Well Tom I reckon I better tell the story.... I am much like you. Unless the blade is one of my hunting blades, sharp is good enough. In a past life, I was a commercial fisherman, then I spent a great deal of time under water in the service. Fisherman and divers know that a knife is not just a tool, but something that will be needed some day to save their lives, or someone else's life. But after that life was over, I learned the value of time. Good enough is sometimes good enough. The reason I went all high tech with this is because my buddy got me into it. About ten years ago, his wife, and my then wife, now ex-wife got suckered into waterless cookware packaged with some high dollar knifes. By buddy and I got stuck with the bill (about five grand each). The damn knife sets were $1200, but bundled with the cookware, "A smokin' deal at $800!" - ya right... Excellent knives, but extremely difficult to put an edge on them, and even harder to keep an edge. I don't know what grade SS they are, or what temper, but they suck to sharpen. Over the years my bud and I would often commensurate over these G-damn knives and our G-damn wives and their G-damn 'waterless' cookware that we paid a fortune for, but yet the G-damn women would always use oil or water with the "waterless cookware" they JUST HAD TO HAVE. Then one day my bud told me to bring my G-damn kitchen knife set over and he would put an edge on them for me. Of course I thought he was full of shit, because I couldn't ever seam to do that, but I gave it a whirl. End of story, I bought a cheap 10" grinder and these wheels. I run the knives through them about every six months, or more. I use a steel on them before I use them.
