One is just not always willing to pull out the stones, particularly when there are multiple knives involved. And they do pile up... pocket knives, kitchen knives, steak knives... all needing some love.
A friend turned my onto
Smith's Jiff-S sharpener. Easy to use, and it does a good job of taking a knife from slightly dull to us-ably sharp. If the knife is in a bad way, genuinely dull or with nicks, this takes a while to make progress. I was fairly happy with it.
We just got a care package from my in-laws, and amongst the random items were two
Rada sharpeners. I'd noticed these before at their house. Weird thing, with two loose washers that are the "stones." Seeing as we now own two, I tried one out on "that knife." You know the one. It only gets used when everything else is dirty. You didn't actually buy it; the previous tenants abandoned it when they moved out and you found it in a drawer. After a bit of work, surprise! The knife had a serviceable edge! It's a little bit awkward to get a good edge on a curved blade, and there's not enough holding area to do a batch of knives, but it seems like it's actually a pretty decent product. I think that if this were screwed to a counter top or a windowsill, it would be good for bulk work.
Now, if I were performing surgery, I'd start with one of these tools to get the coarse work done, then start looking for my good stones to finish the job. But for kitchen work, or demolishing a nice steak, seems like both of these are pretty decent tools.
Share your reviews of other sharpening products!