Dear Geraldine,
Thanks for your email and for pointing out some poor communication on my part.
The firstly thing I want to say is that we have never sold the type of knife sharpener that I was referring to in my email, although, due no doubt due to my communication skills or the lack of them, I can now see how the misunderstanding has occurred. To be more precise in my description, the sharper that I strongly discourage anybody from using has a series of overlapping interlocking discs all made from steel. The problem with them is that they tear the blade and overheat it if too much pressure is applied and in an extreme case can ruin a knife blade completely.
Now I don’t know the type you bought from us but we’ve sold two makes that could be mistaken for the type I was referring to. Henckel do one with a pair of steel discs followed by two ceramic discs and the Wusthof importer over here did one with two pairs ceramic discs only. The latter type I’ve still no problem with, the Henckel one I must admit to be ambivalent about .
It was a favourite of mine at the time (we are now talking 8 plus years ago) and the one I invariably used at home and in the shop mainly because it was so fast at sharpening. I suppose with age, speed seems a little less important but what eventually stopped us from stocking it was that one day I was in a hurry I to sharpen one of our unpacking knives, a cheap but good quality Victorinox knife. To my surprise and consternation I found the blade had got overheated and had actually rippled the edge because I’d pressed far too hard. Previously I had assumed that the two ceramic discs would always take care of any imperfections left by the metal discs. Well this time they didn’t. Having said all this in the right hands, gentler ones than mine perhaps, I did find it a good sharpener for quite a number of years and we sold masses of them with no complaints that I recall. So if you recognize your sharpener as the one I’ve just described you have a couple of choices. Firstly if its served you well, keep using it as you have and it will continue to do so. Or secondly return it to us and we’ll either give you a refund or swap it for my current favourite the Mino Sharp which is the one that took over from the Henckel one around 2001 or 2002
I hope that this puts your mind at rest that I haven’t either lost my marbles, say the first thing that comes into my head or am just trying to sell latest knife sharpener with the highest price tag. The other thought that’s maybe crossing your mind is, “will he have a different favourite in the next 8 or 9 years?” Well possibly so, but it will be for very different reasons. One thing I am sure on is the Mino Sharp will never damage your knife blades. Are there down sides to the Mino Sharp? There is one that I’m aware of and that is if you press too hard you can cut through the wheel. We have one customer, Nick, who comes back regularly for new wheels but so far as I’m aware he’s unique.
Very best wishes and do let me know what you’d like to do.
Andrew
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