[bravo22b]

I don't believe it has been mentioned, but since this thread deals with tools other than just knives, I have to mention the Tormek wet sharpener. It is not a cheap investment at about $500.00, but it is totally worth it if you have to sharpen a lot of tools.

The basic Tormek comes ready to sharpen chisels, plane irons, and other straight tools. It can also be used to freehand sharpen knives and gouges, but specific jigs are sold to sharpen all manner of edged weapons and/or tools. One of the main advantages is that the slow grind speed and water bath eliminate the possibility of ruining the heat treatment of the tool (not my department). It also makes getting a repeatable result easy. It for the most part removes the "magic" of getting a good result.

I can easily get a chisel razor sharp in less than 5 minutes, and that includes plugging it in and pouring water in the reservoir. It has totally revolutionized sharpening at our shop. There is no question that it has already paid for itself in time saved sharpening and labor saved using sharp tools rather than putting off sharpening them. It is not a total replacement for good stones or other techniques, but I highly recommend it for woodworkers.

I don't have personal experience with the knife sharpening jig for it, but my overall impression of the quality of the piece of equipment as well as the quality of the engineering leaves me little doubt that it would work well for knives also. YMMV.

Stay away from the cheap knockoffs. I think Jet makes a cheap version that doesn't hold up.