What Is The Real Cost of Sharpening Your Own Kitchen Knives

There are three costs to sharpening your own knives. Your time, knife sharpening equipment, and doing what you love to do. If you love knife sharpening, and you’re willing to spend a little bit of money (that you may never recoup in doing it yourself) and you’re willing to take a chance that your not-so-inexpensive knives might get ruined then take a peak at the real cost of owning professional grade knife sharpening equipment.

The cost of owning high-quality knife sharpening equipment can vary depending on the type of sharpening tools, materials, and accessories you choose. Here are some common types of knife sharpening equipment and their approximate cost ranges:

1. Sharpening Stones:

These are cheaper. Hard to use. And even master sharpeners find can find it hard to maintain the right blade sharpening angle especially as the sharpening stone starts to curve from use. Here are the costs.

• Entry-level waterstones or oil stones: $20 to $100 per stone
• High-quality Japanese waterstones: $50 to $300+ per stone
• Diamond sharpening stones: $30 to $150+ per stone
• Ceramic sharpening stones: $30 to $100+ per stone

2. Electric Knife Sharpeners:

There’s a reason that no professional chef would ever use an electric knife sharpener. They’re just not reliable nor are they good enough to sharpen at a professional level. Here’s the costs of this method of knife sharpening.

• Basic electric sharpeners: $30 to $100
• High-end electric sharpeners: $100 to $300+

3. Guided Sharpening Systems:

This means of sharpening at least keeps you on track to keeping the knife sharpening angle of the blade consistent. But the downside is it still take take quite a bit of time to get the sing-song process rhythm down to perfection. Not everyone can pull a violin bow across a violin and make it sound nice. It looks easy but it isn’t as easy as it might seem. The costs for guided sharpeners:

• Entry-level sharpening systems: $20 to $100
• Precision guided sharpening systems: $50 to $200+

4. Honing Rods:

These are super cheap. Hard as hell to use, to keep the proper angle and while they do hone they don’t sharpen. The costs for knife honing rods are:

• Standard honing rods: $10 to $30
• Ceramic or diamond-coated honing rods: $20 to $50

5. Sharpening Steels:

The steels do sharpen, but they’re really hard to manage, like honing rods, and if you don’t know what you’re doing you knife’s edge will be crooked when it should be perfectly straight. The costs for sharpening your knives using sharpening steels are:

• Standard sharpening steels: $20 to $50
• Diamond-coated sharpening steels: $30 to $100

6. Other Accessories:

You need everything here. Also, not included is rags, equipment to store your knife sharpening equipment, and sometimes oil Cost for other knife sharpening supplies are:

• Angle guides: $10 to $30
• Leather strops and compounds: $20 to $50
• Sharpening guides and jigs: $20 to $100

Additionally, you may need to consider the cost of maintenance and replacement items such as sharpening lubricants, cleaning supplies, and replacement sharpening stones or belts over time.

The total cost of owning really good knife sharpening equipment will depend on the number and quality of tools you choose to invest in, as well as your sharpening needs and preferences.

While there are affordable options available for beginners and casual users, investing in higher-end sharpening equipment can provide more precise results and long-term durability for professional or avid users. It’s essential to consider your budget, sharpening requirements, and long-term usage when selecting the right knife sharpening equipment for your needs. If you do determine to sharpen your own knives, get the best equipment, the best instruction and do it repeatedly to develop a muscle memory to keep your knives wonderfully sharp.