Tumbler Knife Sharpener: A Mediocre Review
A while back we wrote a post about how to sharpen a knife with a whetstone. We were young, pretentious, and the whetstone craze had taken the internet by stone storm. We are now older, less pretentious, and have frighteningly little spare time on our hands these days. 😬
We’re going to level with you, if you have a bunch of different whetstones, a leather strop, and several hours to watch guides and learn how to sharpen your knives, you’ll get a great result from a whetstone. However, if you’re like us and you just want a sharp knife quickly with the least amount of effort, the Tumbler knife sharpener does the job. (Not to be confused with Tumblr.)
Obligatory Disclaimer: While we haven’t received any money from Tumbler to write this review, they did send us one of their knife sharpeners to test out free of charge. This post contains affiliate links that help us earn a small commission from your purchase (at no extra cost to you). Each purchase supports the blog so we can continue to make content! If you use these links, we really appreciate it!
Branding & Packaging
First impressions are everything. How does Tumbler stack up?
The box it comes in is nothing to write home about. It’s a brown box, not branded or anything. When we looked inside the box and saw that one of the boxes was a nice bright orange, we couldn’t help but think it was a missed opportunity to brand the main package as well. (That’s Brittany’s marketing brain at work. 🧠)
What’s in the box? 3 boxes that contain: The Original Tumbler, a display stand, and a leather strop (accessories that you can purchase, or you can get everything altogether with their new starter set, which wasn’t available when we originally wrote this blog post).
Overall, the presentation gets an “a’ight” in our books, it does the job, but there’s room for improvement. We get that it’s just cardboard, but we prefer nice fancy cardboard for that ✨ luxury ✨ experience.
In terms of look and feel, the product feels high quality. The wood is very nice! If you have the counter space, displaying Tumbler beside your knife block or magnetic knife strip is a great way to remember to sharpen your knives.
Nice.
Instructions & How To Use It
Tumbler comes with an instruction pamphlet that has step-by-step instructions with visuals which is nice. Our only critique is that the first step is on one side, so if you were to look at the pamphlet on the other side you’d be missing the first step (which is an obvious step but, y’know…)
Below is a quick and dirty guide on how to use it. (First turn on some tunes or an audiobook, you’ll be here a while depending on how dull your knife is.)
Put your knife against the magnet holder so it sits flush
Roll the diamond side of the sharpener back and forth against the blade
Then do the same thing on the other side of the knife
Check your knife (carefully) is it sharp? No? Keep rollin’
Hone the knife’s edge with a few passes of the stainless steel side of the roller (3-4 times, this is quick)
If you bought the leather strop, now it’s time to use it. Professional knife sharpening places use this, so we recommend it. It’ll make your blade razor sharp!
🔪 Mediocre Tip: More of an audio/visual learner? Tumbler has you covered with their instructional videos tool.
Sidenote: If you have sensory issues, then this is not the product for you. The scritch scritch scritch will give you the ick. But you’d also hate using a whetstone too so…
Does It Work?
Yes!
Were You Paid to Say That?
No.
It’s our honest opinion that this is a solid product. Both of us were extremely skeptical when we first heard about this product. We grew up with dull knives and crappy knife sharpeners that did a terrible job. (What is it with Gen X parents and dull knives?) So an easy way to sharpen knives seemed almost too good to be true. We were pleasantly surprised by how sharp we were able to get our knives, and how little time it actually took.
Say no thank you to dull knives. Keep ‘em sharp! A dull knife is a dangerous knife. 🔪
Could an Idiot Sharpen Knives With This?
Yes.
Is the Tumbler Knife Sharpener Worth It?
Yes, it’s easy to use and gets the job done.
That being said, it’s also going to heavily depend on how often you cook and what your budget is. At the time of writing, their rolling knife sharpener is $98 USD and that’s not including the leather strop. This might seem a bit steep, as for that price you could get a full set of whetstones. However, using Tumbler is much easier and less time consuming. Our overall opinion is that it IS worth it, especially if you live in the US. For our Canadian friends, we still think it’s worth it, but the conversion rate is not kind and will set you back $189 CAD.*cries in Canadian*
Critiques & Other Comments
So we just finished all the good stuff. In the interest of fairness, we do have a few issues with the product that we thought would be worth mentioning.
The biggest problem that we had was that the magnetic base is a bit small. On its own that isn’t a huge problem. However, with longer knives, the blade tends to flex as you roll the diamond disk down the length past where the magnetic base ends. The obvious solution is to slow down so no parts of the blade get missed. However when you have a really, really dull knife (definitely not us…) this can add some extra time.
Note the part where the blade isn’t touching.
We ended up modifying their approved method slightly by working in “patches” along the blade of the knife. This allowed us to ensure the diamond disk was always in contact with the blade and helped us speed the process up quite a bit. (If you end up trying it this way, make sure to overlap your patches a bit so that nothing gets missed!)
As you can see below, Tumbler hits you with a “but wait, there’s more!” and you can buy a knife holder with a wider surface area (along with two additional sharpening angles). We’re curious to see if that would fix the above problem. (Although, it would be nice to be able to purchase the set with this version of the magnetic holder so you don’t end up having two.)
The magnetic base also felt a little awkward to hold. It’s not as heavy as cylinder, and there is no great way of gripping it. After several minutes of using it we were starting to feel some latent carpal tunnel coming on from trying to keep a good grip on the thing. (You want to have a good grip on the rectangular base, so nothing moves as you roll the diamond disc back and forth.) This can be solved by taking breaks if your hand starts to cramp. Or, if you’re smart, sharpen your knives frequently so they don’t take as long to get to that perfect sharpness.
Our final critique is when it comes to smaller knives. While you are able to use smaller knives with Tumbler, we found that as you roll it against the blade, the knife will naturally want to slide down. This is okay if you keep on top of it, but you will likely be readjusting the knife quite often. It’s a little awkward because you also don’t have as much of a “runway” to roll the knife sharpener down (vs a longer knife like a chef’s knife).
We’re going to close out this section with a word of warning and a recommendation. Since you will be sharpening your knife with the blade edge point more or less vertically upwards, be very, very careful! If you don’t have a secure grip on the cylinder or the magnetic base, it would be very easy for something to slip. And since this product actually does work, you could very easily slice a finger or hand open. We recommend wearing cut resistant gloves if you have a pair just in case!
Our Final Recommendation
Get your knives sharpened professionally once. Then maintain them with Tumbler.
Also invite your friends over for a knife sharpening party. Throw on some music and sharpen them blades!
Thanks for reading our review! If you’ve got a bunch of dull knives and zero patience for learning how to use a whetstone properly, the Tumbler sharpener is for you. You can grab one here.
P.S. - They back it with a 100% satisfaction guarantee, a 30-day money-back promise, and a warranty against defects. So if it doesn’t live up to the hype, you’re covered.