There are a lot of knife companies who will tell you that you never will have to sharpen their knife. This is especially common for the serrated blades, where these companies claim you will always keep a sharp knife. Yet you will have to sharpen a serrated knife just as much as any knife type because blades simply will need to be sharpened.
Regardless of what they claim, the best knives that keep sharp for a long time are still not going to be out of the box sharp after long-term use. For outdoor knives and even everyday carry knives, it is incredibly common for these knives to remain pretty sharp. Yet they will slowly go from incredibly sharp to a little sharp. Meanwhile, those meant for kitchen use or for the dinner table will also need to be sharpened.
This is the most common place a serrated knife will be used, at least for the most part. It can be hard as well to keep a serrated blade sharp, which is why we have various products that can help with that. When to sharpen a serrated knife is often debated among serrated knife enthusiasts. The reasoning for this is often due to the type of thing you will be using it for.
As mentioned, they are common for the kitchen or dinner table. Yet the world of serrated knives is vast. For the outdoors, they are not as common as straight blades yet there are some knives with both serrated and straight blading. In these cases, the serrated portion will stay sharp longer than the straight blade. However, it may likely be able to cut easier in spite of not really being all that sharp.
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The Good & Bad Problem About Sharpening A Serrated Knife
The idea behind a serrated blade is that you have a pointed sharp end consistently. Ideally, sharpening a serrated blade is seemingly unneeded because these points or teeth-like blades will remain useful whether they are incredibly sharp or not. That is the idea behind them and it is also why serrated blades are more popular for the dinner table and kitchen overall.
When you do not need to sharpen a knife a lot, it’s usually going to last longer. This is why even cheaply-made serrated knives will last in your home well past their expiration. They are still going to be able to cut stuff because that serrated blade is still going to be pointed and useful in a saw-like motion as you cut things with it.
Straight blades will eventually lose their sharpness and need to be sharpened after long-term use, with some expiring sooner than others. While this may not be commonplace to sharpen them consistently, you will eventually need to do so.
Therefore, it is true that serrated blades can last longer. Yet this does not mean you’re getting a quality serrated knife that will be better than a good straight blade. In fact, you’re likely going to be better off with the straight blade than a cheap serrated knife.
However, if you keep your serrated blades sharpened off and on, you will likely never have a problem with them and even cheap knives could remain for decades past their normal life.
The issue is that sharpening serrated blades can be quite difficult because, as their design shows, they are truly made for motion use where sharpness is not exactly key. Therefore, you are not sharpening them the same as regular blades. Mostly, because serrated blades were not meant for that.
Thus, you do not exactly need to sharpen a serrated knife for it to be useful. Yet when sharpened, they are lightyears better. It may be hard to find a sharpener that can do that, so we have compiled a list to help you out!
5 Sharpeners For Serrated Knives
Work Sharp Knife & Tool Sharpener Ken Onion Edition
Sharpens: All Blades, Plus Some Tools
The Work Sharp Knife & Tool Sharpener is a tremendous tool to sharpen your blades with. We find it to be useful due to its ability to sharpen pretty much any knife you have, including the serrated bladed knives. It uses a motor running on 120vac/1.5 amp power to accomplish this. It can even run for about an hour before needing to recharge.
This high-speed motor can be slowed down or sped up to sharpen blades at their ideal form. Some blades need to be sharpened in specific ways, so this is a tremendous option for you to have in a sharpener. You can control the speed from 1,200 SFM to 2,800 SFM. Of course, SFM stands for "Surface Feet per Minute," for those unaware.
The flexible yet abrasive belt will give the knife a long-lasting, razor-sharp edge according to Work Sharp. This is crazy important for a knife, as your main objective when sharpening one is to get a sharpening system that will actually do its job.
Some serrated knife sharpeners or knife sharpeners period will have some small set-up time. You may need to calibrate settings with them and that can be time-consuming depending on the model you purchased. Yet with Work Sharp's product, you're able to use the 6000 grit belt, which is capable of handling blades with serrations as well as gut hooks and other sharp edges.
TSPROF K03 Precision Knife Sharpener System
Sharpens: Literally Any Blade & Even Abrasive Stones
Are you trying to find the one tool to end all tools for your sharpening needs? If so, we have you covered with the TSPROF K03 Precision Knife Sharpener System! This sharpening product promises to be capable of sharpening any knife or tool that needs it. This is likely capable of sharpening things that normally may not have any sharpening need for its normal use.
If you're someone who likes to make your own weaponry, it is possible that this sharpener could be quite helpful to you. Whatever your sharpening needs happen to be, it seems like this product can handle it. For the price it asks, one would conclude that it needs to be capable of a lot. Therefore, it is a good thing that it is.
It comes with a smooth adjustable rack and pinion that allows you to set the angle up to 0.05 degrees precise. The angles can range from 7 degrees to 23 degrees, which allows you to sharpen knives somewhere within the total angle area of 46 degrees.
Another added benefit with this sharpener is the dovetail mount, which will help to ensure accuracy with your angle setting. This comes with an additional fixation screw that will allow you to lock the lift firmly. This can be crucial when sharpening any blade because if these fail, you could likely cut yourself or even stab yourself fatally if you're at a certain angle. Therefore, we're very happy this feature is in place.
The rotational mechanism used to sharpen the blade is made of hardened steel and uses a spring-bearing system. A clamp frame is in play that is turned upside down without wear. On top of this, the universal holder will allow you to pretty much sharpen anything including things like Boride and Arkansas stones. These are types of abrasive stones that, like knives, are used for various products and need to be sharpened.
