The first time I used a lansky I knew that I would never be able to put such a perfect edge on any tool by hand. The knives I sharpen with my lansky are sharper and stay sharp longer. It's not a replace all, blades over 8 inches just don't sharpen real well with the lansky, but hunting knives, kitchen knives, and any knife you generally use a lot will absolutely benefit from this sharpening system. The diamond system, though a little more expensive, is definitely the premier set. The diamond stones wear much slower than the standard stone and ceramic ones., and I found them to work just a bit faster too since they don't clog with metal debris as easily as the stone and ceramic. the set is however missing the course grit stone. It's basically a metal saw there to take large amounts of metal away very quickly. I've found that when first sharpening any knife that isn't new out of the box with the lansky the course stone is very much necessary. I don't think they make a diamond version of the course stone, and it's not real expensive to pick one up. Unless you want to spend hours grinding away the old edge. It's not hard to use, clamp the blade in the knife and work your way down the line. I like to use a flashlight to look down the edge, once you can't see light reflected off the cutting edge it's ready for you to move on to the next stone, polish it down till it's even then move onto the next. By the time you are done you will have a mirror polished edge that will be the envy of all the other hunters in the field. It won't replace all your sharpening tools but what it can do it does the best.
By
Erro from
New Mexico