MinoSharp Ceramic Wheel Water Sharpener, Grey/Black

I bought this to sharpen several Global knives after comparing it to the confusing and expensive arrays of sharpening stones out there. The sharpener is easy to use and made of high quality materials. To operate Simply fill the small tray with water and run the knife thru the offset grooves over a course and fine ceramic wheel. After a minute i was done with several knives. Comparing the globals afterward I had mixed feelings because the knives were already pretty sharp to begin with. The revelation though was how well it worked on my Wusthof Grand Prix Knives. In fact they restored them to better than new as i was always dissatisfied with them because they were never very sharp which led me to Globals to begin with. Now the Wusthof's are of comparable sharpness. This is a great item and well worth the price.

Most every chef will tell you that the most important tool in the kitchen is a good knife. However, no knife stays "good" very long without proper sharpening. Most real chefs swear by their whetstone that they sharpen at their estimated angle. This is great for them, and maybe it is the best way to preserve the blade of the knife, but I've been using this sharpener for years on my Global and Wusthof knives and it is:1) Fast (meaning I don't avoid the chore at all)2) Razor sharp (best way to tell this is slicing tomatoes)3) Small, easily fitting in my kitchen drawer4) Not expensivePerhaps it does shorten the length of life of my knives, but replacing the most important tool in your kitchen every 10-20 years for less than the cost of a microwave is hardly that much to ask when you consider the convenience and effectiveness of this tool.

I bought one of these for my brother and he just loves it! Then, I bought one for myself after trying his out. The only problem you have with this is that the wheels need replacing after a year or so, but that's also with a LOT of use. The wheels are available online but are almost $15.00 each so maybe it's better to just buy a new unit altogether. I also have 3 other knife sharpeners, one electric, two hand held, but this is, by far, the best of them all. It's simple to use and creates a nice, sharp edge.

Works great and really recommend it. It is important not to press down hard as you gently run the knife over the wheels and you might need to sharpen a few knives until you get it "just right" at the tip of the blade. I have a few knives where the blade runs all the way up to the handle so there is a very small section of the blade that doesn't "make it" to the little wheels inside the sharpener (because of the plastic dome/cover). I don't own professional knives at the moment so it's bad knife design and has nothing to do with the sharpener's performance. One thing I realized is that it might be difficult (not to mention expensive!) to replace the sharpening wheels (which are sold separately), so that's another reason to be very careful with the amount of pressure you apply.

This knife sharpener is the Best!

I got this a couple of days ago because my chef's knife was starting to squash tomatoes rather than cut through them. Sharpening both the chef's and a vegetable knife, following the directions, I was pleasantly surprised when they each sliced through the paper towels I was using to dry them off. I finished the sharpening with a steel and am very happy with the results. I haven't done anything to the blades but use the steel after each use since I bought the knives, and am jazzed that this little guy brought my blades back to life.I know there was some negative reviews of the blades, but keeping the blades perpendicular, and not pushing down to hard, I got a good edge. I think if you push down too hard, you put the blade edge flat on the wheel, and grind off the edge, which would make the knife duller. Keep it perpendicular so it puts wheels faces against the blades faces and it will give you what you are looking for. But of course, a professional sharpening from someone who has been doing this type of thing for years would produce an amazing edge - probably for about the same cost as this little baby.

Got a 4 piece Global set as a house warming gift. 4 years later and I have not sharpened them, 7-9 swipes through this sharpener with each knife and BOOM! As sharp as the day I took them out the box!

Contrary to common lore, global knives do get dull. They will need to be sharpened (not just honed). Not any sharpener will do, either, unless you aren't worried about damaging your knife. So they really stick you with the cost of this ceramic sharpener. It does work decently. But at $43, it's way overpriced.