Minosharp Plus 3 Ceramic Water Sharpener 550 - Grey/Black

It was with some skepticism that I bought this item, as there are many considerably cheaper knife sharpeners available - what could be so much better about this one? Further reading informed me that this was the only one recommended for use with Global knives, and several reviewers of cheaper options commented that they had damaged their expensive knives.So I took the view that with some of my knives costing £100+ to replace, it wasn't worth taking the chance with a cheaper sharpener to save £20.First things first: make sure you fill up the water reservoir before use - it's an essential part of the system - do not try to 'dry sharpen', you'll simply wreck both the knife and the sharpening wheels. Secondly, you do not need to use any pressure at all - simply run the knife through the wheels back and forth with gravity doing the work for you. I suspect many of those who've complained about broken sharpening wheels haven't followed this advice.Naturally, I tried it on a cheap knife first - in this case an old Sainsbury's own-brand 20cm cook's knife I bought to take to University in the '90s. It'd been used on and off for 10 years without ever having seen a sharpener and has so many nicks in the blade it's embarrassing. So I ran it through all three sets of wheels, a dozen times forward and back in each. I washed it off, then had a look at the blade: the nicks had mostly been removed, and using it to cut a carrot I was able to use considerably less force than before.(cutting carrot is a good test - a blunt knife will need a fair amount of force to cut it, a sharp knife should be able to do it almost with gravity alone)So after that initial success it was with some trepidation I moved onto my 20cm Global cook's knife. This is an expensive knife, and I wasn't going to be pleased if I wrecked it. As with the other knife, this one hasn't ever seen a sharpener, but I've only owned it ~3 years, and have kept it in considerably better condition than the Sainsbury's knife. With this in mind, I ran it through the medium and fine wheels, leaving the coarse wheel out of the equation.As with the cheap knife, performance was noticably improved, and the knife doesn't appear to have suffered any damage from the experience.All in all, a very worthwhile purchase, and safe to use (carefully!) with expensive knives.

I've had some Global knives for just over a year and in that time they have gotten dull through regular use. I'm not confident enough to buy a whetstone and "have a go" at doing it myself, especially when you consider the cost of the knives. A friend with global knives recommended this product to me and I'm really very happy with the results after using it.It comes with three sharpening wheels that sit in a reservoir of water. There's a guide slot that you place the knife in so you can't wobble or go off course. You just do about 7 strokes back and forth on each wheel with light pressure on the back of the knife. Start with the coarse wheel and work down to the fine wheel. Once I'd done this I was very impressed with how sharp the knives came out.I think the product is a little pricey for what it is, but I can't knock it's effectiveness. When you consider how much you pay for Global brand knives I don't begrudge paying for something that is going to maintain their sharpness well.I used Amazon Prime for this order. Ordered it on Saturday afternoon, arrived Sunday.

I bought this Minosharp plus 3 to maintain my kitchen knives because I've struggled to get a consistent edge on the knives' curved tip using a whetstone. Therefore I was disappointed to find a 1-2cm dead zone at the tip and heel of knives where the ceramic wheels cannot reach. The heel dead zone increases to 2-3cm if the knife has a narrow blade or a bolster, because the handle or bolster restricts entry into the sharpener. The dead zone is not a major problem for large chef knives, but it's a problem for small paring knives.Other than the dead zones, the sharpener produces a decent edge especially when compared to the Anysharp sharpener. The Minosharp grinds rather than cuts a new edge into the knife so it produces a more consistent edge. After sharpening with Minosharp, even cheap £5 supermarket knives can slice (but not push cut) A4 printer paper, when the sheet of paper is held in the air. This wasn't possible even when those supermarket knives were new, but more expensive Wusthof and Victorinox can push cut through same paper with no problem when they were new. I doubt anyone will spend £42 on a sharpener to sharpen £5 knives, so the Minosharp loses another star for not fully restoring the edge for more expensive knives.In summary, while it is possible to achieve better results on a whetstone with practice, it's a lot less hassle to use the Minosharp. The edge is sharp enough for most cooking purposes, but may not be as sharp as the original factory edge. The dead zones make this sharpener unsuitable for small knives but should be ok with larger ones.PS: The Minosharp sharpens knife to the Japanese 15deg rather than European 20deg, so it may take a few more pull to set a new edge on some knives the first time they are sharpen with the Minosharp.

I wouldn't rely on it to keep your Global knives razor sharp. I use whetstones to keep them in tip-top condition. I find this is perfect for maintaining cheap knives and taking on holiday to sharpen the blunt crud you always find in holiday cottages. Five minutes with this and you can actually cut things up.

This sharpener is the best I've used to date - which is saying a lot ! The only reason why it doesn't get 5 stars is because although I can get the knives sharp enough to slice paper as you see often on YouTube videos and shop demonstrations, it still doesn't get them "hyper" sharp where you're scared to try the blade for want of cutting yourself.Other than that - well worth the purchase

Easy to use puts a great edge on the blades makes life easy.