Review on Lansky 4 Rod Turn Knife Sharpener by Brad Cao

The principle is so simple that I almost feel stupid when I buy it. It's just a piece of wood with a few appropriately sized holes drilled into it at a certain angle, plus a few more to store the poles they give you. It's almost like "wheel". so obvious and simple but brilliant. But it's priced right and they do all the drilling for you, so it's a great buy and worth not taking a piece of wood, lugging around a drill and bits and then fiddling with the right angles. I chose this ceramic wand version over the diamond wand version because ceramic NEVER wears out. The holes are slightly enlarged for easier insertion and they reset to their original position, maintaining a constant angle with each 'swipe'. 25° gives a stronger but still very sharp edge, while 20° makes the hair sharper. two good choices. In my opinion 25° is great for heavy use fixed blades and 20° for blades intended for more delicate stuff. I wrapped a layer of tape around each stem to ensure a better fit because I didn't like the easy "descend". There's extra space between those two, maybe four more holes (two more angle options) since it's just one piece of wood. The poles are made in the USA and the wood block comes from China. (1.3 billion of them are growing, but do they still have spare trees?) It's such a simple and inexpensive thing that solves a problem or clank of keeping a knife sharp all the time. However, this is a maintenance solution and once your razor sharp knife dulls it will shave hair back in a minute. This is NOT something you want to use to bevel a super dull blade or turn a butter knife into a slicer. I mean you "can" but you would hit those bars for a very long time. As for the "but" in the name: any stick-type sharpener will eventually round and dull the tip when you pull it out. Stick every time, so don't. Not Lansky's fault, just the way the sticks are sharpened, especially the round ones. The Spyderco Sharpmaker has flat-faced triangular bars, and they're not that bad, but they can definitely cause a problem. This is easily avoided by starting TIP FIRST on the bar and pushing the blade forward as you go down, rather than the other way around, which seems to be a popular method. Trust me because this is a real PITA that needs to reuse the edge of a knife. As long as you keep that in mind, you'll be fine with this pencil sharpener.