James, I would definetly not reccomend a Lansky. I have a Deluxe model, and I have found that the guide rods are not all uniformly straight. With the coarse stone you may be sharpening at a 21 degree angle, and then the fine stone may sharpen at 24 or 25 degrees. The clamp is also somewhat poorly designed. Now, if you are no good at hand sharpening, it's better than nothing. And I suppose that the results could be improved by using the same rod for each stone, that would probably at least make the bevels closer to the same. Personally, I reccomend Edge-Pro. I broke down in January and bought an Apex, and I haven't regretted it. Now my mom's afraid to use her kitchen knives
, and I could shave with my Ka-Bar if I wanted to. My arms are just about bare from constant shaving tests. In short, I love it. You can polish with up to 3000 grit, which leaves a mirror edge that you can actually see your reflection in. The URL is
http://www.gorge.net/business/edgepro/ if you'd like to check it out. Ben Dale, the owner, will sharpen a knife with it for free if you send one to him with enough money for return shipping. I wouldn't advise doing this if you don't plan to buy one; once you've seen what it can do it may be impossible to resist! It comes at a price though, if you don't want to break the bank like I did, you might be interested in a Skarb instead. It's a little more than a Lansky system (at least the Deluxe model) but I think that it's worth it. There is a review here at
http://www.bladeforums.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/001354.html . It sounded good to me, at least as good as an Edge-Pro when used with water stones, which aren't extremely expensive. Hope this helps, and feel free to e-mail me if you'd like to know more about the Lansky.
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Just because I talk to myself does not make me crazy. Now, when I
listen to myself,
that makes me crazy.