Horl 2 roller grinders walnut and magnetic grinding gauge

Product Information

I have a couple of ‘traditional’ knife sharpeners, where you have fine and coarse slots you run your knife along, before finishing the process with a knife sharpening rod. The Horl 2 is nothing like these sharpeners and is very unique and I would also argue very innovative. When swapping from a kitchen knife to an outdoor / hunting knife, it became apparent of an issue you need to work round regarding the tip of the knife. Once your blade is thus angled just right, all you have to do is run the business end of the Horl 2 along it. This is a pleasingly hefty little barrel that has a sharpening steel surface on one end, and a ceramic honing disk on the other. When sharpening a knife for the first time with it, you will need to roll it up and down along the edge of your knife for several minutes. This is to 'train' the edge to the Horl 2's specifications. You then reverse the knife on its magnetic mount to sharpen the other edge of the blade. It could be that your knife needs a coarser-grit stone, as that tends to be the case for extremely dull knives. The standard diamond stone of the HORL has an approximate grit of #420; as this is a low grit and diamonds are exceptionally hard, over one minute of using this stone should sharpen an extremely dull knife. However, if you find that is not working well, you can use the even coarser Coarse Diamond Stone Attachment (compatible with HORL 2 and HORL 2 Pro models only), which has an approximate grit of #200. An efficient, effective, and truly unique knife sharpener suitable for both Western and Japanese blades.

HORL 2 Knife Sharpener Review | This Is A Game Changer! HORL 2 Knife Sharpener Review | This Is A Game Changer!

It is hard to over-emphasise just how satisfying this process is. I felt confident that I couldn't mess up my blade's edge, and the end results have been uniformly impressive, on everything from cheapo German utility knives to expensive Japanese ones made of Damascus steel. In terms of time, the estimate of 1 to 5 minutes is really spot on and the results are fantastic. I did all my knives in one sitting and found it a pretty relaxing process. A broadcaster, raconteur and public speaker, Duncan used to be on telly loads, but an unfortunate incident put a stop to that, so he now largely contents himself with telling people, "I used to be on the TV, you know." Before T3, Duncan was a music and film reviewer, worked for a magazine about gambling that employed a surprisingly large number of convicted criminals, and then a magazine called Bizarre that was essentially like a cross between Reddit and DeviantArt, before the invention of the internet. There was also a lengthy period where he essentially wrote all of T3 magazine every month for about 3 years.

The Verdict

I’ve used the Horl 2 on my full knife set over the past few weeks. This includes my range of Wüsthof knives, the Starrett BBQ set of knives to my ‘special’ ones from Blenheim Forge. Across these, there are different types of knives all in a range of sizes. Something that might be a ‘pro’ for one user can be a ‘con’ for another, so the comments are categorised based on my requirements. You should consider all points and if they could be beneficial to you.

I love kitchen knives and Horl is the best knife - T3

Horl also offers a number of video tutorials to help you when using the product for the first time but it really is very easy. The Verdict From the minute I saw the Horl 2 Knife Sharpener, I immediately thought what a great-looking product it is. It is something that I would definitely be happy sitting on my kitchen work surface rather than shoved away in a drawer, like other knife sharpeners I own.

First Impressions

I was a little worried about some of my larger chef’s knives that they would be too large. The Horl 2 had no problem with the ones up to 2″ in depth. The diameter of the Horl 2 is 2″ so as long as you don’t have a knife bigger than this the Horl 2 will work fine. In terms of the process, it could not be simpler to do. It really is effortless, and it actually feels very controlled. This gave me confidence that I was getting consistent results, as the process feel very precise. This is very true if I compare it to using the ‘traditional’ knife sharpener.