Critical to Understand What This Is, and What This is NOT
I have only used the knife sharpener and not any of the others, so extrapolate to those at your own risk. I used it about two years ago when there was one on site in the kitchen of the Inn where I was contracted to cater for an event. My experience was positive in the moment, but I would not get one personally. Here's why:
This will put an edge on a knife. It will do so quickly, easily, and with very little skill or effort required.
HOWEVER it puts this edge on at the expense of the knife. It removes way more material from the surface of the knife than a normal sharpening on a stone. Furthermore, the edge it places is indeed sharp, but does not last. The angle is likely to steep to be maintained even with regular honing. Continuing to sharpen a knife over the course of a single weekend left me with a constantly sharp knife, but one where I'd removed a full 1/8 of an inch of material from the blade. Since it wasn't my knife I didn't much care, but there is no way...
Quick, simple, effective.
Note that this review pertains only to the knife sharpener, not the garden tool or scissor sharpener. I am buying the multi-pack today, based on how well the version for knives has worked for me.
In 2006, Cooks Illustrated magazine did a product review of knife sharpeners, and the AccuSharp was deemed the best of the manual sharpeners that they tested. Then I found out that a friend of mine owned one, and I borrowed it. It worked like a charm, and I immediately bought one for myself, which I have been using for the last five years.
Sharpening is fast and easy. If your knives are not ridiculously dull, one or two passes is sufficient to restore the edge to better-than-new. The Cooks Illustrated review points out the only downside: If your knives are in really bad shape, this will not remove nicks from the blade - it just doesn't remove enough metal.
Final thought: There is another review which states that repeated use over a weekend removed 1/8"...
Accusharp hasn't unduly worn my blades in 10 years use.
I have been using Accusharp for about ten years on everything from Kershaw, Cold Steel, Spyderco, Gerber, and SOG folding knives to Wusthoff, Sheffield, Forschner, Sabatier, and Henckels kitchen knives. None of my knives have been significantly reduced as described by Daniel in his review. I'm not arguing with his statements, just saying that my experience has been considerably different than his.
If starting with an extremely dull blade, you might have to take quite a bit of metal off to achieve a sharp edge, but after that all you will need is a few light strokes to maintain the edge. And remember that you should use a butcher's steel or ceramic rod MUCH more often than a sharpener.
There are any number of similar sharpeners, and I've tried many of them - but none work as well as the Accusharp.
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