Left: the HORL®2 sharpener with a ceramic honing disk in oak. Right:the HORL®2 Cruise with a stainless steel honing disk. Photos courtesy Horl. Handout via The Gourmet Gazette

Paris, France — We sent out our designated publisher and culinary consultant and chef to see state-of-the-art knife sharpening in action. And he saw a knife sharpener like none he has ever seen before. Fashioned by the German family-owned house of Horl, the sharpener revolves around cutting-edge engineering techniques with the simplicity of a magnet and a rotating cylinder. The result: perfectly and most importantly evenly sharpened knives. The grinding wheel that sharpens the knife is made with standard industrial diamonds resulting in a high quality sharpening and this surface can be used on all the kinds of steel used in knife making. The sharpening that is subsequently obtained is the equivalent of a high quality professional knife straight out of the factory. The sharpener is outfitted with a ceramic or stainless steel honing disc as well to smooth out the blade and remove the sharpening dust. With Horl’s interchangeable grinding wheels, the knife can be sharpened at an angle of 15 degrees for filigree or 20 degrees for robust sharpness, depending upon the type of sharpening the chef is looking for. 

HORL®, nestled in the heart of the Black Forest was founded in 2016, and since then the house has been turning out its state-of-the-art sharpeners, designed by the father and son team of Otmar and Timo Horl. It all began when Otmar, a mechanical engineer, developed a passion for Japanese knives and he began laying out the plans for a knife sharpener using industrial quality diamonds. They remained in a corner of the workshop until son Timo, a graphic designer, discovered them. The rest is knife blading history.  Special to The Gourmet Gazette. Reporting: Sylvain Loire.  https://www.horl.com/us/en/