Over the past 20 years or so, the list of items that I've been suckered into purchasing as knife sharpeners is pretty embarassing. There's a cutesy saying I heard somewhere that if you can't figure out what something is, call it a knife sharpener and see if it sells that way.
I like a very aggressive non-wire, non-polished edge on most of my knives. It seems to be the best edge for the things that I most generally want a knife to do.
Some items that I've come to rely on would include; mill bastard files for standard high carbon steels to about 58 Rc., sickle hones (also called ax or adz hones) for rough shaping and rough sharpening, Coarse alumina oxide ceramic rod hones for all finer sharpening of work and kitchen knives.
In the alumina oxide round ceramic rod hones I'm particularly fond of the Lansky that most folks have never heard of: namely the coarse alumina oxide rod "steels" that contain no steel. They're just another version of the ceramic rod done as a standard "steel" but are far coarser than most typical ceramic rods. Actually, they come in coarse, med. and fine. As alloys get harder or tougher to sharpen, I typically go to a coarser grind hone. Note, the "Lansky" hone that I'm talking about has no fixtures or jigs, doesn't care how long your blade is, or how thick the spine or how curved the edge. It also costs about $10.
There's also a generic version of the classic 'vee' hone that sits all set up in it' red base in a part of my kitchen for touching things up there. It's a generic 'vee' hone that I got from SMKW for something under $10, but what sets it apart from the pretenders is that it uses coarse alumina oxide ceramic rods. If it sounds like I'm saying alumina oxide, (aka alumox, and some other similar names), then it's because I've found it to offer a surprisingly good cost to use ratio. Far better than the limited life of the number of diamond dust hones that I've tried.
Another product worthy of considerable mention is the classic Norton Crystolon hones. For some tasks, I simply think that the oven baked Norton hones beat heck out of many of the natuaral hones.
When it comes to steels, (other than the ceramic kind), three that I really like are: an antique Grant & Sons "Shefield" steel with a triple spiral pattern on it that I've never seen duplicated, a commercial duty 12" Mundial chef's steel, and the lowly flat folding "Sportsman's Hone" that was marketed by Schrade and Gerber.
mps