Last year my girlfriend gave me a Benchmade 940 for my birthday.  

[img]http://www.1sks.com/images/benchmade/bm-940.jpg[/img]


I'd like to sharpen it, but I've never had any "formal" education and hence any success sharpening knives.

Are those "V" shaped knife sharpeners any good?

Should I take it to someone to have it done?

What about a good resource online that easily explains what to do?

it's easier to show in person than to explain in words.


I'll leave it to somebody else first and then add comments from there, I'm not the greatest knife sharpener but I've been at it for some time and learned how to tweak a Lansky sharpening system so it won't give you fits, Lansky guide rods need to be straight and they need to be indexed or else the angle of the stones on the blade will change the angles as you move from stone to stone.   Putting it all away in the case between uses is actually creating more headache than most people realise, if you buy that product then once it's setup don't touch the stones anymore.


It's not hard to pick up the knack if you have decent equipment and get the principles.