Consumer Reports’ Highest-Rated Budget Knife Sharpener Is Easy, Space-Saving, And Under $10

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Die-hard cooks will swear by the benefits (and prestige) of sharpening knives on a whetstone, as keeping tools in pristine condition is a point of pride among restaurant chefs. This may be true for culinary professionals, but most home cooks don’t share that intense sentiment. Not everyone has the time nor the skill to sharpen their knives themselves, and sending your knives out to be sharpened can be expensive and leave you with without your most trusty knives for a few days. Rather than risking damaging your knives by trying your hand at a wet stone, you should instead use Consumer Reports’ best-rated budget knife sharpener anytime you sense your knives beginning to dull.

The KitchenIQ Deluxe Diamond Edge Grip 2-Stage Knife Sharpener was selected as Consumer Reports’ best budget manual knife sharpener at less than $10. Different from electric knife sharpeners, which require a power source and feature rapidly spinning wheels that sharpen to different grits, a manual knife sharpener is much more simple. The KitchenIQ manual knife sharpener features two different slots each with a different grinding grit to help return a sharp edge to your knife. One slot is coarse for very dull knives, and the other slot is has a fine grit to help sharpen an existing edge. Depending on how dull your knife is at the moment, you may only need the fine grit to return a razor-sharp edge to your knife. However if the knife is extremely dull, you’ll need to start with the coarse grit before moving on to finely sharpen the edge.

Consumer Reports points out that after sharpening both Japanese- and German-made knives, both types of blades were able to easily and smoothly cut through both tender tomatoes and sturdy onions. Compared to a larger electric knife sharpener, the KitchenIQ manual sharpener is incredibly compact and easy to store, and it can likely fit in one of your kitchen drawers or easily tuck into a cabinet. 

The only downside of the KitchenIQ sharpener’s small size is that it puts your fingers fairly close to the swiftly moving edge of the blade, so be sure to use caution and pay close attention as you sharpen your knives, especially in the beginning as you get used to using the sharpener.

The manual sharpener can be used on a flat countertop or other flat, sturdy surface, but it can also be used on the edge of a countertop or workspace as it has a notch underneath designed for this purpose. Sometimes people prefer sharpening off the edge of a countertop as it minimizes the risk of the knife hitting your countertop as you pull the blade toward you, but note that this method requires careful use. Once you’ve mastered the petite countertop manual knife sharpener, learn more about everything you need to keep your knives sharp.