I'm in the market for a new sharpener. Something good for large knives. I currently have a few arkansas stones but they aren't really suited for big knives. I also need something for recurves. Dice had mentioned a "sharpmaker".

Is there anything you guys have tried and liked?

A Lansky kit is great but sucks at recurves.. My SS4 and S6 are very sharp using my Lansky.

I'm guessing a round ceramic (crock) stick system, or the (in)famous mouse mat and sand paper trick would be better for recurves..

I use a Sharpmaker on most of my knives. I just got a new set of ceramic rods (medium) after a couple of years. The old one's chipped. If the edge is in really bad shape then I use the Edge Pro, but I can't say I am all that impressed with the Edge Pro for getting a very sharp edge. It's great for angle changing thouh. The edge looks great after I hit it up on teh Edge Pro, but I have yet to get a hair popping edge. Probably just my lack of skills, but if I can't master it soon, it's gone. I use the sandpaper/mouse pad trick on my convex knives which worls pretty well. Still learning to master that as well.

As I can't sharpen the yard guard I didn't buy one..

Is the sharpmaker pretty easy to use?

Very easy. It's the easiest sharpner I have found. I tought my wife how to use it for her kitchen knives in about 10 minutes. The video it comes with is very good and there really is not much guess work in it.

I just use a $.99 ceramic rod for free-hand touch ups. Sometimes a diamond rod. When it is time for serious sharpening, I use the belt sander.

Sharpmaker