You mean a sharpening wheel? I have a nice wet/dry I sharpen my knives and chisels on. It is made by delta. Never tried to sharpen a high end pcoket folder though. I have a spyderco and the serrated edges are best left to them to sharpen.

For a first timer, the "Lansky" sharpening systems are fool proof.  They even come with guide rods so you get the perfect angle.  I also like the Spyderco "Tri-Angle Sharpmaker."  This system consists of two ceramic rods that you place in a base to form a "V" shape.  You simple sharpen the blade  by using a 90 degree cutting motion.  Good stuff.  Then there are always the "Arkansas stones" for the more seasoned sharpeners.  Good luck.

[url]www.ameritech.net/users/knives/knives.htm[/url]

Spyderco Tri-Angle for non-serrated blades.

I've used the Lanski, but settled on the Gatco.  The Gatco stones are wider, have a better rod attachment method, and don't wear like the Lanski's.  The Lanski's wear into a dished out shape fairly quick.

Whatever you settle on, get a strip of leather and rub something like jeweler's yellow rouge on it, and use this to strop the final edge.  This will give a scapal edge.

You can order plain leather belt strips from Tandy Leather, and other leather crafts companies.

DMT makes a diamond impregnated metallic "stone", in a variety of sizes, shapes, and grades. I have several, ranging from full sized bench type, down to folding double-sided/differing grades of coarseness for my field kit, and an absolutely invaluable round rod type I use for dressing my serrated blades, or just touching up a cutting edge, much like a steel. Available just about everywhere, they can be used dry, although I prefer to use water when actually repairing an edge. They never wear out. That having been said, I'm also fond of both the Washitas and synthetic stones, which require oil to prevent clogging; it all depends on the job at hand. Lots of options are at hand, and although I prefer to freehand my steels, the Lansky line is also quite good, too, from what I hear...

Good Luck.




[url]http://www.dmtsharp.com[/url]

faris is spot on with the Lansky setup, the stones will wear into a dished shape with time making them not put a flat edge on the blade.   Also the attachment system for the guide rods could really use some improvement.


What I will add is that the rods also need to be carefully setup, make certain they are straight and if you put them into the little plastic notches to hold them bet on them bending when you remove them.   If you setup the stones and rods so that they are nice and straight then save yourself some time and don't mess with them by removing them, it takes awhile to get it so that each set of stones is indexed and so that when sharpening you can go from one stone to another stone and not have to fiddle with them to get the proper angle.


The kit can be made to work well but you gotta stand back and look at what's wrong with it first before you get serious about it.   When you are sharpening with the Lansky and using a reflected light source to see where the metal is being removed from the blade you can tell when the stones are and are not setup properly.   Mine are setup properly now and I refuse to remove the rods because I don't want to have to go through the setup process again to get each stone/guide matched to one another so they remove metal all the same without changing the angle.


After fiddling with the thing for awhile I've finally become a bit of a Lansky master, not because I wanted to but because I was forced to.

I like the Spyderco too.  It has a video tape to teach folks how to correctly sharpen knives, scissors, etc.

There are always custom knife makers at local gun shows I attend. I just leave this up to them.

Spyderco or the Gatco.

V shaped ceramic rods work the best for me.
You want a sharp knife but not a paper thin edge. If you want to shave then get a razor. The thin edge will roll when you try to cut something heavy.

I use the knife sharpener that is on the back of the can opener.

How do you like the CRKT, I bought the M-16 and like it alot. I sharpen with crock sticks works as long as the knife isnt to dull.
                  [sniper] Parker2,
               

I have a CRKT M16-02Z and a Point Guard....both are good knives.