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SunrisePro Supreme Manual vs Wamery 4-Stage Manual Side-by-Side Comparison
Our Verdict
- Performance (50%)7.5/10
- Design (15%)8.0/10
- Ease of Use (35%)6.3/10
- Performance (50%)8.1/10
- Design (15%)6.8/10
- Ease of Use (35%)7.5/10
The SunrisePro definitely gets the edge over the Wamery. It not only takes a much shorter time to sharpen a blunt knife, but the level of keenness you can reach is greater, too. Granted, it also removes way more material from your blade, but we’d take that over spending an excessive amount of time for rather mediocre sharpness, which is the case with the Wamery.
We could give credit to the Wamery for its more appropriate size for kitchen knives. The SunrisePro is so small it can be a little awkward to work with at times, and its suction base also requires specific surfaces to operate properly. Then again, it has a much more solid construction compared to the Wamery, and in the end, that gave it the edge for us.
SunrisePro Supreme Knife Sharpener’s Performance
- Sharpening Time to Cut a Lemon (35%)9.6/10
- Maximum Sharpness Achieved (20%)8.0/10
- Edge Smoothness (20%)5.0/10
- Material Retention (25%)6.0/10
- Sharpening Time to Cut a Lemon (35%)9.2/10
- Maximum Sharpness Achieved (20%)6.0/10
- Edge Smoothness (20%)7.3/10
- Material Retention (25%)9.0/10
Sharpening Time to Cut a Lemon
- Sharpening Time: 1 minute 5 seconds
- Cutting Feel: Swift and smooth
The SunrisePro was one of the quickest handheld sharpeners to bring a knife from dullness to a lemon-slicing level of sharpness. It took it only 65 seconds in our tests.
In fact, merely a few swipes on the device were enough for the test knife to become serviceable. That’s 10 - 20 seconds max. Include the time to get this device out of the drawer and set it up, and your whole sharpening session would still take less than 3 minutes. If you’re in a hurry or simply detest spending time doing tedious work, the SunrisePro is no doubt one of your best bets.
- Sharpening Time: 1 minute 10 seconds
- Cutting Feel: Light and smooth
For this test, we blunted a knife with sandpaper and ran it through the Wamery. It took 70 seconds for the knife to get to the sharpness level where it can halve a lemon in one go. This effectively places the Wamery among the top group of sharpeners in terms of speed.
However, the results had not always been so satisfactory. The Wamery took significantly longer (almost 10 minutes) in our previous attempts to restore the knife’s sharpness. We found that sharpening with the knife tip pointing slightly downward helped.
Maximum Sharpness Achieved
- Sharpening Time: 6 minutes
- Sharpness Level: 8 (Chicken breast with skin, 1 swipe)
This device sharpens more quickly than most others, but its sharpness plateaued at the same point: the chicken breasts. The cut was not completely effortless; however, in an older version of the test, the knife repeatedly achieved this level with ease. Taking both into account, we gave the device full marks for Level 8.
- Sharpening Time: 6 minutes
- Sharpness Level: 7 (ripe tomatoes, 1 swipe)
As fast as it was to bring the knife to the lemon-cutting level, it didn’t go very far after that. The knife only reached Sharpness Level 7 after 6 minutes of sharpening.
You may struggle a bit with precision cutting and thin slicing, but at this level, your knife’s good for most other food prep tasks.
Material Retention
- Sharpening Time: 1 minute
- Target Sharpness:
The SunrisePro will shave off steel from your blade and you will see lots of swarf on the device after a heavy sharpening session. That can be disheartening, especially if yours is an expensive knife. The blade aficionados in our team almost fainted at how it completely replaced the knife’s original edge after a few months of use.
However, be gentle, don’t apply too much force, and perhaps you’ll be able to reduce unnecessary loss or at least slow down the process.
- Sharpening Time: 1 minute
- Target Sharpness:
The coarse stage does take its toll on the knife’s edge, but the metal swarf that we collected after sharpening was rather minimal.
Among the handheld sharpeners we put to the test, this is among the ones that yielded the smallest amount of metal residue.
Edge Smoothness
With only tungsten blades, it’s no surprise that the SunrisePro doesn’t create the finest edge. The edge is narrow, rough, and toothy, with deep grooves and visible chips. All this suggests sub-par retention, meaning you’ll have to sharpen your knife more often with this device. But given that it takes a little more than a minute to get it sharp, that may not be such a problem.
