Presto 08800 EverSharp Electric Knife Sharpener, 2-Stage System, Silver/Black

I read all the reviews before buying and just had to write my review (my first ever of any product). I have worked in kitchens in the past and prepare meals regularly. I am a cajun cook and we chop crazy amounts of onions, celery, garlic, bell peppers and everything else from the garden. I also have a catfish pond, and I need a very sharp filet knife. So needless to say I have a drawer full of old filet and chef knives of varing quality and dullness. I have tried so many sharpening techniques and nothing I tried could restore the original sharpness without spending a ton of time an energy.Well let me tell you, all the positive reviews are correct, this is a marvelous little gem and its the best $24 dollars I ever spent. Less than the new knife I was going to buy. I have knives of every metal imaginable and this little baby put an edge on them that is crazy sharp. I had to warn the wife about how sharp the knives were. Before if a burgular would come at me with one of my knives I would have died laughing, now I have to worry how they are stored in the drawer so not to accidently cut myself rummaging around in there.Trust me, if you need your knives sharper than this baby gives you then you just are plain crazy. I believe I saw my onions cowering in the fridge! I had to cook a big seafood gumbo with extra onions and celery just to celebrate my new sharp knives.This baby gets The Cajun seal of approval!!!Have fun and be safe with your like new sharpness!***Update***It has now been almost three months since I first sharpened my knives and wrote this review. I use my knives everyday and they have held their edge ever since, this sharpener is just collecting dust now because I have had no need to resharpen them. I of course use a good piece of steel to keep a razor edge but otherwise I don't foresee having to resharpen for awhile yet.***Update 2***Its has been over 6 months now. My knives are sharp as razors with only two sharpening times. And they get heavy use, cleaning huge catfish from my pond and also chicken and all sorts of heavy kitchen use. Coupled with a nice piece of steel this sharpener is so good I just can't live without it. With so much usuage out of my knives and only having to sharpen 2 times in the last 6 months I would have to say it is the best 24$ I have ever spent!***Update 3***It has now been 2 years since purchasing this excellent knife sharpener. It is funny, I took this sharpener down from the top shelf to sharpen my 12" chef knife before cutting up a ton of meat to make sausage and I had to wipe all the dust off of it before using it, that is how infrequent I have to sharpen my knifes, and I use my knives for heavy duty use! Love this sharpener! Get yourself a decent piece of steel, a good chopping board and you got it made.***Update 4*** It now has been 4 years! It is funny 2 years ago my wife bought me this exact sharpener by accident. I had it on my Amazon wish list...for review purposes and she didn't even realize I had one, that is how infrequently I have to sharpen my chef knives. I kept a hold of it to see how long my original one would last, well I am tired of waiting, I am bringing the unopened 2 year old sharpener to work today to sell it.And I do a lot of cutting and I just took it down from the cabinet and had to dust if off again to see how well it worked before letting go with the unopened one. Knives didn't need it just wanted to 'top em off', all like new again.*Note to commenter, all my knives in use are in their original cases, or original sleeve.Next year will be my 5 year review. The person I am selling the unopened sharpener to is a hard core hunter and trapper. We will see how it handles. Stay tuned.

Easy to use and great results. Keeps knives sharp. This is my second one. First lasted about 8 years. Sharpen my knives frequently to keep a razor sharp edge. Quick and easy to do with this sharpener. Hard to make a mistake as long as you follow instructions. Great Angel accuracy. Pro chefs sharpen knives after each use and recommend but I go about every two uses.

Shopping on the internet can be difficult, and sometimes buyers have to purchase a few versions of the same item online to determine which has the best quality.I love the idea of this product. I purchased this electric knife sharpener because I'm an avid knife collector, carry a knife daily, and have been into cooking lately. I know a good cook has to have sharp blades. I was becoming lazy since all the sharpeners I used were manual. I have a combination sharpening stone, ceramic rods, and a plastic V-rod pull sharpener (Accusharp) as well as the rolling sharpener, which has a magnetic base at a pre-fixed angle of 15 or 20 degrees (Tumblr diamond rolling knife sharpener) as well as a 20 degree guided field knife sharpener (Work Sharp). All those sharpeners make my knives razor sharp; however, I have to put effort into the sharpening.I want you to have a background knowing I was looking forward to having an easy electric sharpener.Here is some more background information: My spouse and I do not use the same knives in the kitchen. I have very sharp Damascus steel knives I use and cook with. My spouse prefers to do anything other than hand-washing dishes and utensils. Our house's different set of knives is affordable Cuisinart 12-piece colored knives. They're on Amazon for $25+. They are also dull from being in the dishwasher and are probably 13 or 14 years old. I am confident these have never sharpened. I'm the one who usually cooks, using my knives.These knives would be the perfect way to test the sharpener's quality. The instruction book says to cut a vegetable with your knives, and then if there's resistance, continue the phases one and two again. We use the paper testing method. It's cleaner. The paper test is the most popular test for knife sharpness. Place a piece of paper between your fingers to test your knife's edge and draw the knife downwards. A sharp knife will slice the paper cleanly without you applying any force, while a dull blade will tear and rip at the paper, making for a messy cut.I read the instruction manual on using the product. It was my first time using an electric sharpener, so I wanted to do it correctly. I test the blade's sharpness with a regular printer piece of paper. I try to get all of my knives razor sharp to where they slice right through. First, I did a test run with the Cuisinart in the shape it was. It slightly nicked the paper for a millimeter, followed by ripping it. When I go to use the electric sharpener, I do several passes on each side, make sure I'm not pressing too hard on the stone, make sure it sounds correct, make sure to keep it flat on the sharpener guide as well as keep parallel with the counter and move it with the way of the curve the blade. I started to test the edge of the knife on the paper again. It cuts a little better. However, it's still ripping the paper at the beginning of the cut. There was "Lather, rinse, repeat" with this product, and it did not perform as I believed it should, based on the information presented on Amazon.At this point, throwing the Cuisinart knives away was the only choice. I wanted to avoid going back and correcting the blades/ manually sharpening. I bought "Mama's Great Knives" 12-piece set sold on Amazon. They claim to be dishwasher safe, have good ratings, and do not break the bank. Again, I don't recommend putting knives in the dishwasher.I did give this electric sharpener one more chance. I carry a Bench-made knife, and I keep it reasonably sharp to the point where when I take it out of my pocket, it slices right through the paper as if it were razor sharp, and I have not sharpened it in a few weeks (I used it every day). "I did a few passes and wanted to see if it would make the lights sharper. I had a dull spot, probably from slicing open Amazon boxes. It dulled my knife when I ran it through Phases 1 and 2. At this point, I thought it was a user error, so I reread the instructions to ensure I understood everything and tried again with the same results. I didn't continue the process because I did not want to damage my everyday carry knife further. I did try it on the piece of paper to give me feedback. When I said it was a dollar, it started to rip the form more than slice through the paper.It's an excellent product for the money and easy to use. It looks pretty straightforward. It did not have results that were in line with my expectations. You can read some of these reviews, and many people are happy with the product they received. They're satisfied with what the product does and how easy it is. I may have bought a bad unit, but I returned this product. Unfortunately, the electric way is not in my future.