When is a sharpener a deburrer ?

Somewhere my wife acquired one of these...

https://www.amazon.com/AccuSharp-ACC...178783&sr=8-22

She's a smart lady and turned it over to me because "it looks like it would just make the knife duller". I had to agree; the two, presumably carbide, blades form a V that rides on the sharp edge of the blade. While it might remove some of the "feathers" that can form on a blade, it certainly doesn't look like a sharpener.

What it looks like is a sheet metal deburring tool. Took it out in the shop and gave it a spin in that role. Worked a proper treat. If you ever stumble across one of these resist the temptation to toss it; hang it on the tool board and use it for deburring.

I have several knife sharpeners based on that basic design and some work to varying degrees, but I'm a fan of the similar Rada knife sharpener, which looks like something you could make in the shop in about 15 minutes, because it works for my kitchen knives and resharpening a knife takes only a minute.

For a long time I thought, like you, that it simply deburred the very apex and my results grew poorer with time. Finally one day in anger I jammed the blade down hard into the crotch and pulled it through a few times and lo and behold I had my razor tomato knife back again. Mind you it's not putting a precision edge on the blade but rather more like a micro rip saw that works especially well for most kitchen cutting. After several years I still consider the Rada sharpener one of my best ever $6 purchases and I even give them out as small Christmas presents.

Noga makes a general deburring kit that I covet but don't yet own because of the price.

I have a number of knife sharpening devices. Many of those using this principle are about useless, but this particular one works very well indeed. It will even put a respectable (shaving sharp) edge on my A. G. Russel "Gentleman's Folder" with VG-10 blade.

My high end set of Chef's Knives (J.A. Henckle a service award from my employer...I would never spend $400 on a 7 piece set of knives)

Recommends using that type of sharpener when the edge is chipped and rough, then smooth the edge with the steel. The steel used to sharpen any time the edge is intact and only needs burnished back to a keen cutting profile.

Yes. I prefer a Lansky ceramic "sharp stick" to a steel for that. The only time to use a method that actually removes metal, like the Accu-Sharp, is when the edge is damaged beyond burnishing.

One of those was included with the Outdoor Edge game knife set I have. The recommend a pass or two after using the knives. There's a steel in the kitchen for those knives.