This is a bit pricey, but I'm a sharpening novice and I've been using this to sharpen by kitchen knives and my pocket knives and I've been doing a pretty good job. I'd highly recommend this, particularly if you're a novice sharpener like me.

The Good.
So from a sharpening perspective, this thing works awesome! I sharpened up all 6 of my kitchen knives in about 10 minutes. I got all the small knicks out, and brought them to a nice usable edge (as in, not scary sharp, but I would need the EF or EEF for that).

The bad.
I've had it less than a week, and it already has a significant amount of rust on it. I've used it three times total, and each time I used water to help lubricate, and it worked great. After each session, I rinsed the stone off and towel dried immediately. After that, I let it air dry further "just in case". However, I was rather sad to see the next day that it started developing rust, and got progressively worse each time I used it.

Final verdict: If this is exemplary of DMT sharpeners, then I definitely won't buy any more of their products. I expected something that would last me at least a couple years, if not longer.

I bought this to take with me on trips where we stay at condos where the knives are always hopeless. If you knife has an "F" failed grade of sharpness, then it is too dull to be fixed by this extra / extra extra fine sharpener. But, if you have a "D" grade of sharpness the extra fine side will take it to a "C" grade -- which will pass the paper test with a little tear out. And the extra extra fine side will then take the knife up to a "B" grade -- which is a "toothy" sharp knife which will pass the paper test with toothiness to the cutting feel -- a sharpness most people would be very happy with. A stropping block could then take your knife up to an "A" grade. This is a pretty small sharpening tool good mainly for traveling. But, you can keep it in a drawer and pull it out for touch-up on a blade -- where it will do a better job for you than a "honing rod" or "sharpening steel." YouTube videos show how to use it.

I'm just getting into knife sharpening and wanted something I could take anywhere. So far it works well for my RAT 1 and Tenacious and despite being a bit shorter than I expected, I don't think a longer surface is too necessary. I was concerned at first but if i'm going to sharpen a larger blade at around 4" or more, I probably will have invested in a bench sander contraption or large diamond whetstone by then. I'm a little curious to see how the pivots hold up where the plastic handles attach to the stone, though. The sharpener I recieved seems to be a little rough on opening and closing. I mean, it's plastic, what are ya gonna do! Anyway this is great for portable or home use and definitely recommend it. Next time I go camping I'll be making sure to pack this in. The backside of the packaging also contains the coarseness of each color in case you forget!

I bought this sharpener after some extensive research on price and quality. It was weird getting used to a handheld sharpener after using a stone for so long but this really lived up to all the astounding reviews DMT sharpeners get.

The instructions with it say that 5 strokes on the DMT sharpener is like 20-30 on a conventional stone and that is no exaggeration. This makes precisely consistent angles very important so if your not used to sharpening (or just even if you are) an angle guide would be a good addition because it's easy to mess up a blade, especially with a sharpener that works as effectively as this one.

This has been one of the very few sharpening stones where everything they say is accurate. Including which grit to get. I've used the coarse on my yard tools mainly and once to get out a nick in a well used knife. Every other knife the fine is perfect to get them back to sharp. I cut a ton of boxes and it can dull quickly after a lot of breaking down cardboard. 5 strokes to each side when it starts to tear instead of cut and this keeps it brand new.