his whole life the old fashion way with a stone, so far he is impressed with how sharp the knives get using this machine. We are mostly impressed with how easy it is to use, it doesn't take much skill to get good results. The machine itself appears to be of decent quality and comes with suction cups on the bottom to keep it from moving around when in use. Step 1: Turn on the machine Step 2: Select the blade style (Thick, Medium or Thin) Step 3: Sharpen the knife from level 1, 2 to 3 (1 = coarse, 2 = medium, 3 = fine honing)

Simple to use and great results. Do practice on an old knife which will allow you to learn the proper technique and break in the stones a bit. Update: after 2 weeks of ownership and 30+ knives sharpened, I am completely satisfied with this product. I have sharpened all of my knives, slicing and serrated, and am compiling a nice set for each of my two sons who are moving out and need basic kitchen tools. My new hobby is to rescue unwanted quality knives at yard sales, and give them new lives as high performance tools. The results are truly awsome and it is such a pleasure to work with sharp tools again. Update after approximately 1 month of use. I have sharpened close to 100 knives for friends and family with fantastic results. Some of the negative comments mention the motor to be underpowered. Either the motor is faulty on their unit, or they are pushing down too hard. A very light pressure works best. I would again recommend using one old knife to practice on, which will also break in the stones and perhaps reduce any over aggressive grinding. It is important to position yourself so that you are pulling the knife in a straight line towards yourself to keep the knife along the guide and at a consistent angle to the wheel. Since this is done at a slight angle to the unit, I move my body left or right accordingly. When I am using one of the sharpening slots, I angle my body so that my shoulder and arm are in line with the direction of knife motion. I also count the number of seconds that it takes me to complete the motion to make sure that I am not going too slow or too fast. So for an 8" blade, it should take me about 4 seconds to do one pass. For knives which have a curved tip, you have to raise the handle as you are pulling the tip across the stone to get the proper grind. On a long knife, I often will steady the tip with my other hand until it reaches the back of the unit. It also helps to have a good high intensity light to see the edge for inspection and to see the wheel that you are using so that you can locate the knife precisely. I work in the medical device industry where we sharpen surgical needles which penetrate human tissue, so I am very familiar with what a good edge looks like. I also have a 10x loupe which makes edge inspection very easy. A dull edge will reflect light while a sharp one will not. So if you have a light directly over the edge, if you see specs of light reflecting back at you, that means that those areas are not yet sharp. If you can get a hold of a magnifier, hold it close to your eye, steady your hand by resting it against your cheek, and move the knife towards the magnifier until it comes into focus. Most people hold the object to magnify at arm's length, and move the magnifier until it is in focus, which is incorrect. If used properly, you will have a larger image to inspect. Under magnification, the edge has micro serrations which make it very sharp. My company used to polish our needles so that they were very shiny with a smooth edge, but after developing a test for sharpness, we realized that a dull surface with a micro serrated edge is much sharper. We now use a process which keeps those micro serrations. When I am done sharpening a knife, I pull it very lightly across a finger and can feel it "biting" into the skin. Scary sharp! I have also read on some knife forums that grinding an edge can de-temper the steel and make it weak. I reached out to one of my Metallurgists and was told that unless I can see visual heat lines, which I do not, de-tempering is not occurring. Although when sharpening stainless steel I do not get any sparks, carbon steel does spark a little, which is also a good test to see what type of steel it is if you are not sure. I recently bought a Vintage 10" Chef's Knife which was advertised as "stainless" but it had some light staining on the blade so I suspected that it was made from carbon steel. It did spark during sharpening so this confirmed that I got a carbon steel knife and a real find! Now, some purists will argue that hand honing gives the best results. Perhaps, but I am not collecting priceless knives, but merely buying great knives and turning them into fabulous kitchen tools in a fraction of the time that it takes to hand tone. This sharpener is one of my favorite tools.

Outstanding product. Works easily and produces sharp knifes for me. And I'm disabled and handicapped....

Exactly what we expected. I got sick of dealing with the time involved with sharpening kitchen knives with other methods. I have memories of a nice electric sharpener my friends parents had in the 80's and how fast it could make a dull knife like new again. That and the fact we are at home 6 nights a week and actually cook meals and really use our knives a lot lead to this purchase. My wife is an amazing cook and I do a lot of prep for her, we joke I'm the sous chef and grill/ fry person. It had honestly gotten to the point of frustration trying to keep knives sharp as busy as we are, the kind of thing you don't think about until you need it when you're busy working a lot. I had previously used traditional whetstone and pull thru type sharpeners but they don't hold a candle to this machine in terms of time saved. The unit is so simple to use. It's the good quality I expect from the presto brand. Nothing fancy but from my experience they make well designed products that usually hold up well and just work plain and simple. I was really surprised how quickly the knives were sharp. I was digging through everything in the kitchen and asking my wife what I could sharpen for her lol. Knives came out sharp enough to shave hair off my arm. Definitely wish I'd bought this like15 years ago. As long as it holds up and lasts we are beyond satisfied. Prep time and quality of ingredients is back to on point thanks to this. Seriously, if you're tired of dull knives and don't have hours to sit and hone a dozen of them, this will do the job in minutes and make them like you remember them new. It will do most pocket knives, meat cleavers and filet knives perfectly as well. Highly recommend for the home chef or any good kitchen.

First, those fancy German knives, they're made typically not to be too sharp (22.5 to 25 degree angle and blade steel composition). Frankly, they don't want you to cut yourself or damage the blade. This is a lowest common denominator situation. Now you know. With that as a starting point, this is a good tool. First, it will take a couple degrees of the the original bevel of those German knives. It's important that you read the instructions, seriously, or you may damage your knife. This is a serious grinding machine (it's much larger than it appears to be in the photo). Don't use the coarse stone unless your knife has damage to it, or it's blade is so dull that you couldn't cut yourself no matter how hard you sliced on yourself. The coarse stone will grind serious metal off your blade. It did a decent job on the standby German knives, you'll want to steel them afterwards. If you're not good at steeling, put the end of the steel down on the counter and mimic the angle that the guide on the sharpener uses. After steeling, it's pretty sharp, good enough for most folks I would guess. I'm going to buy a super fine diamond steel to really clean it up, but I like a really sharp blade. This sharpener leaves the bevel a little rough for my taste, not matter how careful you are. Also, I'd wipe it off between moving from the medium to the fine stones, just to get the filings off so they don't damage the blade. Other knifes, the steel on cheaper Chicago cutlery knives tended to be a little more easily damaged by the sharpener. Be careful with these knives, don't press down to hard and pull through evenly. I guess what I'm saying is that different knives will behave differently, so be cautious at first and pay attention. My Messermeister and Victorinox meat cutting knives were the most problematic, surprisingly. The blades are pretty knicked up on the bevel and they didn't sharpen up that well. I'll continue to experiment and also give them a good working over with a diamond steel, which should smooth them a bit. It says you can use this with Japanese knifes, well, they specify Shun knives, if you consider that a fine Japanese knife. I guess I might use this on a Shun but there's no chance I'd use it on my $200 handmade Japanese chef's knife. I like this sharpener, but don't love it. If you're really a sharp knife fanatic, you may wish to look elsewhere (and spend another $100-$150). But for the money, it gets you in the ballpark as long as you read the instructions and pay attention.

Does a great job. Hubs had to sharpen every knife he could find to test it on different thicknesses and old dull blades. It sharpened some that seemed hopeless.