you can use anything dude.
I use my bed matress sometimes if I'm lazt...
a carpeted floor might be good, you just never know.
you can try anything.
a peice of leather or cardboard too...

goodluck.
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I have never tried the mousepad method, but all free hand sharpening takes practice, whether it is with a flat stone, round rod, or belt sander. The only reason I got a belt sander was to sharpen my machetes, which see a lot of use. It really beats the heck out of a file, and does a convex edge too.

I know this ain't gonna help you bud but I do use my DM quite a lot and the other day I noticed that the edge had some slight rusting spots ( as they all do ) no biggie, but as I felt the edge with my finger I could detect a slight lip/roll running along the length of the blade, so slight you could hardly feel it. Anyway I thought I'd remove this with my steel, about six passes and it was gone and then about the same number of passes on my leather belt and I couldn't believe how sharp it was again !!! Ok so it's only barely shaving sharp but that's plenty for me with what i ask of it to do, I'm really amazed the edge holding of this steel, I have still not sharpened it with any other means !!!

I only pass my DFLE on a fine arkansas stone a few times after a certain amount of heavy use and it's edge is still awesome, and insanley sharp and easy to maintain.

wait for the s7!
maybe get an rd7 to hold you over.
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Just to warn you, the extent of my convex sharpening has been grinding out dents of my hatchet with 220 grit. i see what people mean about over-cushy mousepads, i think I'll have to remedy that when I get home.

For most use, I'm a steeling-rod man myself, followed perhaps by some stropping. Though, I'm yet to pick up any compound so I'm not sure how effective I am with that. In general, I'm wary of trying to quickly and radically change the angle on my good knives. I'm more of an intuitive sharpener, I just do what feels right for the knife. For example, my ranger came with a REALLY, and i mean REALLY thick edge. Slowly, after repeated sharpenings, its thinning out. I plan to do the same with my DMDC, or may try some ultra-high-grit paper on it.

Anyway, in an effort to make at least some ostensibly valuable contribution <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" /> ,

here are some guides to convex sharpening I learned from

from Bark River:
http://www.barkriverknives.com/convex.htm

And from SOSAK
http://home.nycap.rr.com/sosak/convex.htm

If those links have already been posted and I'm just blind, you have my sincere apologies

Horn Dog -
A number of threads refer to using a belt sander. I haven't even considered this yet, especially since I can't even get something as simple a mouse pad to work, but I have some questions about it anyway. 1) Can it remove the temper of the blade? 2) Seems you could loose some body parts or maybe pierce your aorta or somethin'? 3) Do you know of any videos or pictorials or detailed descriptions of this?

I tried again this a.m. to work with the mouse pad and what I now have is a nice, polished, convex edge that is wider at the belly (.135), narrower at the choil (.095), and only slightly sharper than a new butter knife. Wadda'ya' think?

Tango, some people are sharpening challenged. Probably most people. The only reason I got a belt sander was to do machetes quickly. Once I gained some skill and confidence, I used it on other more expensive knives, and I still mess up sometimes. The techniques are the same whether by hand or power. Yes, you can ruin an edge if you overheat the steel. Yes, you can get cuts and abrasions if you don't pay attention. There have been some videos done on using the belt sander, but I don't remember who did them. A good sharp edge can be done with the Lansky sharpening system. Or if you want power, look at PoP's sharpener. He uses it on his fine custom knives. Don't worry about whether it is convex or bevel, sharp is sharp. Unless you are doing a lot of reprofiling or machetes and axes, you don't need a belt sander. If you do decide to get one, practice on cheap knives first.

CloaknDagger -
That Bark River link is full of GREAT info! I read the SOSAK link a few days ago...that's what got me started on this. The stuff on the BR link illuminates several things I had questions about.

I have always been used to a stone or my Spydie Sharpmaker and was an intuitive sharpener myself. It worked fine for me until I got these convex edges. The first CV edged knife I got was the Barkie Bravo-1 (nice knife) but I haven't tried to sharpen it. The DMLE is providing me with a Convex Edge-ucation!

Yes those full convex edges can be a pain. I have a Bravo-1, too. Sounds like you are not one of the sharpening challenged, just learning new techniques, tango6. We are all still learning, hopefully. Good luck with your sharpening.