Admittedly I have not made a comparison but I've seem some youtube vids where they compete various sharpening gadgets vs the pro way. They all seem to do very well even at bottom barrel prices. I'm sure defects are higher though.
That lansky looks awesome I think I'll pick it up. I think the crowd on here will see this basic life skill as too much "work".... so thats why I recommend the cheap drag through's. Safer than a dull knife at least... Weird how so many people here have no issue churning thorough another JS framework but spending 10 min to learn a life skill is too hard.
The roller/drag-through thing is worthwhile owning, I use mine a lot more often than I get out the Lansky kit. It's probably a couple of times a month I'll find my usual knife is smooshing ripe strawberries or tomatos a bit instead of effortlessly slicing them, and a few swipes through the fine wheel on mine will make that knife slice nicely again. Mostly I get out the Lansky tools when I've damaged a knife, then I'll sit at my workbench will all my knives and spend an hour or two in a Zen knife edge grinding trance making everything stupidly/dangerously sharp. The ultra-fine ceramic hone in my kit does an amazing job, but you need to work up to it through the coarser grade hones - especially if you've been using the roller sharpener on that knife for a bit - I'm pretty sure they don't get the edge angles right in a way the the ultras fine hone can take advantage of.
I really like my Lansky kit. In retrospect I might have shelled out the extra for the set with the diamond sharpening stones - but I doubt I'll ever come close to wearing down the regular stones with my use patterns.
Admittedly I have not made a comparison but I've seem some youtube vids where they compete various sharpening gadgets vs the pro way. They all seem to do very well even at bottom barrel prices. I'm sure defects are higher though.
That lansky looks awesome I think I'll pick it up. I think the crowd on here will see this basic life skill as too much "work".... so thats why I recommend the cheap drag through's. Safer than a dull knife at least... Weird how so many people here have no issue churning thorough another JS framework but spending 10 min to learn a life skill is too hard.