This is a very old Sharpmaker. Came with brown and white rods. White went straight into the trash.
As you can see from the above two photos, the point of mine is ground down and is nice and flat. Best way I can describe this is there is a shell or glaze on the rods. Once you break through that coating and get into the meat of the rod, then it will start to do some work. Before that, it barely take any metal away. As it gets fouled up with steel, I use a wet cloth or papertowel folded a few time to remove the build up. The towel will get black. You need to do this so the rods will keep cutting.
Here is my 5 that is contoured and polished. You can see that the coating has also been worn away where it starts to meet the edge. That is how far I lay the knife over when I am working on the rods.
I start with the knife straight up and down. I'll run the blade up and down the rod. As I do so, I'll slowly vary the angle. Laying it back further and further. This gives it a rounded, sort of convexed appearance.
You can see that the knife is laying over a little more in each photo. How far you go is up to you. I've been doing this for 20 years so I can do it quickly and with just feel. Once you get into a rhythm, it is a breeze.
After I'm done getting the exact shape and bevel I want, then I'll rotate the rods so the larger flat area is exposed and then start over. The flats are not worn down and barely take any metal away. Therefore, they polish the edge. The result is below.
