Is a Rolling Knife Sharpener Price It?

An extended profession within the meals service trade has acquainted me with all types of how to sharpen knives. As a younger culinary pupil, I’d run my knives by means of a pull-through sharpener. After I started to search for a good higher edge, I introduced my knife to Sur La Desk to make the most of its in-house sharpening providers. As soon as I began working in critical kitchens, older cooks side-eyed this follow. They defined that mechanical grindstones and inexperienced retail assistants can take away an excessive amount of steel out of your knife when sharpening, dramatically shortening its life. Severe professionals use whetstones to sharpen their knives, and finally, I solely needed to make use of them on my treasured and costly work instruments. That mentioned, whereas whetstones are efficient, they’re time-consuming and include studying curves.

Not too long ago, I examine a brand new development in knife sharpening: rolling sharpeners. These, just like the Horl 3 Cruise I examined, couple magnetic, angled blocks with rolling, textured cylinders. Your knife snaps onto the block to be held at simply the fitting angle (both 15 or 20 levels) whereas the cylinder rolls alongside the sharp edge to sharpen. After ending one aspect, you flip the knife to do the opposite. Fairly easy, proper? I examined a preferred rolling knife sharpener to seek out out.

The Exams

• Stainless Metal Knife Take a look at: To begin, I selected one among my older knives to experiment with the Horl 3. For me, it’s the Zwilling Bob Kramer Damascus. It’s made from chrome steel and takes a very long time to resharpen. I pulled it out, dusted it off, and marked the sting with a Sharpie to see how a lot the Horl would take off. I put it to the Edge-on-Up Skilled Edge Tester to check its current sharpness, then put in some critical work on the Horl earlier than re-testing its sharpness.
• Odd-Dimension Knife Take a look at: Subsequent, I needed to see if the Horl might work for an irregularly formed knife like a meat cleaver. Once more, I used the sting tester, sharpened the cleaver, after which examined its edge once more.
• Carbon Metal Knife Take a look at: Lastly, I grabbed a softer carbon metal knife to see how the Horl might carry out on a unique materials. I used the sting tester earlier than and after to find out the outcomes.

What We Realized

Rolling Sharpeners Go away the Coaching Wheels On

Individuals have used whetstones to sharpen knives for hundreds of years, and the design hasn’t modified a lot. You maintain your knife at an angle and run it throughout a textured stone to take away some materials and refine the sting to some extent. Repeat on the opposite aspect, and also you get a pointy edge. Electrical sharpeners have been invented to save lots of time and reduce the quantity of ability wanted to finish this process: Rotating textured wheels or belts spin round an angled valley the person drags the blade of the knife by means of.

Rolling sharpeners mix components of each strategies. As a substitute of utilizing an angle information or counting on really feel, the rolling sharpener has a magnetized block that snaps onto your knife to carry it edge-side-up on the correct angle. A rough, textured cylinder rolls subsequent to the blade and alongside its edge to refine it. In idea, this course of reduces the quantity of ability wanted to take care of the right angle whereas sharpening and doesn’t take off as a lot materials as an electrical or pull-through sharpener.

The Rolling Sharpener Sharpened Nicely—However With Limitations

After about 10 minutes of sharpening my Kramer blade (roughly 100 passes on both sides of the blade), the Horl made important progress. To begin, this knife registered at 1044 on the sting tester. The guide for the tester recommends an expert regrind for any blade scoring above 1200. After utilizing the Horl, I used to be capable of get the sharpness right down to 600, or a “reasonably rolled edge.” As a result of the Kramer has chips alongside the blade, I would want to proceed far past simply getting the sting sharp to get a totally straight blade. Ordinarily, I might use a whetstone with a coarser grit to make shorter work of this course of. The Horl solely comes with one grit grade plus one other aspect for honing. Whetstones are available all kinds of grits and textures designed to pair with no matter outcomes you might be searching for. Primarily, attempting to take away chips from a stainless-steel knife utilizing the Horl is akin to chopping down a tree with a serrated knife. Positive, it may possibly do it…finally. However you might make extra progress with a greater software.

That being mentioned, I used to be capable of lastly take away the chips with sufficient elbow grease and time. By the tip, I had managed to get the sharpness to 239, as sharp as a double-edged razor blade and most high-end cutlery out of the field. Think about me a cheerful camper, as it may possibly price as a lot as $40 to get it repaired by an expert simply as soon as and the Horl can be utilized many times.

Save Your Odd-Dimension Cutlery For A Whetstone

When you can sharpen nearly any sort of knife on a whetstone, the Horl is restricted by the form and dimension of the rolling part. A bigger cleaver is simply too vast to make contact with the textured floor of the sharpener with out requiring you to jury-rig some sort of elevated floor on one aspect. Paring knives have been a non-issue and carbon metal knives with typical bevels (double, 15 or 20 levels) sharpened simply nice. 

The Verdict

If you wish to be a bit extra critical in regards to the long-term care of your knives however are too intimidated to delve into mastering a whetstone, the Horl (and rolling sharpeners prefer it) gives a intelligent answer. Perceive that this type of sharpener won’t ever be capable to do what a full assortment of whetstones can, however perhaps that’s not what you need anyway. Fast, efficient sharpening offers you a way more fulfilling person expertise when slicing and reducing, and that’s what the Horl delivers.

The Professionals

I loved utilizing the Horl 3 Cruise and can admit that it is simpler than a whetstone. The Horl doesn’t should be soaked earlier than use and makes no mess. It’s compact and transportable. Whereas it’s not fairly as intuitive as a pull-through sharpener, I used to be nonetheless capable of get my non-culinary sister to sharpen her uninteresting knives to a passable edge with no prolonged instruction interval. Sustaining the right angle is just about foolproof with the heavy-duty magnet, which didn’t launch the knife throughout sharpening in any respect irrespective of how a lot strain I exerted.

The Cons

The Horl isn’t as versatile as a set of whetstones could be. It solely has one sort of grit coarseness and two angle settings, although Horl is releasing a mannequin later this yr with extra choices and exchangeable grinding disks. With a whetstone, the alternatives for angle are primarily limitless and you might be free to customise your edge the way in which you need. That’s nonetheless going to be the very best choice for knife nerds.

Key Specs

• Grinding materials: Diamond
• Weight: 1 pound
• Grinding angles: 15 and 20 levels

Why We are the Specialists

• Taylor Murray has been working in meals and meals media for over 10 years, together with at award-winning eating places. 
• She has examined quite a few objects for Severe Eats, together with tagines and deep-dish pizza pans.
• For this overview, Taylor sharpened a wide range of knives utilizing the Horl 3 Cruise. She examined the sting earlier than and after sharpening utilizing an expert edge tester.