Manual sharpener

1. In a non-electric manual knife sharpener having at least one pre-sharpening stage and a finishing stage, the improvement being in that the pre-sharpening stage has first abrasive sharpening structure, the finishing stage having second abrasive sharpening structure, the first abrasive sharpening structure comprising interdigitating comb-like structure, the interdigitating comb-like structure comprising two abrasive surfaced planar members fixed at an angle to each other and having interdigitating teeth which intersect and create a V-shaped abrasive surfaced trough, the first abrasive sharpening structure quickly removing material from the edge of a blade being sharpened and creating a first facet at a pre-sharpening angle, the second abrasive sharpening structure being a pair of abrasive surfaced truncated conical disks having their small ends disposed toward each other, the disks being non-slidably mounted on a freely movable rotatable shaft, the disks of the finishing stage creating a finishing angle facet larger than the first facet, and the disks having a finer abrasive surface than the abrasive surface planar members.

2. The sharpener of claim 1 wherein the disks are press fitted onto the shaft with the small ends pressed into contact with each other.

3. The sharpener of claim 1 wherein there are two pre-sharpening stages.

4. The sharpener of claim 3 wherein the sharpening structure for one of the pre-sharpening stages disposes a blade edge at an angle between 12-18°, and the sharpening structure for the other pre-sharpening stage disposes the blade edge at an angle of 17-23°, and the sharpening structure in the finishing stage disposes the blade edge at an angle larger than the angles of the pre-sharpening stages.

5. The sharpener of claim 1 wherein the shaft is perpendicular to the direction of motion of the blade edge being sharpened.