My recommendations would be:
1. First of all, make sure that you understand the basic principles of sharpening as that is where it all start.
2. Clamp the knife securely, centered and at exactly the same position each time so you get the best repeatable results. How to best clamp the knife depends on the type of clamp and the size and shape of the blade. Most knives can be perfectly clamped using the small notches but larger knives sometimes have to be positioned deeper in the clamp and than it sometimes helps to use a piece of shammy leather folded around the spine to keep the knife centered, especially with full flat grounded knives. I marked the sides of the clamp with a small saw cut groove as a depth reference for larger knives.
3. Use the finger grooves to hold the stones in the middle as that will help to keep an even pressure along the entire stroke. It will also help to keep the guide rod aligned in the slot without rambling as caused by holding the stones just at the very tip.
4. Before progressing to the next finer stone, make sure that you have reached the apex (created a burr) along the entire length of the blade. Using a sharpie to color the bevel and a loupe will help you to see what you are doing.
Here is a video that shows how I use the Lansky. It shows how I use it to re-profile a Victorinox up to a mirror polished edge. The whole process takes 35 minutes and is of course boring like hell
[video=youtube;B52lFL0PzoE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B52lFL0PzoE[/video]
[video=youtube;AdDLILmj3XU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdDLILmj3XU[/video]
I also made my own holders for cheap diamond stones and polishing tapes. In the videos and the photos you can also see that I replaced the thumb screws of the stones and of the clamp with UNC #10-24 set screws so I get more reach with the stones.
I made these from 12x18mm wood, 4mm rod, 5x20mm aluminum strip and 2.5x25mm aluminum strip. Since I use 4mm rod, I can also use these with my KME system.
I use the ones with the 5x20mm with sandpaper and 3M diamond lapping films and the one with the 2.5x25mm strip with double sided diamond stones.
The total cost for the materials for the 5 holders including two double sided diamond stones (150, 400, 600 and 1000 grit) is less than 20.-
Since these are larger than the original Lansky stones, they work a lot faster and so far, the Chinese diamond stones perform a lot better than the original Lansky diamond stones.
You can find the diamond stones on eBay by searching for: Double Side Diamond Plate Ti Titanize Knife Sharpening Stone
I just tape them to the holder which works perfectly.
Frans
