Our Picks
No matter how expensive your knife is, it will eventually lose its sharp edge. But sharpening knives is the secret trick to keeping their blades in great condition and allowing you to enjoy your high-quality chef knives for longer. Sharpening knives with a compact knife sharpener, more specifically tools like rolling knife sharpeners, makes keeping your knives sharp a quick and easy affair.
We tested manual and electric sharpeners to find the best electric knife sharpener for you. While our picks work for most knives, ceramic knives require diamond stones or files. So be sure to choose a sharpener suited to your knife type.
No longer will something as simple as chopping peppers take forever and a day. Here are the best knife sharpeners to keep your tools sharp for a safer and more efficient cooking experience.
What is the best knife sharpener overall?
There are lots of tools for knife maintenance -- I'm sure you're all familiar with the honing rod and knife sharpening stone or whetstone -- but I wanted the knife sharpening process to be a little easier. So CNET tested some sharpeners to determine which ones will always offer a sharp knife. With these recommendations, you won't have to worry about the angle or anything else, and you'll still get a razor-sharp edge. Here are CNET's picks for the best knife sharpeners for your chef's knife. We'll update it as we test more products.
A note: This list is just for chef's knives. Other types of knives, like hunting or serrated knives, will need a different sharpening kit or sharpening tool to combat a dull blade.
Best knife sharpeners of 2025
Best knife sharpener
Pros
- Electric
- Easy to use
- Magnets for correct angle
Cons
- On the bulky side
- Pricey
The best electric knife sharpener I used while testing was the Chef's Choice Trizor XV, a bulky device with three separate sharpening slots for bringing dull knives to a super-sharp 15-degree edge (many American knives are sharpened to a 20-degree angle). The Trizor also comes with thorough and helpful directions for use -- explaining unfamiliar terms and processes in straightforward ways. Plus, magnets on the sharpening tracks ensure the correct sharpening angle, so the risk of making mistakes while sharpening a dull blade on the diamond abrasives is pretty minimal.
The results of this professional knife sharpener testing were impressive. The sharp blade and smooth edge produced by the device meant I could slice through a tomato without squashing it or tearing the skin because of inconsistencies across the length of the edge.
The one downside of the Trizor electric sharpener is its premium cost (it is more than most people pay for a chef's knife, let alone the tool that sharpens it) and its bulky profile. If you have plenty of counter space or don't mind storing it in a cabinet, the Trizor is the best-performing device around.
Best knife sharpener on a budget
Pros
- Compact
- Affordable price
Cons
- Good for maintaining sharpness, not fixing an old knife
If you're less interested in maintaining a perfect edge on your knife blade, and instead want an affordable, "good-enough" alternative, the KitchenIQ 2 Stage Knife Sharpener might be for you. No, it won't fully resurrect an old, dull blade, but this sharpener can help keep up a better edge than usual with just a few passes through this manual knife sharpener's sharpening tracks each day.
The KitchenIQ sharpening system includes two tracks: a coarse sharpener (carbide blades) for setting the edge, and a fine sharpener (ceramic rod) for finishing it. When compared to other compact, non-electric products, like the $25 Anysharp Pro with only a coarse sharpener or the poorly performing $8 Kadell 3 Stages sharpener, the KitchenIQ manual sharpener stands out.
How we tested knife sharpeners
To test our knife sharpeners, we acquired eight identical chef's knives and dulled them using a Dremel. They still could cut tomatoes and pineapples (our two testing fruits), but not cleanly; essentially, we wanted our knives to behave like chef's knives that have seen years of use without much upkeep.
I tested the knives before sharpening them to be sure they all performed about as poorly as we wanted them to, paired each with a sharpener and labeled accordingly. I then followed the directions for each sharpener. Some sharpeners suggested passing the blade through "until sharp," and I did so until the improvements seemed negligible. Other sharpeners were more prescriptive, and I followed the directions precisely.
After sharpening, I tested each knife, looking at how much it squashed a ripe tomato and tore its skin while slicing, as well as how easily it sliced the skin from a ripe pineapple. I rated the cut with each fruit out of 10, noting my specific observations. The primary goals here were to determine how sharp the edge became and how smooth it was across its length. A sharp blade shouldn't squash a tomato, and a smooth blade shouldn't tear its skin. A pineapple would test the same effects in a higher stress context -- cutting through a robust fruit in a non-straight pattern.
Factors to consider when choosing a knife sharpener
The most important element of a knife sharpener is its ability to sharpen an edge across the length of a blade. Plenty of other factors might also make other devices a better fit for you. Here are some of those factors:
- Ability to sharpen different types of knives
- Cleanliness
- Sound
Sharpening a serrated blade requires a serrated knife sharpener, but you still may want to sharpen straight paring knives, boning knives, fillet knives, cleavers or utility blades (or even a pocket knife or hunting knife). While the Chef's Choice sharpener is the best for chef's knives, other devices may offer a little more flexibility for different blades, providing adjustable slots or attachments.
Despite fair results, the Work Sharp looks much more at home in a garage than on a kitchen counter.
Another consideration is how clean your sharpener is. If you're sharpening in your garage, then you might not worry about the steel filings that sprinkle out of some sharpeners. In a kitchen setting, cleanliness is a must, and Chef's Choice Trizor is one of the cleanest. The above recommendations required minimal cleanup if any at all.
Finally, the sound is a concern for some -- and some devices are significantly louder than others. The Chef's Choice Trizor is pretty quiet, but none were silent. If you want a quiet option, non-electric sharpeners will be your best bet.
Generally speaking, it seems pretty much any knife sharpener is better than no knife sharpener. So invest in the high-end or pick up a budget-friendly tool. Either way, food prep will get a lot easier when you do.