J.A. Henckels Twin Sharp Duo Knife Sharpener

Does the sharpener make dull knives sharper? It certainly does, in just a few minutes. Does it make them sharp enough for routine use? I would say yes; I am not a professional chef, but I find that I am much happier with the performance of my knives after sharpening. Does it return them to their factory degree of razor sharpness? Unfortunatley, no. I think there is no question that my knives were sharper out of the box than I can achieve with this hand sharpener. But that does not mean that this was a bad purchase. It has restored my knives from being a bit dull to being perfectly adequate for the use they get in my kitchen.

If you want to achieve like-brand-new razor sharpness, this sharpener will not do that for you. If you want to bring your dull knives back to a degree of sharpness that will be adequate for 99% of home cooks, this would be a good item to have.


Great for all knives   December 9, 2003
 22 out of 22 found this review helpful

While I have a great set of Henckels for home use, I bought this more to use on my work knives as a bartender. At work we have cheap generic knives that are highly abused.

It took some time with the steel wheels to clean up the edge on the cheap knives, much more than "5 passes", but once I got the edge down and nicks out, the ceramics gave them terrific edge. Almost a month later the edges are holding up great despite heavy abuse and constant runs through the dishwasher (dishwashers take the edge off of knives - hand wash), since I have no control over the abuse my coworkers dish out.

I am really looking forward to using these to clean up my personal knives out home, as soon as I get them out of storage.

Highly recommended.