i have a sharp maker and yes, they really are that bad. I cringe when i see newbies get suggest them when they really shouldn't! waste of time and energy.
As has often been discussed on this site, a Sharpmaker takes some skill to learn to use (many newbs, including myself at first, don't use them properly and think they don't work). Secondly, they are sort of misnamed: they should be called the SharpKeeper, because they are better at maintaining edges than they are at reprofiling or putting on a new primary edge on an extremely abused or dull knife. They do have diamond stones, but even these have limited utility for sharpening REALLY dull knives or when you want to completely rework an edge.
With my SharpMaker, I now do what many other folks here do:
* Use diamond bench stones (DMT) for my heavy sharpening and profiling work. Particularly, the extra-coarse/coarse 2-side duosharp stones.
* Use the Sharpmaker for edge MAINTENANCE, after you get your blades into pretty good shape. The SM with the added ultra-fine ceramic rods, followed by a good stropping on balsa wood, puts a scary sharp finished edge on most of my knives.
So the important things about the SM are (1) to use it properly, and (2) to use it within the larger context of a complete sharpening system.
