A good starter kitchen knife set for a beginner is a three-piece configuration: an 8-inch chef’s knife, a small paring knife, and a serrated utility or bread knife, built with full tang construction and forged or well-treated stainless steel, with a handle that feels comfortable in a small hand. That definition matters because the fastest … Read more
The best electric knife sharpener for kitchen knives is the Chef’sChoice 15XV, because it is the only machine in this group that converts a factory 20-degree edge down to a finer 15-degree Trizor XV edge and then polishes it with a third stropping stage, all without you guessing at an angle. We spent weeks putting … Read more
A tapered diamond sharpening rod is the best manual knife sharpener for a serrated blade, because the cone seats inside each individual scallop and grinds the tooth back to shape from the inside out. A flat whetstone laid across a serrated edge does the opposite: it shaves the tips unevenly and leaves you with a … Read more
Yes, pull through knife sharpeners work, and for a busy home kitchen they are often the only sharpener you will ever need. A slot fixed to an edge angle grinds away the dull bevel and sets a new one in two to four passes per stage, with no stone to soak and no clamp to … Read more
The best sharpener for Japanese knives is a water-activated whetstone, used in a grit progression that starts around 1000 and finishes at 3000 to 6000. A dual-grit stone such as the Sharp Pebble 1000/6000 or the King KW65 covers both stages in one purchase, and a dedicated stone like the Shapton K0702 #1000 is the … Read more
Short answer: the Work Sharp Guided Field Sharpener is the best diamond knife sharpener for hunting knives, because it packs five abrasive surfaces into a single self-contained unit that handles a 20 to 25 degree hunting edge, serrations and a gut hook without any assembly. If you want one fixed tool and a controlled angle, … Read more
Most whetstone sets ship with a base, but they are not all built the same, and the difference shows up the first time the stone is wet. A wet stone that moves while you are dragging a blade across it will either put a wobble in your angle or shoot out from under your hand. … Read more
A 1000 grit whetstone is a medium-grit waterstone used to put a working edge back on a kitchen knife that has dulled through daily use. It removes metal fast enough to resharpen a dull edge, but not so aggressively that it thins a good blade. For most home cooks it is the single most useful … Read more
A leather strop is a long strip of vegetable-tanned leather, usually hung by a swivel and handle or mounted on a wooden paddle, that you draw a straight razor along to realign and polish the edge between shaves. It removes no meaningful steel. It smooths the microscopic damage shaving leaves behind, and it knocks off … Read more
A magnetic knife strip is a narrow wall-mounted bar with magnets running through its core that hold kitchen knives horizontally by their blades, replacing a countertop knife block and freeing up counter and drawer space. We ranked the ten best magnetic knife strips for kitchen walls so you can stop losing prep space to a … Read more