The sharpmaker is an incredibly easy system to use and will give you some absolutely amazing results provided you have a few things in order. First of all, you MUST mark the edge with a sharpie so you can see where you are actually contacting the stone. The sharpmaker requires you to have an edge with an inclusive angle of less that 40° in order to be effective. If you are sharpening on the 40° setting and are still just removing sharpie from the "shoulders" of the edge, then you'll have to reprofile the edge in order for the sharp maker to work as intended. If you are in fact removing sharpie from the very apex of the edge, then you can continue on with the setting you are currently using. In this case, I recommend staying with the medium stones, working one side at a time, until you have formed a small burr along the entire length of the edge, then do the other side. You can then switch to alternating passes with EXTREMELY light pressure until you cut off the burr. Counting strokes will do you absolutely no good. At this point the edge should easily shave hair and cleanly slice phone book paper. Then move on to the fine stones and repeat the process. Personally I prefer to only use the flat sides of the stones, as the corners, due to their smaller surface area, put too much pressure on the edge and can cause it to easily roll. The sharpmaker is a great tool for blade maintenance, but there is a learning curve, so practice practice practice and eventually you'll get it. You just need to fully understand what you're doing, and how exactly the sharpmaker helps you to do it. It's the same concept as freehand sharpening, the sharpmaker simply helps you keep a consistent angle.
