Product Review: Brod and Taylor Professional Knife Sharpener

The Ranting Chef does not get paid or receive any revenue from manufactures or retailers of products reviewed. I occasionally receive products that I am asked to use and see what I think. I take a look, try them out and tell you all about them.

I received a small box the other day from Brod & Taylor.

Inside was their Professional Knife Sharpener. I had seen it at the International Housewares Association show and was excited to give it a try. Wonder if your knives need sharpening? If you wonder, then they probably do. Don’t think that wand that came in your knife set is a sharpener, it only helps to clean the blade. You need a sharpener.

The first thing you notice is the design. Not your typical sharpener. From the front.

And the back.

This sharpener is one of the more versatile ones out there. With one tool you can do your coarse sharpening, fine sharpening, serrated blades and special single bevel blades (some higher end knives may have this). While instructions come with the sharpener, Brod & Taylor makes it easy by imprinting them on the bottom of the unit.

They also have a great video on their website on the different ways it can be used. I watched it on my iPad above.

Time to put it to work. My workhorse chef’s knife gets 90% or more of the cutting duties in my kitchen. I have a number of cutting boards I use it on and the knife can get dull if I don’t pay attention to it. When it is truly dull (and you will have to do this very infrequently), you run the knife through the sharpener with the handle up and the tip down. This is the coarse sharpening.

A fine sharpening, which most knives need, uses the same motion but with the handle down.

Serrated blades, like my bread knife, brings the handle to the right. Single bevel blades (which I do not own), would angle to the left.

You can see the shavings of metal when I was done. Most of this was from the coarse sharpening.

My Take: Brod & Taylor has a great sharpener here. It is compact, but does much more than my existing sharpener. Many sharpeners will perform either a coarse or fine sharpening and a few will do both but there are not many that can also sharpen a serrated edge. The stylish look of it means it should have no problem fining a place in y0ur kitchen. So with form and function the Brod & Taylor Professional Kinfe Sharpener is a great addition. You can purchase it here.