Chef'sChoice 1520 AngleSelect Knife Sharpener Review: The Set-and-Forget Edge for Mixed Knife Drawers
The Chef'sChoice 1520 AngleSelect is the kind of kitchen tool people buy once and then quietly stop thinking about. It's an electric, three-stage diamond sharpener that handles both 20-degree Western edges and 15-degree Asian-style edges in the same machine. That dual-angle trick is what makes it worth talking about in 2026 — there are cheaper sharpeners, and there are more refined ones, but very few do this whole job in one box.
What you're actually buying
A countertop electric sharpener with three slots: stage 1 (coarse diamond) for shaping, stage 2 (fine diamond) for sharpening, and stage 3 (flexible stropping disks) for polishing the final edge. A toggle on the top switches the machine between 20-degree and 15-degree presets, and spring-loaded guides hold the blade at the correct angle through every stage so you can't really put a bad bevel on a knife if you try.
The footprint is compact — roughly the size of a small toaster — and the unit is heavy enough that it doesn't walk on the counter. It's not cordless, it doesn't have any electronics to fail, and the only consumable is the abrasive discs, which last for years of household use. Chef'sChoice sells the 1520 in a few finishes (black, brushed metallic, white); the Amazon listing for the white 3-stage version is B001CA5LZ6.
It will sharpen straight-edge knives, serrated knives, and Japanese-style single-bevel blades (sport knives and pocket knives too). It won't sharpen ceramic blades or scissors — those need different geometry.
Performance and real-world use
The honest pitch for the 1520 is recovery. If you have a kitchen drawer full of knives that haven't seen a steel in two years, this machine will take all of them from useless to scary-sharp in under five minutes each, with no skill required. That's its whole reason for existing, and it's very good at it.
Run a dull 8-inch chef's knife through stages 1, 2, and 3 on the 20-degree setting (a few light passes on each side per stage, no pressure), and you'll get an edge that shaves arm hair and slides through tomatoes by gravity alone. Flip to the 15-degree setting and you can convert a Western chef's knife to a more acute Japanese-style bevel — useful for German knives whose factory grind feels too clubby. Asian knives that already come 15-degree (Shun, MAC, Global, Tojiro) maintain beautifully on the same setting without losing their factory geometry.
Touch-ups are where you'll actually use it most. Skip stages 1 and 2; one or two pulls through stage 3 every couple of weeks brings a working edge back without grinding off any steel. Treated that way, the 1520 is closer to a powered honing rod than a sharpener, and your knives stop visibly losing height the way they do when people only use coarse sharpeners.
The catches are mechanical. The diamond stages remove metal — that's the job — and overuse, especially in stage 1, will hollow out the heel and tip of a knife over the years. The angle guides also force a specific edge geometry; if your knife came with a custom asymmetric or convex bevel from a maker like Bob Kramer, the 1520 will regrind it to a symmetric V and you can't undo that on the same machine. And serrated knives go through a dedicated path that touches one side of each scallop — it works, but it's not a replacement for a craftsman's serration file on really fine bread knives.
It's also loud (think small vacuum) and the motor runs warmer than you'd expect after sharpening four or five knives in a row. Let it rest if you're going through a whole block.
- True dual-angle: both 20-degree and 15-degree edges from the same machine, switchable by a top toggle
- Diamond abrasives sharpen fast and stay sharp for years of household use — no consumables to chase
- Angle guides make consistent, repeatable edges with zero technique required
- Handles straight-edge, serrated, and single-bevel Japanese-style knives in one tool
- Stage 3 stropping disks make excellent quick touch-ups without removing meaningful metal
- Compact, heavy chassis stays put on the counter; no electronics to fail over time
- Removes more metal than whetstones — coarse stage will visibly shorten a knife over a decade of heavy use
- Symmetric V-grind only; will regrind asymmetric or convex factory bevels, and that's permanent
- Loud, and the motor heats up after several knives back to back
- Won't sharpen ceramic blades, scissors, or knives with very thick spines (heavy cleavers)
- More expensive than basic pull-through sharpeners, which deters casual buyers who only need touch-ups
Households with a mixed knife drawer — some German, some Japanese, plus a serrated bread knife and a couple of paring knives — and no patience for whetstones. Anyone who values "every knife in the kitchen actually sharp" over the last 5% of edge refinement. It's also a sensible buy for a small restaurant or cafe that doesn't want to pay for outside sharpening service every few months.
If you already use whetstones, or own custom knives with hand-ground asymmetric bevels, or care about hairline-thin Japanese single-bevel sushi edges, walk away from this machine — it will sharpen those knives, but it will also flatten the geometry that makes them worth the money. Skip it too if you only have one or two knives; a $40 manual sharpener or a $60 whetstone is the better spend.
