Knife Accessories & Sharpening

A sharp knife is not a luxury, but a matter of safety. If you cut with a dull knife, you press – and the knife is more likely to slip. If you cut with a sharp knife, you are in control. That is the simple, counterintuitive truth: sharp is safer than dull.

Nevertheless, many households have neglected precisely this point for years. A stone lies in the drawer, unused, because people consider sharpening a craft they don't master. What has quietly changed everyday knife use in recent years: the rolling sharpener.

Horl from the Black Forest

Horl 1993, a small family business from the southern Black Forest, has designed the rolling sharpener in a way that even a beginner can master after ten minutes: a magnetically held double stone over which the blade is guided at a 15-degree angle, without shaking, without uncertainty. The result after three minutes: a razor-sharp edge that can even be proven on arm hair. Once a month is enough to keep all kitchen knives in this condition.

What else a good knife household needs

• Rolling sharpeners & sharpening stones — for thorough sharpening every few weeks.
• Honing steel — for daily alignment of the blade, not actual sharpening.
• Knife blocks — made of oak or ash wood, stable, with clear organization.
• Magnetic strips — the modern alternative to the block, knives are openly visible.
• Blade protectors — plastic covers for the drawer or travel pouch.

What costs ten minutes once a month: Lay out all the kitchen knives in a row, place the rolling sharpener in front of you, and pull each knife twelve times over the fine side. The result: for the next four weeks, all knives will cut like new. After a year, you will not have spent two hours sharpening, but two hours – compared to the same amount of time per year that a knife sharpener costs if you bring the block in for annual maintenance. And the knives are also better in between.

See also: Chef's Knives, Bread & Vegetable Knives.