What is the easiest knife sharpener for a novice?

[sambo.]

i rekon just buy a couple of stones and a Mora to practice with and learn how to sharpen freehand.

it's not that difficult.

 

[Cold Kill]

I love my clamp sharpener system. Ready to use, makes a sharp edge, and is easy to pick the edge angle.

 

[nim145]

Is the CRKT Slide Sharp Knife Sharpener easier than the spyderco sharpmaker since the angle is already set with the CRKT Slide Sharp Knife Sharpener?

Doesn't the CRKT Slide Sharp Knife Sharpener maintain the same angle with each pass?

 

[elkins45]

I'm new to the forum and have been looking at this DMT sharpener. How would this work for a beginner for hunting pocket and kitchen knives?

http://www.knifeworks.com/dmtdiafoldmagna-guidesharpeningsystem.aspx

The clamp style sharpening systems are very popular. That DMT works on essentially the same principal as the Lansky or Smith's clamp systems. THere's no reason it shouldn't work on most knives since it allows you to choose different angles to match the knife.

 

[Sulaco]

Freehand with a decent bevel (like has been mentioned, a cheap Mora or another cheap Scandi grind style knife) is easy enough.

Nothing is going to make profiling a knife "easy" except maybe a power tool or one of the very expensive systems like the EP or the WE.

As for the Sharpmaker, it works great for keeping a well profiled knife sharp. Buy the diamond rods and you can even re-profile with it. It's still not as easy as some other options, but it's easy enough to work. I've done several pretty hard (super steels) lately this way and I am perfectly happy with the amount of time it took.

I recently picked up one of the DMT Aligner systems (diamond hones) and the extra coarse hone. Even with this method of rapidly removing metal, I still prefer the diamond Sharpmaker setup.

 

[Burdan]

any diamond stone and then finish with a diamond strope. stropping is pretty fool proof.