Presto 08800 EverSharp Electric Knife Sharpener, 2-Stage System, Silver/Black

I read all the reviews before buying and just had to write my review (my first ever of any product). I have worked in kitchens in the past and prepare meals regularly. I am a cajun cook and we chop crazy amounts of onions, celery, garlic, bell peppers and everything else from the garden. I also have a catfish pond, and I need a very sharp filet knife. So needless to say I have a drawer full of old filet and chef knives of varing quality and dullness. I have tried so many sharpening techniques and nothing I tried could restore the original sharpness without spending a ton of time an energy.Well let me tell you, all the positive reviews are correct, this is a marvelous little gem and its the best $24 dollars I ever spent. Less than the new knife I was going to buy. I have knives of every metal imaginable and this little baby put an edge on them that is crazy sharp. I had to warn the wife about how sharp the knives were. Before if a burgular would come at me with one of my knives I would have died laughing, now I have to worry how they are stored in the drawer so not to accidently cut myself rummaging around in there.Trust me, if you need your knives sharper than this baby gives you then you just are plain crazy. I believe I saw my onions cowering in the fridge! I had to cook a big seafood gumbo with extra onions and celery just to celebrate my new sharp knives.This baby gets The Cajun seal of approval!!!Have fun and be safe with your like new sharpness!***Update***It has now been almost three months since I first sharpened my knives and wrote this review. I use my knives everyday and they have held their edge ever since, this sharpener is just collecting dust now because I have had no need to resharpen them. I of course use a good piece of steel to keep a razor edge but otherwise I don't foresee having to resharpen for awhile yet.***Update 2***Its has been over 6 months now. My knives are sharp as razors with only two sharpening times. And they get heavy use, cleaning huge catfish from my pond and also chicken and all sorts of heavy kitchen use. Coupled with a nice piece of steel this sharpener is so good I just can't live without it. With so much usuage out of my knives and only having to sharpen 2 times in the last 6 months I would have to say it is the best 24$ I have ever spent!***Update 3***It has now been 2 years since purchasing this excellent knife sharpener. It is funny, I took this sharpener down from the top shelf to sharpen my 12" chef knife before cutting up a ton of meat to make sausage and I had to wipe all the dust off of it before using it, that is how infrequent I have to sharpen my knifes, and I use my knives for heavy duty use! Love this sharpener! Get yourself a decent piece of steel, a good chopping board and you got it made.***Update 4*** It now has been 4 years! It is funny 2 years ago my wife bought me this exact sharpener by accident. I had it on my Amazon wish list...for review purposes and she didn't even realize I had one, that is how infrequently I have to sharpen my chef knives. I kept a hold of it to see how long my original one would last, well I am tired of waiting, I am bringing the unopened 2 year old sharpener to work today to sell it.And I do a lot of cutting and I just took it down from the cabinet and had to dust if off again to see how well it worked before letting go with the unopened one. Knives didn't need it just wanted to 'top em off', all like new again.*Note to commenter, all my knives in use are in their original cases, or original sleeve.Next year will be my 5 year review. The person I am selling the unopened sharpener to is a hard core hunter and trapper. We will see how it handles. Stay tuned.

I just received my Presto knife sharpener, and immediately tried it out, as I happened to have some free time. I admit that our knives are not well cared for. In their 5 or 6 years of use, I think we've had them sharpened twice - both times at a knife shop that charges a couple bucks per blade. Obviously, our knives don't stay sharp very long! I finally decided I was sick of dull knives and figured it would be safer and make us more efficient in the kitchen if I would get a sharpener. I didn't want the hassle of hand sharpening, and clearly, given my past history with using dull knives, I'm not going to be caught up about a razor edge the way a purist might be.The package arrived in great shape, packaged by Amazon along with several other items in the same box. The sharpener was well padded and wrapped in plastic. The directions are easy to understand. The unit feels like it is solidly built. Mine doesn't rattle, for instance. But, the plastic they chose to use has a rough feel to it, almost like they wanted the top to mimic the feel of a grinding stone - who knows, maybe that's exactly what they were going for. Either way, I wouldn't want to drop it, but it appears and feels like it will hold up to regular use just fine. The on/off switch and whatever it connects to make for a solid feel when turning the unit on and off. The cord is somewhat short (~30 inches), but not short enough to take off a star. Assuming you're using it on a kitchen counter (as I did), it's plenty long. But, if you wanted to sit at a table and sharpen your knives you'd probably need an extension cord.I sharpened a number of knives, from paring knives all the way up to chef's knives, and in each case this sharpener made a noticeable difference. I will probably sharpen them again using the whole proscribed method since they were so dull. But, after just one sharpening, three times through both sides, I am impressed.I tried cutting the edge of a piece of cardboard and a piece of paper with each knife before and after sharpening, and each case it made a huge difference. I also tested some of the edges on a carrot. In every case, the dull knives required much more force on the carrot. Afterwards, the cutting action on the carrot was smooth and more of a cut than a "chop" - I could draw the knife across the carrot instead of relying on downforce to split the carrot. The paper and cardboard cut was night and day. A few knives did nothing to the paper or cardboard before sharpening and all cut at least something afterwards. I say something because none of the knives cut like a razor blade does, but again, my knives were in bad shape to start with, so all in all I am calling it a success.I did use the suction cups on the bottom, and they stayed in place for the duration of the time I used the machine. It does make a vibrating/whirring sound when it is turned on, and naturally, it makes a grinding noise when using it. I did notice that some knives hop and skip a bit when pulling them through the sharpener, but I think that has more to do with my technique than the sharpener itself. You can't (and shouldn't) use too much downforce when pulling the knives through, as it will slow or even stop the grinding wheel. I did that on my first test knife...fortunately I was smart enough to use one of my lesser quality knives in case I made a mistake. This works best with just a tiny amount pressure - just enough to keep the knife against the edge.I did sharpen two serrated steak knives with the sharpener, and I was impressed by the results there too. The instructions for serrated sharpening were a little confusing until I had the knife in my hand, looking at it. My steak knives are only serrated on one side, which is the type that the Presto can sharpen. If they had edges on both sides, this sharpener apparently doesn't work. But, with the one sided edge variety of serrated knives, you pass the blade through so that the sharpened edge makes contact with the stone, and it sharpens it nicely. The angle of the wheel in the Presto is "steeper" than the factory edge was, so that after sharpening, the shiny part where the wheel made contact made it appear that I dramatically shortened the "teeth" of the serrated knife. But, upon closer inspection and comparison with an unsharpened identical knife I realized it is mainly an optical illusion. I'm sure there is a small amount of loss, but not nearly what I thought there was just looking at it with a quick glance.Again, I'm not a purist, but I am very pleased with the job the Presto has done right out of the box. Now it's time to go watch my wife cook dinner and see how long it takes her to notice that her knives are sharp again!