If the Sharpmaker has helped with your angle control, you might consider going to benchstones. As long as you dont have any serrated edges, I find benchstones to work just as well. I've recently started using my King coarse/fine combo stone and a strop and getting sharper edges than from the Sharpmaker. I use the Sharpmaker for touch ups in between, and my bench stone angles are slightly less than the Sharpmaker angles for microbeveling with the Sharpmaker. This cuts sharpening time a lot. Of course, you can always strop after the Sharpmaker too. Many people swear by the Norton combo bench stones and the edge they get from a Fine India stone. It will shave and even whittle hair with practice, and has quite a bit of tooth left. The combo stones are about half the price of a new Sharpmaker, and will rebevel knives as well as do final sharpening.