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.