Also, some users suggest using a honing strop, which we think is a great idea. Of course, that’d increase the costs.
When put under the examination of our magnifying lens, the knife’s edge looked straight. There are tiny shavings alongside and the grooves are noticeable but evenly distributed along the edge. This suggests that the honing stages did do their job, though not meticulously, to smoothen the edge.
SunrisePro Knife Sharpener’s Design
- Build Quality (75%)8.0/10
- Grip (25%)8.0/10
- Build Quality (75%)6.6/10
- Grip (25%)7.5/10
What’s in the Box With the SunrisePro Supreme Knife Sharpener
- The SunrisePro sharpener
The SunrisePro comes by itself in a simple clamshell package. The instructions are printed on the package.
- Wamery 4-slot pull through sharpener
The sharpener comes in a cardboard package with the instruction manual printed on the back. All additional information (return address & warranty policy) can be found on the official website.
Dimensions
- Length:2.3" (5.8 cm)
- Width:2.3" (5.8 cm)
- Height:2.6" (6.6 cm)
- Weight:2.3 oz (65 g)
At the size of a beef tomato, the SunrisePro would make a perfect on-the-go sharpener. That is if you can find a flat surface for it to stay on.
- Length:9.1" (23.1 cm)
- Width:2.3" (5.8 cm)
- Height:3.3" (8.4 cm)
- Weight:8.9 oz (252 g)
Build Quality
The SunrisePro is a well-built device, even though its affordable price may suggest otherwise. It has a dense, weighty body: the only thing left to be desired is probably the size. Its suction base is also thick and solid — definitely not the flimsy type we see on cheap household appliances.
Not a decorative piece, but it has a nice fit and finish, and is easy on the eye.
The build of the Wamery suggests everything but top-notch craftsmanship. The sharpener is bulky but hollow and rackety. Its abrasives are a hit or miss and seem to wear out more quickly than the other devices we’ve tested. While it does look cute, the sharpener isn’t meant or built to last.
Grip
- Material:ABS plastic
The Sunrise Pro doesn’t have a traditional grip. The locking arm, when pushed down, triggers the suction force at the base, which keeps the device in place while you sharpen your knives. The arm is well-built, though we imagine a bigger one would be more natural to use.
- Material:Rubber
The handle is spacious, which is a good thing with these sharpeners as you don’t want your gripping hand too close to where the blade goes. That being said, we think Wamery can cut back on the height while widening the base of the handle to improve balance.
The top part of the grip is covered in a soft, comfortable rubber padding, while the sides and underneath weren’t graced with the same material.
Working Section
- Levels of Sharpening:Coarse
- Abrasive:Metal blades
- Mechanism:Pull through
- Sharpening Angle:20 degrees
The Sunrise Pro has the most simple working section among all the devices we tested. It has only one sharpening slot consisting of two metal blades forming a V, attached to a V-shaped plastic supporter.
- Levels of Sharpening:Coarse, medium, fine
- Abrasive:Tungsten carbide blades, diamond rods, ceramic rods
- Mechanism:Pull-through
- Sharpening Angle:Not mentioned
The Wamery’s working section features a slot for shears and scissors and three for kitchen knives. For knives, you start on the tungsten carbide blades, then proceed to the diamond coated rods and ceramic rods. Without a ‘prep’ slot, we’d expected the sharpener to be harsh on the knife edge; however, that wasn’t the case.
While Wamery claims that the sharpener was designed for a wide variety of knives, it failed to mention the slots’ exact angle. We tried to reach out to the brand but so far have received no response. Certain knives have unconventional sharpening angles, so putting all of them through the same slots doesn’t seem like a good idea.
SunrisePro Manual Knife Sharpener’s Base
- Material:Silicone
- Feet Type:Suction cup
We have mixed feelings about the base. It’s shockingly good when it works — the silicone absorbs some of the downward pressure from your sharpening, keeping the force steady while also suctioning hard onto the countertop, preventing shaking or slipping. However, it’s rather picky when it comes to the type of surfaces it sticks to.
Tip: If it’s a spotless surface and the suction cup is not working, spreading some water underneath it may sometimes help. We found through testing, however, that this tip can be a little hit or miss.
