Shinkansen 'Water' Sharpener - Black and Red

I have a collection of 10 Global knives that haven’t been getting the love they deserve from my whetstone so thought I’d treat them to this water sharpener.I must say firstly that I love my whetstone, it gives an incredibly sharp edge to my Global knives, but for me it just takes an awfully long time, I admit I'm a bit of a perfectionist with this sort of thing, but I could easily spend 15 minutes sharpening each knife on my whetstone and with 10 to sharpen that’s the best part of the morning gone! Hence the reason for this purchase.To use it you simply poor water into the wheel compartment (no need to pre-soak like with a traditional whetstone) then you grip your knife firmly and with a very slight pressure move the blade back and forth over the pink wheel 7 or 8 times. If your blade is particularly dull then use the white coarse wheel first, then finish with the fine pink wheel with another 7 or 8 strokes. Always finish with the pink wheel to ensure a fine edge. Once done you just wash you knife and you’re good to go. Just a small note here that if you're sharpening a different brand of knife (i.e. not a Global) then minoSharp recommend 15 strokes per wheel.My only very slight criticism is that the edge is not quite as fine as I manage to achieve with a whetstone, just not as acute an angle which does mean they need sharpening ever so slightly more frequently than when I use my whetstone…having said that this is far more preferable.Remember, a blunt knife is far more dangerous in the kitchen than a sharp one, you're far less likely to end up cutting yourself if you keep your blades sharp and this Shinkansen 'Water' Sharpener is a great way to keep your knives very sharp.

I have a number of Japanese Damascus steel knives and have always used whetstones (including a very expensive diamond one). This is better. The key seems to be just letting the weight of the knife do the work without any extra pressure and then following up with a steel for the final polish.I can imagine that this wouldn't work at all on thicker non-Japanese knives which have a wider grinding angle.

I bought this to sharpen my Global knives which are a few years old now and were getting blunt. This sharpener worked brilliantly, it's very easy to use, and my knives are now good as new. It might seem expensive for a knife sharpener but it's definitely value for money when you consider how expensive Global knives are and they need to be looked after and they should now last many more years. Highly recommended.

Really very good little sharpener, easy and safe to use. I knocked off one star because the little wheels inside tend to come loose when you turn it upside down to drain it - it is easy enough to re-seat them but if the design was slightly better this wouldn't be necessary at all. Otherwise though, works very well. If your knives are very blunt then you may need to repeat the cycle a couple of times before they get to the sharpness you want.

I'll start off by saying I can get a sharper edge with whetstones. That said... more often than not who has the time!With this I can get a very good edge with a few swipes

I previously had one of these and didn't realise that I had used it so much that the stones had worn down and split. I used to press really hard to try to sharpen my knives but to no avail. A brand new one and with just medium pressure and a few runs of my knives through the sharpener and they can slice through tomatoes (the ultimate test) with ease. A little pricey but you pay for quality. Well worth it.

As we all know, a blunt knife is a dangerous knife - so a sharpener (as opposed to a steel, which is designed for burnishing the edge.)This water sharpener offers a quick and easy way to keep knives sharp: a waterstone would give a better edge but requires time and skill to use. This sharpener is simplicity itself - fill the base with water, and then gently run the knife back and forth several times along the white wheel first, and then along the pink wheel.Some reviewers have commented that it is easy to break the wheels. They are replaceable at a cost - however, I have never found this a problem, and one of my water sharpeners is five years old and well used. The important thing is not to use force - no more that you would when cutting soft bread, say. Be gentle, and you'll find sharpening knives a breeze.

Shinkansen 'Water' Sharpener - Black and RedI bought this product looking for a quick and easy replacement to my aging Whetstone.In theory a great idea, two angled ceramic disks with a guide to ensure you get the perfect angle on the blade. This item worked great to start with but I think a major flaw is the robustness of the ceramic disks. Although the instructions tell you that you need to apply a certain amount of downward presser when sliding the blade through the disks, be very careful as in my experience even a mild downward pressure is enough to break the disks after justa couple of weeks use.Like I said, great in theory and it did give good results to start with, just was not expecting the disks to break after such a short period of time. Now they can be repaired, a little super glue got it working again for about a week or so, but then the disks broke again.Seems I'm not the only one to have suffered from this problem either, so maybe buy with caution.