I'm not bob, but I bought a ruixin pro 8 (~40AUD) and 3 diamond stones (~5AUD a piece) on aliexpress a couple of weeks ago.
Watched a YouTube video and got half a dozen kitchen knives sharp enough to shave arm hair in about an hour. They seem to be holding their edges reasonably well a couple of weeks later.
I'd previously not had much success with Japanese water stones and with the lansky(?) gadget.
It seems like the key part of the process is (a) detecting when you have formed a burr so you know when to change sides/move to the next grit and (b) stropping at the end (get the leather strip with polishing wax).
The Chinese gadget is a bit crude but was honestly surprisingly effective.
I don't think the theory is that complicated but getting good practical results reliably can be a bit tricky. The gadget seems to work quite well for that.
Ps: Just looked at Cliff Stamp's sharpening site. I think that's an order of magnitude sharper than I was going for with my kitchen knives.
Watched a YouTube video and got half a dozen kitchen knives sharp enough to shave arm hair in about an hour. They seem to be holding their edges reasonably well a couple of weeks later.
I'd previously not had much success with Japanese water stones and with the lansky(?) gadget.
It seems like the key part of the process is (a) detecting when you have formed a burr so you know when to change sides/move to the next grit and (b) stropping at the end (get the leather strip with polishing wax).
The Chinese gadget is a bit crude but was honestly surprisingly effective.
I don't think the theory is that complicated but getting good practical results reliably can be a bit tricky. The gadget seems to work quite well for that.
Ps: Just looked at Cliff Stamp's sharpening site. I think that's an order of magnitude sharper than I was going for with my kitchen knives.