How to Use a Chef’sChoice Knife Sharpener

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Chef’sChoice sharpeners are everywhere in American kitchens, and a lot of them are used wrong. The most common story goes like this: someone gets one as a gift, runs every knife through all three stages every week, and two years later the chef’s knife has a dip near the heel and looks narrower than it used to. The sharpener wasn’t the problem. The routine was.

This guide uses the Chef’sChoice Trizor XV (Model 15XV), one of their most popular electric models, as the main example, with notes for their manual sharpeners like the ProntoPro 4643. The steps come from the Trizor XV manual. Other Chef’sChoice models follow the same logic, but stage numbers and angles differ, so check the label on your machine.

Know what each stage does

On the Trizor XV, the three stages are numbered on the top of the unit.

The thing to remember: Stage 1 removes the most steel by far, and Stage 3 removes very little. So the further left you start, the more knife you use up. Chef’sChoice designed it so you rarely need the first stage once the edge is set.

Before you start

Clean the knife. Wash and dry the blade. Grease and food residue clog the abrasives, and the manual says to clean knives before sharpening.

Check the knife type. The Trizor XV sharpens straight and serrated steel knives. Don’t put ceramic knives in it. Single-bevel Japanese knives (sharpened on one side only, like a yanagiba or deba) need a different routine, which I cover below.

Place the sharpener on a stable surface, plug it in, and switch it on. Give yourself room to pull the full length of the knife toward you.

How to pull the knife

This part matters more than the stage numbers.

1. Put the heel of the blade (the part closest to the handle) into the left slot of the stage, edge down.
2. Let the blade rest against the guide. You don’t need to tilt it. The spring guide sets the angle.
3. Pull the knife toward you in a smooth line, lifting the handle slightly as you reach the curved tip so the tip gets sharpened too.
4. Repeat in the right slot. That’s one pair.

Speed: the manual gives about 3 to 4 seconds per pull for a 5-inch blade in Stages 1 and 3, and about 3 seconds in Stage 2. For an 8-inch chef’s knife, that works out to roughly 5 to 6 seconds per pull. Too fast and the edge doesn’t get enough contact. Too slow and you grind more than you need in one spot.

Pressure: don’t push down. Let the weight of the blade do it. Pressing hard is the fastest way to get an uneven edge.

Alternate: always do left then right. Don’t do five pulls on one side then five on the other unless you’re sharpening a single-bevel knife on purpose.

First-time sharpening (or converting a 20-degree knife)

Most German and American knives, like Wüsthof, Henckels, Victorinox and Mercer, come with an edge of about 20 degrees per side. The Trizor XV sharpens at 15. The first time you use it on one of these knives, it has to grind a new, narrower bevel.

Stage 1: pull in alternating pairs until you feel a burr along the full length of the edge. The manual says to expect up to about 20 pairs of pulls on a thin blade the first time, and more on a thick one. Japanese knives that are already near 15 degrees usually need only 1 or 2 pairs. Don’t overdo it.

Check for the burr. Slide your finger across the edge from the spine side, not along the edge. A burr feels like a tiny rough lip. After a last pull in the right slot, the burr shows up on the right face of the blade. If it’s only on part of the edge, do another pair or two.

Stage 2: 1 or 2 pairs of alternating pulls at the same slow pace. Check for the burr again, and add pairs if it’s partial.

Stage 3: 3 pairs of alternating pulls at the slow pace, then 2 pairs of fast pulls, about 1 second each. The fast pulls clean off the burr and polish the edge.

Test it. Slice a sheet of printer paper held by one corner. If it snags, do a few more fast pairs in Stage 3.

Routine touch-ups

Once the 15-degree edge is set, this is where the sharpener earns its keep.

When the knife starts to feel dull, go straight to Stage 3: a few slow pairs and a couple of fast ones. The manual says to use Stage 3 alone for at least three resharpenings in a row. Only when Stage 3 takes too many pulls to bring the edge back should you do a quick pass in Stage 2, then finish in Stage 3.

Stage 1 should almost never come out again, unless you chip the edge or let the knife go badly dull.

If you hone your knives on a rod between sharpenings, you’ll need Stage 3 even less. A ceramic honing rod is cheap and makes every sharpener last longer.

Serrated knives

Bread knives and other serrated blades go in Stage 3 only. The manual says about 5 to 10 pairs of alternating pulls. Stage 3 sharpens the tips of the teeth and the flat sections between them without grinding the serrations away.