Overall, it uses a mechanical angle gauge that will help you to control the angle during any sharpening process. All of this is done while you may rotate a knife or change up an abrasive stone. Truly, this is a tool that may be considered a must-have for someone with several sharpening needs beyond that of sharpening a serrated knife only.
Chef’sChoice 15 Trizor XV EdgeSelect Professional Electric Knife Sharpener
Sharpens: All Kitchen Knives, Some Outdoor
While Chef'sChoice 15 might be for kitchen knives mostly, they can likely also work for some other knives too. However, we'd recommend sticking mostly to those you'd use in the kitchen only. This product happens to be capable of far more than we first assumed when we looked into it as well.
To convert 20-degree factory edges to high-performing Trizor XV 15-degree edges, this sharpener uses 100% diamond abrasives. This is likely why it is able to sharpen so well, as it's literally hard rock-like material.
Of course, this is an electric sharpener so it is bound to make SOME noise. Yet this is relatively low at just 65 to 75 dB. The automatic control that uses adjustable and flexible spring guides allows you to use the device in a way that works best for you.
The 3-Stage EdgeSelect sharpening system is versatile, offering the best possible sharpening for the knife you're using. Stages 1 and 2 are plated with 100% diamond abrasives that sharpen and hone edges while Stage 3 uses the flexible system to polish and prolong knife life. This includes our needed serrated knife sharpening skills.
The 15 Trizor XV uses strength and durability to offer a flawless, ultra-sharp 15-degree XV edge. This ensures you won't need to sharpen for a while and that each knife will be nearly factory new with each sharpening use. It seriously only takes a minute max for the first sharpening and then less than 10 seconds for those after.
The fact that it takes such little time to do this may make it perfect for chefs to use at restaurants on top of being perfect for the regular Joe at his or her apartment/home. Everyone wants to have something that works quickly and efficiently, so we cannot possibly love this sharpener more for its quickness.
Best of all, Chef'sChoice offers a 3-year limited warranty! We can't ask for much better! This is also the longest and best warranty on our list.
Whetstone Knife Sharpener
Sharpens: All You're Capable Of
We are big fans of the Whetstone Knife Sharpener due to it being a manual sharpener. A lot of manuals can be hard for people to use but Whetstone kills that off very quick by offering you a guide on how to use their product along with the best ways to use it overall.
This product uses double-sided whetstone, along with a bamboo base for holding it. The overall sharpener uses 1000 Gritt that will sharpen blades regardless of their length or thickness while the 6000 Gritt within it will polish them. The double-sided aspect of this is tremendous and allows you to flip it over with ease.
They also added an angle support system to keep your knife in the right place to sharpen it. This can be useful for newbies to the manual sharpening game as well as veterans. The bamboo base is also useful in keeping things in place while you sharpen. This has an anti-slide rubber seal to keep things from moving. Bamboo is useful for sliding to be at a minimum but the rubber only goes to ensure this further.
While things like this are more for straight blades over serrated, this type of system can sharpen any knife. Meaning that what may be mostly for one type of knife is actually universal. Therefore, you can sharpen any serrated blade you have with it. This only makes it more valuable to us.
As mentioned earlier, this product could not be easier to use. You don't even need any special oils for it! All you need is water, as this wet stone is meant to help sharpen knives in a minimal way. We find this to be super user-friendly, making it perfect for a gift to moms and dads as well as a friend too!
They also stand by their product, offering a satisfaction guarantee. If you do not like their product for any reason, you can send it back to also get your money back. Every company may not do this, but when you have a product you know people will like, it's pretty easy to offer such a thing.
SunrisePro Supreme Knife Sharpener
Sharpens: All Types (except fine-tooth knives and scissors)
SunrisePro really outdid themselves with this nearly perfect sharpening tool. Meant mostly for kitchen use, this sharpener is capable of sharpening any item with a blade. In fact, the company goes out of their way to tell you that their sharpener will sharpen outdoor blades too.
They use a system that takes merely three swipes to sharpen a knife like new. This is perfect for those who do not want to spend forever sharpening up their chef's knife as well as their hunting knife. While it cannot sharpen scissors or fine-tooth knives, they can sharpen everything else. To be honest, this is all we could ever ask of their system.
The fact it can deliver a tremendous blade in just a few seconds without any experience in knife sharpening being needed by the user is absolutely amazing. All you need to do is calibrate the point, the tip, and add a precision edge to your knife. It is really just that easy to use it. There is no catch here, which only makes us more excited for those who see how great it works for them!
The SunrisePro company even goes out of its way to add in a serrated blade system for the sharpener to make sure you can sharpen a serrated blade when needed. This can be huge serrated blades all the way down to relatively small versions of them!
This is a non-electric product, but it works just as quick so you're never having to deal with anything too over the top. They even added a suctioned non-slip base that uses rubber to keep everything in place. Not to mention their useful safety handle! All of this makes it a safe sharpener to use that ensures people won't cut themselves when using the product.
Due to being so small, it fits into just about any area that you have available to store it in. Since it is very durable, it's able to be taken with you various places or simply remain in your kitchen until used. It is really just up to you.
SunrisePro also stands heavily by their product and will not want you to keep their item if you are not satisfied with it. They claim you will love their sharpener or you will get your money back. They will even let you keep the sharpener on them when they give you the money back for it. That is very abnormal for a company to be so high on their product, so you know they are confident you'll love it.
