I've been using mine freehand without the guides and I like it better that way, I think. I feel that I can control the amount of pressure being put on the belt better without the guides.
The WS is like any other powered sharpener. You have to let IT do the work. Too much pressure is going to work against you. You'll never be able to work up a burr and you'll never be able to get a shaving edge. You will ruin blades with too much pressure, whether it's with a WS, a 1x30/1x42, or paper wheels. You'll either grind away too much blade or you'll overheat the edge and make it lose it's temper.
Use the 220 belt to set the bevel edge and the 6000 to strop it. It'll work, plain and simple.
There is NO reason to use the 80 belt on a knife unless you have heavy edge damage or you are using the tool to set the intial bevel of the edge on a blade that has NO real edge bevel.
When you need to re-sharpen, a couple of passes on the 220 and few passes on the 6000 will get it done. You don't even need to use the 220 (in my experience) unless the edge is really degraded. When my knife stops shaving hair, I usually go with 3-5 LIGHT passes on the 6000 to restore it to shaving sharp.
If you're ruining blades with the WS, you're either not paying attention to what you're doing or you are using too much pressure. Really, a light hand is key to making any power sharpener work properly and getting good results.
If you can't sharpen a knife on the WS, then you can't sharpen on a knife on any belt sander/grinder. I've got a HF 1x30 and there is NO comparison to ease of use and the results I get. The WS wins hands down.
When I first got the unit, I followed the directions completely and got extremely sharp knives very quickly. After having and using it for some time, I've refined my technique to get better results.
I've used the tool on everything from $2 kitchen knives to a couple of higher end knives in the $150-$200 range, and everything else in the middle.
I've used the tool on: 420J2, 420HC (Buck), 440A, 440C, AUS6, AUS8, 12c27, 13c26, D2, 1095, 1.4116 (Krupp), hacksaw steel blades, sawzall steel blades, sawmill steel blades, file steel blades, with superb results on all of them.
I still have several other sharpeners: crock sticks, pull through carbide and ceramic, diamond stones/plates, pull-through steels, Lansky, Chef's Choice Pronto Manual (still one of my FAVORITE for thin blades). I like them all and use them all.
Personally, I'd much rather spend a lot of time making knives DULL than a lot of time making knives sharp. Making them dull is the fun part of using knives!
By the time someone sets up their Edge Pro, Lansky, Sharpmaker to get
started, I've sharpened several knives on my WS, even if they were extremely dull.
The WS is NOT the be all and end all of knife sharpening. No sharpener is, they all have pro's and con's. You have to decide what kind of compromise you want.
The tool is compact, easy to use, high quality, fast, with excellent and easily repeatable results. It takes up much less space than any other belt or grinder type tool, and not much more space, if any more, than a good tri-stone set would.
The only negatives, IMO, is that you have to plug to tool in to use it, and the belts are not readily available. By that I mean you can't go to the local hardware store and get the belts. If they'd make a cordless lithium batttery version of it, I'd be in sharpening heaven.
In other words, you'd have to pry the tool from my cold, dead hands to get me to give it up. :thumbup: