When I needed my Spyderco Superhawk rebevelled to about 20 degrees inclusive so I could touch it up with my Sharpmaker. I sent my blade to Richard and he called me the morning he got it, sharpened it, and had it back in the mail that day. He charged me so little I was shocked. The knife tree topped hair easily, had a good looking bevel, and the edge lasted a long time. It was a good bit sharper than Spyderco had made it, and now the angle was thin enough to enable ultra fast sharpening on the Sharpmaker. That got me looking into the paper wheels due to the great results on a hawkbill (my huge collection of benchstones aren't very good on hawkbills, and the Sharpmaker won't rebevel one in a couple days let alone the couple minutes it took Richard). I still enjoy using my benchstones and lately my Edge Pro, but when my in laws bring over a block of kitchen knives I turn on my grinder and 15 minutes later I have a block of tree topping edges ready for my in laws to enjoy. Hell, they prefer the edges the wheels put on their Wustofs better than when I used my benchstones on them for a few hours. Most likely that is because the knives are some soft Wustofs that need a fat angle to avoid rolling and just seem to not take a polish worth a crap unlike some of my thin Japanese kitchen knives. I still mostly use my benchstones or Edge Pro for most of my sharpening, but the paper wheels fill a nice role in my sharpening kit.
To the OP, there is no denying that Richard does a tremendous job with the paper wheels and the edges are very sharp, good slicers that last a long time. Plus, he can do a bunch of knives for you at a time and turn them back around to you really quickly. I'm not nearly as nearly as skilled as Richard on the wheels, but I still was able to get the first knife I ever tried tree topping and I don't hesitate to use them when I have a lot of sharpening to do or just don't have the time to break out all of my sharpening equipment to do a touch up. They might be a good tool to try if you aren't happy with your current sharpening set up as they aren't too expensive compared to a lot of the sharpeners out there and at worst they offer a very high speed set up that can compliment whatever other sharpening system you have or may get in the future. They might save you the hassle of having to ship off your knives for sharpening, though shipping them off to Richard is about as fast and cheap as it gets for very sharp edges with a very fast turn around.
Mike
