The HORL knife sharpener is a rolling knife sharpener.
This knife sharpener is special in the sense that it is the stone that slides along the blade.
It consists of a rolling body and a magnetic base that holds the knife at a fixed angle of 15 degrees, so it is perfectly suitable for sharpening large kitchen knives.

At HORL everything is done in-house, from the selection of the woods to the final assembly of the sharpeners.
Horl chooses the best species of wood, which they dry in ovens with a humidity of 7 to 8% to guarantee an irreproachable quality.
The handcrafted manufacture from natural materials makes each HORL item unique.
They are manufactured with the utmost precision for a high quality end result.

The sharpener that rolls

The sharpener is a solid cylinder made of wood and steel.
The wooden part moves independently of the steel part and the whetstone.
The whetstones rotate when pressure is applied to the sharpener.
The wooden cylinder remains stationary, so it is easy to hold during sharpening.

The whetstones on the sharpener are easily interchangeable and can be unscrewed in an anti-clockwise direction.
The HORL sharpener is equipped with a diamond sharpening stone on one side and a stainless steel part on the other side, which acts as a rifle.

The diamond sharpening stone has a grain size of about J400, it allows to quickly re-create a sharp edge on a blunt knife.
The stainless steel part smoothes the edge after sharpening and the grooves remove metal residues.

Other sharpening stones are available

A coarser diamond sharpening stone to repair damaged blades is available, as well as a fine ceramic sharpening stone (3000 grit) and an extra fine ceramic stone (6000 grit) to make your knives even sharper.

The magnetic base

The wooden base has a fixed angle of 15 degrees on each side.
One side is designed for narrow-bladed knives, the other side is designed for wider blades like chef's knives.
The 15-degree sharpening angle is ideal for kitchen knives, it provides an unrivalled and durable edge and will facilitate all cutting tasks in the kitchen.
You can use the HORL sharpener even if your knife does not originally have a 15 degree angle, it will automatically give a 15 degree angle to the blade.
Changing the sharpening angle may take a little time.

The underside of the magnetic base has four rubber pads to hold the cylinder and the knife firmly during sharpening.

Sharpening knives with serrated blades

The HORL sharpener also allows you to sharpen knives with serrated blades, such as bread knives.
To do this, you should take care not to use the magnetic base because the serrated edge of a bread knife is generally not 15° and the sharpening angle cannot be adjusted with a bread knife.

Hold the knife firmly and roll the sharpener, making sure that only the edge of the blade touches the whetstone.
Tilt the knife to sharpen the edge of the blade and rotate the sharpener at an angle along the serrated blade.

Here is a video that shows you how to sharpen a bread knife with a HORL sharpener.

HORL 1993

The company of Otmar and Timo Horl, father and son, is located at the foot of the Black Forest.
It was in the 1990s that Otmar came up with the idea of manufacturing a rolling knife sharpener.

Over the years, they designed, optimised and realised this ingenious knife sharpener together.