I was skeptical,when I received this little gadget,but it works very well,with very little effort,I would rate this sharpner very high,It works very well! (Would recommend)!!

It's small and easy to hold and operate (tho holding the blade to be sharpened in a vice, as instructed, is probably a good idea). It definitely worked on my hand-held grass clippers and paint scraper. I even tried it on the curved blades of my reel lawnmower and it seemed to help some.

One improvement might be in the instructions. They direct us to place the "more visible carbide insert" in the v-notch that does the sharpening against the beveled edge of the blade to be sharpened. I take it that that's the darker insert of the two in the v-notch, but it isn't altogether clear. Some of us might also be unsure of what a beveled edge is, or how to tell which edge of a very dull blade is the beveled one (see reel mower blade, above). But these are quibbles; I think I stumbled through, so you should be able to as well.

A cheap find!

We had dull loppers and it made them sharp as new.

Used it for the first time this week on two blades from my Toro Timecutter zero-turn radius lawnmower. I didn't find it necessary to hold the blades in a vice: I wore leather gloves and with one hand held the blade on a piece of wood while drawing the tool along the blade with the other. It took a few passes to get the feel for it, but once I got the proper angle the tool did a fair job of sharpening the blade. Contrary to the instructions, I found it necessary to exert some force on each pass, with the recommended "light pass" not being too effective. But in the end, the blade was sharp.

PROS: Easy to use, cheap, effective. Unlike a bench grinder, this tool does not remove a lot of metal, which is probably the reason that both blades were almost perfectly balanced after sharpening. Also, the blades should last longer, since so little metal is actually being removed.
CONS: May not be robust enough to sharpen an extremely dull blade or one with significant denting or pitting.

UPDATE - ONE YEAR LATER: In general, the "cons" (above) turned out to be true, and I have found that extended heavy use of this item takes a toll. I still like it, but in sharpening heavier items, e.g., scythes, hatchets, it is possible to apply too much pressure, and after awhile the two plastic handle halves will start to separate (can be fixed, by tightening the screws in the handle). Also, after heavy use both sharpening edges appear to be the same size-- remember, the bigger of the two sharpening edges is supposed to face the beveled edge of what you are sharpening.

If you're going to routinely sharpen lawnmower blades, axes, hatchets, and scythes, you might want to get something more robust. But for light work, and occasional heavy use, this item is recommended.

Some tools are too large for this.