- Material:Synthetic silicone
- Feet Type:Slip-proof padding x 2
The Wamery has a wide base, which partly makes up for its excessive height to maintain its balance. The pads underneath are soft and thin, and look cheaply made, but they do well enough to prevent the sharpener from slipping across the countertop during sharpening.
SunrisePro Supreme Knife Sharpener Review
- Slot Arrangement (10%)10/10
- Insertion (20%)7.5/10
- Pulling Through (10%)6.0/10
- Stability on a Clean Surface (40%)6.5/10
- Stability on a Wet and Dirty Surface (20%)3.0/10
- Slot Arrangement (10%)9.0/10
- Insertion (20%)8.0/10
- Pulling Through (10%)6.0/10
- Stability on Clean Surface (40%)7.5/10
- Stability on a Wet and Dirty Surface (20%)7.0/10
Slot Arrangement
The SunrisePro has only one sharpening section with two tungsten carbide blades. It’s placed on top of the device, with two plastic supporters right behind to stabilize it. There’s an arrow and the words ‘Draw this way’ engraved on the working section, so it’s almost impossible to get it wrong.
The Wamery has four slots, marked with numbers from 1 to 4 embossed on its stainless steel casing. Slot 1 is reserved for shears and scissors, while the rest sharpens kitchen knives.
The knife slots progress rightward with increasing grit fineness, so it’s natural to follow through with the intended order. Our only complaint is with the lack of adequate space between the slots.
Insertion
On other devices where the working section consists of slots, there are wider openings that guide your blade to the V shape blades down below. The SunrisePro’s protruding sharpening blades that look like a bird’s beak are not supported by those ‘guides’, so knife insertion is slightly more difficult. Our advice is to take your time to place your knife into the middle of the slot. Do not rush or you’ll cut into the plastic frame or risk damaging the delicate edge by knocking it against the tungsten blades.
During the course of our experiment, there were times when the blade wouldn’t position itself properly in the slots. When you look at the size of the entire sharpener, Wamery has been rather economical with its abrasives slots. They were a little too shallow and narrow to accommodate the entire blade’s length comfortably.
To avoid mishaps, we had to take things slowly and re-calibrate our aim before drawing the knife through the slot. But other than that, we proceeded as normal without much to complain about.
Pulling Through
The amount of resistance depends on how much force you assert, but generally, you’ll have to apply quite a bit while sharpening with the SunrisePro. We tried sharpening using only the weight of the test chef’s knife and the movement was so effortless we didn’t feel the device was working.
On the other hand, use too much force and it’ll return almost a serrated edge. Also, the amount of metal you’d see left behind in the working section would be devastating.
The sharpening rods were solid and secure. However, the knife glided through the slots, especially the tungsten bars, at times without the slightest hint of resistance. That, of course, means the abrasives haven’t got in adequate contact with the edge to sharpen it.
A trick we learned after multiple failures is to sharpen with the tip of the knife pointing about 20 degrees downward. Then, a frictious brace can be felt as you pull the knife through. This doesn’t work 100% of the time, but it helped enough to sharpen the knife within a reasonable time frame.
Note that the knife will cut into the plastic frame on both sides when applying this trick, but that’s better than the abrasives not working.
Stability on a Clean Surface
The SunrisePro comes with a silicone suction cup serving as a base and a locking arm to secure it. It’s awesome while it works; on the right surface, the suction cup sticksto the extent that it feels like it’s an extension of the surface.
The tricky part is that it requires a completely flat and smooth surface, such as a spotless glass or marble countertop. Also, the suction wears out after a few minutes. That can be frustrating if you’re binge sharpening your knives, but if you’re only randomly working on one, it’s not going to be a huge problem.
Sharpeners with an elevated design are prone to rocking back and forth, even with reinforced pressure on the handle. However, the Wamery’s underside spreads over a wide surface area, which allows it to stand this test despite its rather flimsy anti-slip pads.
Stability on a Wet and Dirty Surface
The SunrisePro’s suction cup is useless on a countertop sprayed with oil and salt. We did give it a 5 because it can be held without wobbling — the cylinder shape and its short figure help. It being very small, however, means that you have to be extra careful not to misplace your knife and cut yourself while sharpening with it.
When placed on the slippery countertop, the sharpener managed to hold itself quite well. However, be advised that there was only so much that the slip-proof pads could do. Every once in a while, the sharpener inched back and forth, albeit that was something to be expected.