I use a sharpmaker, religiously, on my smaller knives. I generally strop my larger knives after use, and then run them over a flat stone every once in a while. The sharpmaker base, when flipped over, has cutouts so that you can place both rods side by side and use them like one big flat stone. I'd highly suggest the Sharpmaker, and look in to a strop as well. On Coldone's advice, I've been using Lee Valley "Veritas Green" honing compound on my strop - it works great.