We have the Pronto 463. It sits at one of our parents’ house full time and we use it to sharpen their knives every week. It works fine, but I am not as impressed as I hoped to be. There are reports the older model was better. I am thinking about purchasing it off eBay to confirm.
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Thanks @bmorecupcake
That’s good feedback! I’ve not used any of the Chef’s Choice sharpeners, and am relying on the recommendations of others. Your experience is likely more reliable than the evaluation (promotion?) of reviewers that I’ve found. 
I had opportunity to use one ages ago. It put a great working edge on a knife but not a super fine polished edge. I felt it was taking a lot off the blade, way more than I would with water stones.
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Specifically, you really have to focus to keep the knife straight as you pull through, the wheels don’t operate as smoothly as I’d hoped. But it works. Here’s the manual in case you’re interested:
I agree with @Vecchiouomo that it takes a lot off the edge, but I’m using this on basic $25-$35 kitchen knives. And I get calls every week that the knives are too sharp; they definitely are not for us hobbyists but are sharp for most folks I guess. I still haven’t figured out how to sharpen Kiwi knives properly with it. Those have an extremely thin blade and don’t sit well in the guides.
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Hi bmorecupcake,
Alton Brown (see youtube above) recommends weekly honing and sharpening at 6 months.
Weekly sharpening–even with pull throughs–may be too frequent.
Ray
I have many low end Mercer chef knives and was using one when I slipped and ran the edge across the back of my hand. I instinctively dropped the knife and covered my free hand applying direct pressure. Then I slowly peeled my hand back to see nothing…not even a nasty bruise. So it’s time to put it on the belt sander or replace it.
There’s always one knife that needs it out of the four they use. They are very heavy users so honing even once a day won’t be enough. And rather than hone themselves, they will just use dull knives.
I hone my knives before each use.
Once my knife isn’t cutting up to snuff then I get mine professionally sharpened.
What do you use to hone?
A metal honer that that came with my knife set.
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Is the hone smooth or grooved? If it has a “cut” effect, you should probably go very light with pressure. Or else revert to 1x/wk.
All this nomenclature and jargon cause a lot of confusion. Grooved steels can “cut” to the extent they actually sharpen (and wear) knives. And “honing” can mean nothing more than putting some tooth on an edge that wouldn’t otherwise cut into/through certain things.
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It’s ridged from bottom to top.
I saw a show where Chef Ramsay suggest to hone before each use.
However, he didn’t get into whether his honing steel was smooth or grooved.
My Grandfather used a stone once a week to sharpen his knives.
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At least from the videos, Ramsay uses grooved honing steel. He actually uses a lot of force.
Interesting, I never noticed that.
I am not a honing steel person, but if I am a honing steel person, I would use it like this:
It is both safer and easier to judge the angle. Yes, I know it is not cool.
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Thank you for posting it will be easier to judge the knife angle and hence, sharpen the knife with more precision.
I think that I prefer this method rather than the up in the air one.
Hi Olunia,
With your own home kitchen standard for sharpness in mind, you should be able to hone at any time–before, during, or after a prep project to tune your edge–with no risk as long as you develop a gentle freehand stroke against the steel or ceramic hone. If you are using a knife with quality German steel–like Wustholf–you could get much the same result with an inexpensive pull through sharpener that Wusthof and many other manufacturers sell.
The good news is that if you keep it light, you won’t do any damage to your knives–even if your technique is less than perfect.
Ray
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Thanks Ray,
I do have a Henckels knife pull through Sharpener.
Are they universal or should I invest in a Wüsthof one?
I chuckled when I read some of these. I think it is key to be very familiar with the knife and the device. My old Sabatiers are carbon steel, and they feel soft enough that failing to hone for each use, very lightly on a polished steel, will mean still having a fine edge but not fine enough for a ripe tomato. With hard steels like some of the Japanese knives, a trip to the very fine grit water stone from time to time is ideal, sometimes as often as after a few weeks. Different seasons mean different dishes, and that means rising and falling use of various knives. I find that in the period of fall into early winter I am needing to sharpen more frequently, but in summer the need falls off. That is why I take everything Alton Brown says with suspicion. His weekly hone and twice a year sharpening might be an improvement for a typical American kitchen, but I doubt the good folk here would follow that sort of regimen because they are very savvy about their knives and attuned to the differences among blades, honing rods, sharpening rods, stones, etc.
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