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It’s easy to remember the importance of a sharp knife in the field, but let’s not forget about staying sharp in the kitchen. Our partners at Work Sharp make it easy with an extensive line of purpose-built kitchen knife sharpeners.
The most memorable hunts are those wherein you embrace the entire process. Preparation and planning. Collaboration and camaraderie. Slapping backs and snapping photos. Every step (even the unforeseen challenges) of the hunt should be embraced, and that includes butchering and processing the spoils of a successful hunt. Breaking down meat from a game animal doesn’t have to be a chore, and when it’s time to put heat to meat in the kitchen, it should be all smiles! Maintaining a sharp blade is key to a smooth field-to-table experience.
Knife Sharpeners For The Kitchen
Dive into the average knife drawer or countertop butcher block and it’s likely … cringeworthy. Without keeping a kitchen knife sharpener front and center, it’s easy to abuse your kitchen knives and get complacent about keeping them sharp. Next thing you know, you find yourself trying to dice a tomato for venison tacos and instead you end up with a crushed tomato and a pool of tomato juice. Or even worse—a blade ends up slipping because you’re using unnecessary force and your dinner gets cancelled for a trip to the E.R.
The takeaway here is that you need to keep a kitchen knife sharpener within arm’s reach. Lean on Work Sharp to find a kitchen knife sharpener that meets your needs and matches your budget.
Find Your Kitchen Knife Sharpener From Work Sharp
Work Sharp now offers a full suite of kitchen knife sharpeners to complement their electric knife and tool sharpeners and field sharpeners. This new lineup is ideal for every kitchen, especially if you’re a hunter who loves to cook wild game. Here’s a quick rundown of the options and features …
The cream of the crop in Work Sharp’s line of kitchen knife sharpeners is the Professional Electric Kitchen Knife Sharpener ($169.95). This is a classy-looking piece that you won’t mind keeping on your countertop, but most importantly it’s ultra functional. It’s a belt-driven sharpener with three pre-programmed sharpening modes: shape, sharpen, or refine. Shape mode runs at a speed and duration to bring seriously neglected blades back to life. Sharpen mode is for normal sharpening of a knife that needs a new edge, but isn’t full of bad nicks or chips. Refine mode is for a quick touch-up of a lightly used blade. The belt will last through dozens of sessions, but when it starts to wear down it’s easily replaceable.
Stepping up to powered sharpeners, the Electric Kitchen Knife Sharpener is a great entry-level option. At $59.95, it’s tough to look away from this sleek electric sharpener. Press a button to fire it up, slide your knife through the angle-guided slot with abrasive discs, and then finish it on the ceramic wheels. You can also use the ceramic wheels to routinely touch up blades while you’re cooking, reducing the need to constantly resharpen. You can also sharpen scissors on this compact powerhouse.
The Kitchen Edge Knife Sharpener ($12.95) is an affordable solution for down-and-dirty kitchen knife sharpening. It’s not as precise or smooth as the higher-tiered kitchen knife sharpeners from Work Sharp, and it will be a bit tougher on your blades, but it will absolutely get the job done and keep your blades sharp. This sharpener uses a basic two-step process: 1. Run the blade through the 20-degree convex carbide. 2. Run the blade through the ceramic wheels. A non-slip rubber base helps you maintain sharpening control.
As the next step up in manual kitchen knife sharpeners, look to the Pull Through Knife Sharpener. This price-conscious $29.95 sharpener uses gentle diamond wheels for Stage 1, and ceramic wheels for Stage 2 in its easy two-step sharpening process. As a valuable added bonus, the Pull Through Knife Sharpener has another diamond plate that you can use for sharpening scissors.
The Ceramic Honing Rod costs just $29.95. This tool is more for blade maintenance, and it should be a mainstay in every kitchen. Once a knife has been properly sharpened, use the Ceramic Honing Rod to easily keep it in shape. Touch up the edges on your blades with the Ceramic Honing Rod before preparing every meal, before you start slicing and dicing ingredients. A handful of swipes and you’re good to go. It’s also helpful for quickly honing the edges on steak knives that end up on the table (it’s painful watching a dinner guest try to saw through a nice cut of meat with a dull knife). Like all the sharpeners from Work Sharp, the Ceramic Honing Rod comes with built-in angle guides for achieving consistency on your knife edges.
If you want to kick it back to the old school and sharpen your kitchen knives like grandpa used to do it, check out the Whetstone Knife Sharpener ($34.95). Why would you want to use this instead of a pull-through sharpener or electric sharpener? Well, it’s not just for nostalgic reasons. Learn how to use a sharpening stone and you can achieve extremely precise, razor-sharp edges on your favorite blades, including pocket knives. Work Sharp makes it easier to master the stone sharpening technique with built-in angle guides (your choice of 15- or 17-degree guides), and the necessary water bath is kept at bay in a handy reservoir. This is another sharpener that uses a two-step process, with two different surface grits to hone your knife edge.