Well, it depends really.
I'll go over them one by one
Smith's Tri-Hone Arkansas System-I've personally used Arkansas stones for sharpening, and I really liked it as a first time sharpening experience. It helped me understand the basics of sharpening that are also outlined in
the most amazing thread ever by Magnanimous. However, if you are looking for a
foolproof sharpener right off the bat, then freehand may not be your best choice. It has a learning curve. Also, this setup would not be as portable as the other two due to the oil needed and the bulk of it.
Smith's 3-in-1-I've never used this one. Right off the bat though I see one of the options on it is a pull-through carbide sharpener, which tears more metal up than it helps. Around these parts V-sharpeners are highly frowned upon, as they don't really "sharpen" your blade as much as give it a nice burr that will tear off quickly. But, this one is definitely more fool proof than the Arkansas set, and much more portable. From the looks of it, you'd theoretically re-set a bevel on the carbide, run it over the diamond as the next step, then use the ceramic sticks. Personally, I don't think three different methods of sharpening all in one go is a good idea. I might use this on some cheap throw away user pocket knives, but not on any higher quality ones.
Lansky's 4 Rod Turnbox Crock Stick-Cheapest of the bunch, which is good. The reviews on it say that it is pretty small and moves around easily unless you keep your fingers in a good position and hold it down. No carbides to eat your blade, so that's good. It might take a while to sharpen any steel stronger than 440 or so, because ceramic rods don't get very coarse. It is fool proof in the way that it is a very cheap system that gives you a good starting point with the angles, but the rods have very small contact points. When you are sharpening with stones, most of the blade is touching the stone, so you have good contact. With rods, your contact point is one very tiny spot on the blade all the way down your stroke. So instead of putting all of your pressure on the whole blade, your putting all of your pressure on one tiny SPOT of the blade, which can cause the blade to dull, or if you form a burr it can make it roll over to the other side rather than taking it off. In short, fool-proof design, not so fool-proof way of sharpening.
I'd personally recommend a Lanksy set. I have the diamond hones, which work great. But you can get the Standard set (with regular stone hones) for $25 most places. Do a google search around your area for them. There has been a lot of success in this forum and pretty much everywhere with people new to sharpening and Lansky systems. They make it very easy to have a consistent angle all the way down, and pressure control is very easy to learn with this set. It is also very portable with it's carry case. I'd have to say the Lansky set is more fool proof than all of those up there. With a sharpie and the Lanksy, you can't go wrong. Plus, when you get more money saved up, you can purchase another stone or two to make things better, ie: make your edge sharper or more refined (extra fine stones) or make re-profiling an edge much quicker (extra coarse stones).
