To me, yes. A) my free hand ability sucks...which I think is more representation of lack of practice to build the form, B) no clamping the knife down like a Lansky, Edgepro, etc, C) all of those knives I mentioned shaved after about 2 minutes...20 strokes using each rod.

One thing I always wondered about the Sharpmaker when looking at it was "what are those golden / brass colored rods for? Well, they are just SAFETY guides. So if you miss the sharpening rod, your hand is protected. SMART!

There are only two settings. 40 degrees and 30 degrees inclusive. I used 40 on all of mine this go round....seemed to match close to the factory edge. There are two rods, one rough (grey) and one fine (white ceramic...i think). You can use each rod in two ways...the "edges", or the "flats". The process is: step 1: use the edge of the grey stone, step 2: flat of the grey stone, step 3: edge of the white stone, step 4 (if wanted): flat of the white stone. 20 strokes each step.

Note: You can use the flat of the white rods to get what they call a razor finish...I did not go this far with mine.

I am the world's worst at sharpening a knife. The sharpmaker helped solve that problem. Used it on a trout fishing trip to Taneycomo to keep everyone's fillet knife and my Dumpster Mutt DC sharp right after I got it. It kept my DMDC sharp enough to clean trout with. The people I went with all have one now. The sharpmaker mainly gets used at the kitchen table now. I use this in the field: http://www.worksharptools.com/knife/sharpeners/other-sharpeners/guided-field-sharpener-221.html

That does look interesting!

I've seen that before and wondered how it actually worked.

There's one good way to find out!

I like the Sharpmaker and use it regularly on knives up to 7 or 8 inches. I never have had a problem. I have some fully serrated knives that I use it for too. That's where it really shines! I haven't found anything that works so well and it's super easy.

I went ahead and got a sharp-maker last and have done pretty well! Got a couple of the blades shaving sharp and got my Battle Rat in the best shape it's been in awhile. Cool system! Thanks for posting this Max!

that looks cool

In my experience Sharpmaker is good for touching up the edges, it lacks "of grits" for re-sharening/profiling

The lack of angels is easily solved by tilting the knife left or right, depending on what angle do you want.

There are diamond rods available if one needs a corse grit, but you can also do something like this




This way you can select your own grit...

And there is also Work sharp sharpener but you also need power for it...
Hope it helps!

Cool!! Glad it has worked out for ya! I think I'm gonna get one for my dad for Xmas...he was eyeballing mine this weekend at deer camp

Icarus, thank you for adding this...very interesting!! Do you have problems with fitment of the triangle rods into their "slots" while wrapped in paper?

Ishi, it looks like he doesn't wrap the sandpaper all the way to the end.