7
You can speed the “breaking-in” process by applying light to moderate downward pressure
on the knife in Stage 1. Do not apply any pressure in Stage 2.
2. Slow down! Pull the knife through the sharpening slots slowly. Allow one (1) second
for each two (2) inches of knife blade on the “slow pulls,” i.e., three (3) seconds for a six (6)
inch knife. For optimum results, give yourself at least the full three (3) seconds, and maybe a
little more.
3. Additional pulls through Stage 2. For the ultimate in sharpness make three to four extra
normal pulls through Stage 2 and then make three to four “fast pulls” on each side through
Stage 2. If your knife is not razor sharp, review the suggestions above and repeat the entire
sharpening procedure.
4. Make sure that the knife is kept level. This means that the knife edge should be main-
tained in parallel position relative to the table the sharpener sits on. By maintaining it level, the
edge will be sharpened more uniformly. When you sharpen the tip area, lift the handle
up slightly so that the edge along the tip can be maintained “parallel” to the table and
sharpened completely.
5. Your grip on the knife. Let the magnets control the knife position and sharpening angle. To
do this, place the knife in the slot and lean the knife face against the face of the magnet—
then loosen your grip sufficiently so that the magnets can pull the knife into position. Do not
fight the magnets. Apply light to moderate pressure in Stage 1 and no pressure in Stage 2.
With very heavy knives, thick knives or knives with wide cutting edge facets, if there is a
tendency for the knife to chatter or vibrate in Stage 1 or 2, lift up slightly to relieve some of
the knife’s weight pressing on the orbiting diamond plate and slow down a little.
6. Serrated knives. While the Chef’sChoice®sharpener is designed for non-serrated knives, it
will improve the performance of serrated knives by sharpening the tips of the serrations. Do
not oversharpen in Stage 1. With serrated knives, fewer pulls are typically required in Stage
1 before proceeding to Stage 2. If excessive chattering occurs in Stage 1, skip this Stage and
proceed to Stage 2.
7. Conditioning the diamonds. With a new sharpener some diamond particles may tend to
“grab” the knife blade, particularly small pocket knife blades. Sharpening 3 or 4 large kitchen
knives first, before sharpening pocket knives, will significantly reduce this tendency.
By giving careful attention to these suggestions, all of your kitchen knives will be razor sharp.
Because of the ultra sharpness and perfection of the edge, use of a sharpening steel or any other
sharpening device on your newly sharpened edge will only deteriorate the edge quality.
CHEF’S KNIVES AND PARING KNIVES
The blade of a well designed chef’s knife is curved continuously from the blade tip to the end
near the handle so that, with a rocking action on a cutting surface, the entire blade length will
cut cleanly. Chef’sChoice®will sharpen the entire blade uniformly avoiding a swale common to
other sharpening methods. If your chef’s knife has a heavy bolster near the handle extending
to the edge, a commercial grinder can modify or remove the lower portion of the bolster so that
the bolster will not interfere with proper cutting action of the knife. Chef’sChoice®Model 310
will sharpen the entire cutting edge from tip to the bolster or handle. For this reason, when using
paring knives, it is essential to exercise extreme care to keep fingers away from the incredibly
sharp edge near the handle.
