Pull through sharpeners

Independent, accurate and unbiased information about kitchen knives used for the preparation of food and how to sharpen them and keep them sharp

Pull-through sharpeners

Most commonly these are sharpening devices housed in a casing with two or three v-slots on the top. The knife blade is swiped through one of the slots where is abraded by different grades of abrasive discs, rods or plates. Cheaper sharpeners have just one slot.

The abrasives used include ceramic, tungsten carbide, hardened steel and diamond abrasives.

One of the major advantages of the pull-through sharpeners is that the sharpening angle is pre set, so that no skill is involved and every time a knife is sharpened the angle is the same as it was previously.

Many of the major commercial knife makers have at least one pull through sharpener in their catalogue.

Experts have mixed views about the pull-through sharpeners. Some think that they can damage good knives, while others think that the cutting edge formed by the pull-through sharpeners is not particularly sharp. Others say that the edge is not long lasting, so that the knives sharpened with pull-through sharpeners have to be sharpened more frequently than those sharpened with other methods.

The effectiveness of most of these sharpeners is dependent on the pressure applied to the cutting edge as the knife is pulled through the slot. But one type of pull through sharpener uses spring loaded abrasive rods which control the pressure on the cutting edge. These include the V-sharp produced by Warthog, the Razor Edge Mouse Trap, TruHone Crossteel, and the Rapid Steel Polish made by the German knife maker F.Dick.

This online knife shop lists many different styles of pull-through sharpeners, which you can see here >>>

What we like about the pull-through sharpeners:

oThe sharpeners are very popular so there are many to choose from

oNo skill is required, except that the sharpeners should be used with minimum force

oThe angle is fixed and constant

oThe sharpeners produce a sharp edge quickly

oThere is a wide price range available

What you might not like about the pull-through sharpeners:

oMany of the sharpeners produce an edge that is not long lasting

oThe sharpeners can damage good knives

oOn some models the angle is fixed, so it might not be suitable for your cutting purposes

Knife blade shapes