There is a factor here that will make or break the user's experience of the effectiveness of the sharpening device. As is stated, if your existing knives are not ground at 20 degrees, the sharpener will remain ineffective. I have reground all of my knives on a wetstone wheel and now am getting fair results, before this, the results were non existent. It's pointed out in the blurb so is worth considering.

If you are looking for a sharp edge without the hassle of a proper sharpening stone and the time and hassle that takes, then this is a decent alternative. My knives go through a lot of abuse in the kitchen and I find running them over the highest grain stone a few times restores that high, sharp edge. On occasions where the edge has been dinged or I've cut through bone or something hard, then the middle stone takes out the dinks and the fine stone gets it back to cutting quality. I've only ever used the roughest stone a couple of times when my flatmates have done something stupid with the knives, but again, start rough and work to smooth and the edge should cut through pretty much anything.

I am what is described now days as a 'maker' ... my hobby is to make things from wood, leather and clay. I therefore have a collection of various types of knives, and have always lived by the saying 'A blunt knife is a dangerous knife'. Depending on the knife type and uses, I have a couple of expensive, effective but time consuming sharpening systems. I have a particular 'penknife' that I use on a daily bases around the house which requires sharpening on an ongoing bases. I had constantly looked for a quick and easy way to keep this knife sharp, but have never been impressed with the results. For some reason, the Lantana Smart Sharp Knife Sharpener caught my eye and the various on-line reviews seemed very good, so I purchased it.The Lantana has three stages of sharpening, shape, sharpen and polish, so I decided that even though my knife was still fairly sharp, I would put it through all stages, just as an experiment. I passed the blade horizontally through the required apertures about 10 times each. The result … disaster … an extrenely blunt knife!! Whilst not being totally surprised that yet another 'hyped' product had proved less than useless, I casually passed the blunted blade across the 'sharpen' aperture again, this time, for no apparent reason, I sloped the blade approximately 20 degrees downwards away from my body. The result was the sound and feel of metal being 'ground down', and sure enough I could see minute particles of metal deposited on the Lantana. Without being too aggressive, I continued to pass the blade across the sharpeners, and then onto the 'polishing' aperture. This time, the blade passed the 'paper slicing' test with flying colours!!Having discovered the 'knack' of sharpening with the Lantana, I now use it on a regular basis, keeping my knife permanently sharp with no fuss at all. I would warn new users to be a little careful using the sharpener at first, it can shave off blade metal quite quickly if used too aggressively in the 'sharpening' aperture, and only a gentle action is required in the 'polishing' aperture. Used with thought and care, this sharpener is invaluable.

This actually seems to work. And work pretty well. I've bought several knives, some of which came with a pretty blunt blade. This breathed a bit of life into them. I've also used this on a wakizashi sword to good effect (full Katana would be a different story i think....)Its easier to master than a whetstone. You'll actually blunt a blade on a whetstone if you don't do it correctly. But this device is kind of a no-brainer. Doing a paper cut test afterwards and the knives are doing very well.As other noted, plastic is a little cheap, which is why I don't give it 5 stars. But I've ordered a couple of spares so that tells you I was happy with this purchase.

Used this sharpener on my knife set and found it effective with a sharp finish. It was simple to use, solid and easy to hold. I haven’t had it long enough to judge its durability.