1. What knives can be sharpened with KnifeYouLike sharpeners?
Our system is designed for knives with full flat V-edge blade geometry with a spine thickness of up to 3 mm.
A blade may not fit the sharpening guide if it is thicker than 3mm, e.g., hunting, survival or folding knives.
The sharpener can be used for thinner blades and flat blades, such as in stationery and construction knives.
Flexible or curved blades, such as in fillet knives or meat knives, can also be sharpened with this sharpener.
Using rods with angle guides teaches you to hold the sharpening angle correctly. Once you learn the skill, you’ll be able to sharpen any knife without a guide.
2. Are KnifeYouLike sharpeners suitable for all types of knife steel?
The ceramic rods used in our system are much harder than any knife steel, so our sharpener is suitable for knives made of any steel.
The harder the steel and the better the quality of your knife, the better result you will achieve with the fine sharpening rod used for finishing.
But if your knife is made of softer steel (up to 58 CHR), you will probably only need to use the coarse rod and the guide with a bigger sharpening angle.
3. Do you always need to use the coarse rod, or can you maintain sharpness using only the fine rod?
When it comes to high-quality steel knives, the coarse rod should only be used when your knife is fairly dull. If you sharpen your knives regularly, you can only use the fine rod until re-edging is required.
To re-edge, use the coarse rod with 30 degree angle guide and finish with the fine rod and 35 degree angle guide.
4. Can rods be used without angle guides?
Yes. You can use the rods without guides to sharpen knives with blade geometries that do not fit the guide, e. g. hunting, survival and folding knives.
However, using rods with angle guides teaches you to hold the sharpening angle correctly. Once you learn the skill, you’ll be able to sharpen any knife without a guide.
5. For which knives do you recommend using only the coarse rod with 40 degree angle guide?
We recommend using this set for knives made of relatively soft steels (up to 58 HRC). This type of steel is commonly found in knives used by most professional kitchens and people at home.
Also, some folding knives, such as Victorinox, or knives with similar blade geometry can be sharpened with this sharpening kit.
6. Can your guides be used with rods of other brands?
You can use our angle guides with rods of other brands if they have a circular diameter of 13.7 mm to 14 mm. KnifeYouLike, Wüsthof, Zwilling and IOXIO ceramic rods will fit.
With other brands there is a chance that the guide might not fit.
7. How durable are the rods and angle guides?
The rods are made entirely of ceramic and do not have any coating. Therefore, the service life is virtually unlimited. However, you need to remember that ceramic is a rather fragile material and is likely to break if dropped.
The guides are made of plastic with the addition of fiberglass, which prevents them from wearing out too quickly. With normal use, the guides should last several years.
All depends on the intensity of use. For home sharpening of several knives, the guides will last a very long time.
8. What care is required for the ceramic rods?
For good operation the rods only need to be cleaned of any metal particles.
For this we have added to the kit a caoutchouc eraser, which must be used after each sharpening for dry cleaning without water.
To clean the rods, you can also use household dishwashing detergent and the rough side of a kitchen sponge.
9. Where can I find a detailed user guide?
There’s a detailed video guide on YouTube