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Many people have dull knives in their kitchen drawer or tackle box; The reason for this is they find the task of sharpening them intimidating. Knife sharpening doesn't have to be hard or time consuming! This video is a brief overview of the three sharpeners we recommend. Between them they've got all the bases covered; From the person who wants to quickly put an edge back on their chef's knife so they can finish cooking dinner, to the enthusiast who wants a perfect refined edge and doesn't mind putting in hours of practice.

First we've got the V-style sharpener. This sharpener is very easy to use and quick to set up. It requires almost no practice to use proficiently making it perfect for the beginner as well as the veteran knife sharpener. It includes two sets of abrasive ceramic rods, one fine one coarse. Sharpening requires only that you hold the knife perpendicular to the base and run the knife along the angled rods.

These sharpeners aren't great for extremely dull knives (because of the lack of an extra coarse grit) or specialty knives with very shallow edge angles (because the angle is fairly steep and can't be adjusted).

Good examples of this style of sharpener are: the spyderco sharpmaker and the lansky croc stick sharpener.

Next is the Lansky style guided system. This sharpener is more versatile than the V-style, with multiple preset angles and a range of grits. Another nice feature is the angle is totally guided by the sharpener resulting in clean accurate sharpening.

With the added versatility comes more setup time and slightly longer learning curve. This sharpener also doesn't handle odd shaped or long blades (eg 10" chef's knife) well.

The following are all variations on this style.

Lansky guided system, Gatco's edge mate systems, and the DMT Aligner and DIAfold magna guide systems.

The last style of sharpener is the traditional Japanese water stone. With practice these produce the best edges of any of these systems. There is almost an unlimited variety of grits to choose from and the sharpening angle infinitely adjustable because it is free hand.

The down side of water stones is the steep learning curve. They aren't for everyone; those who are un-mechanically inclined usually have trouble using these successfully. However with good instruction, determination and a fair amount of practice most people can achieve good to great results.

There are many good waterstone manufacturers : Norton, Bester/Imanishi, Sigma, King just to to name a few. We use King stones because they are very affordable, wear well and do a good job.

As with most things there is a huge range of prices for any of the three systems. You can spend $100 on a single water stone or $10 on a cheapo V-style sharpener. We recommend you spend between $20 and $60 on your sharpener of choice there isn't much benefit of shopping outside of that price range, at least to begin with.