If the serrated edge is badly damaged, the manual allows one fast pull in each slot of Stage 2 (about 2 to 3 seconds for an 8-inch blade), then finish in Stage 3. Don’t put a serrated knife in Stage 1.

Expect a serrated knife to come out “grippy sharp” rather than razor smooth. That’s how serrations are supposed to feel.

Single-bevel Japanese knives

Traditional Japanese knives like a yanagiba or deba are sharpened on one side only. The Trizor XV can handle them with a one-sided routine. For a right-handed knife, the manual says to work only the left slot of Stage 2 until a burr forms, usually 20 to 30 total pulls, then in Stage 3 do 5 slow pulls on the left, 1 on the right, several fast pulls on the left and 1 fast pull on the right. Left-handed knives reverse everything.

Honestly, if you own a single-bevel knife, you probably want to learn a whetstone. But the option is there.

Knives with bolsters and finger guards

Many forged German knives have a thick bolster at the heel. The manual says the Trizor XV can sharpen to within about 1/8 inch of the bolster. Over many sharpenings, the steel in front of the bolster wears while the bolster doesn’t, and a small dip can form in the edge near the heel. That’s a limitation of the knife’s design rather than the sharpener, and it happens on stones too. A knife shop can grind the bolster down if it starts to bother you.

If your knife has a deep finger notch (a choil) at the heel, put a finger behind it as you start the pull so it doesn’t catch.

Using a Chef’sChoice manual sharpener

Manual models like the ProntoPro 4643 use diamond abrasives in all three stages and give you two angles: a 15-degree slot for Asian-style knives and a 20-degree slot for European and American knives. The routine is similar, with three differences:

• You supply the motion. Most manual Chef’sChoice models use back-and-forth strokes rather than one-way pulls. Keep the blade upright and the pressure light.
• Pick the slot that matches your knife. Use the 15-degree slot for Japanese knives and the 20-degree slot for most German and American ones. You don’t have to convert your knives.
• Finish in the honing stage. The last stage polishes and handles serrated knives.

Chef’sChoice’s printed sheet for its earlier AngleSelect manual model, the 4623, suggests about 25 back-and-forth strokes in the sharpening stage for a knife that isn’t very dull, then about 25 light strokes in the honing stage. Treat those numbers as a starting point and check for a burr. Your own model’s sheet is the final word.

In an independent test of five pull-through sharpeners, the ProntoPro gave the sharpest edge of the group, so done right, a manual Chef’sChoice can do a good job.

Cleaning and maintenance

Metal dust. Sharpening creates fine steel dust that collects inside the unit. On the Trizor XV, the manual says to remove the cover on the underside about once a year and clean the magnet that catches it.

Stage 3 disks. The white stropping disks darken over time. The Trizor XV has a dressing feature: with the power on, press the lever in the rear recess to one side for 3 to 4 seconds, then the other, and repeat. Only do this when the disks are badly darkened, because dressing wears them down.

The outside. Wipe with a soft damp cloth. Don’t use detergents, abrasives or lubricants, and never put the unit in water.

Mistakes that wear knives out

Running every knife through all three stages every time. This is the big one. Stage 1 is for repairs and conversions. Most of the time Stage 3 is all you need.

Pressing down. The guides and wheels do the work. Pressure removes extra steel and makes the edge uneven.

Pulling fast in the coarse stages. Fast pulls belong in the final stage only, to clean off the burr.

Sharpening only part of the blade. Start at the heel and pull all the way to the tip, lifting the handle slightly through the curve. If the tip skips the wheels, it stays dull.

Ignoring the burr. If you move on before a burr forms, the next stage polishes an edge that was never fully sharpened.

Using it on knives it doesn’t suit. Ceramic knives, scissors and tools aren’t meant for it. Check your model’s manual.

Is a Chef’sChoice good for your knives?

For most home kitchens, yes, if you follow the routine above. The electric models make sharp knives available to people who’d never learn a stone, and a sharp knife is safer than a dull one.

The trade-off is steel removal and the fixed angle. A whetstone takes less steel off and lets you choose any angle. If you own a hard Japanese knife you care about, a stone or a guided system is gentler. My roundup of the best knife sharpeners compares the options side by side, and the whetstone guide shows the hand method.