Smith's CCD4 3-in-1 Sharpening System – Yellow – Ceramic Rods – Diamond Stone – Protective Lid – Easy Storage – Knife & Tool Sharpener - Portable

Preface: As touched on in the title, the one I received was slightly damaged - there are some small chips in the ceramic rods, and one of them is slightly warped. This has not kept me from using it effectively, though, so I won't complain. I'll chalk that up to the (currently) low price point.I'm very happy with this item. I had reservations about purchasing a "sharpening system" of any sort, because they all seem oriented towards people who don't really know how to sharpen a knife. This, however, has proven to be indispensable in my efforts to keep all of my knives hobby-knife sharp. The diamond sharpener makes short work of all blade steels I've put to it - Krupp 4116, 420C, 440C, and AUS8 - all given a fine edge with little time invested. The ceramic rods give a polished and razor-sharp edge when used correctly, and the instructions certainly are clear on how that is done.To be honest, I don't actually use the rods as instructed. I hold one in one hand, and the knife in the other. This allows me to be more exact while sharpening, but it is in no way the intended use of the rods. It has made a razor edge that much easier to attain, though.As a testament to the sharpener, a friend gave me his SOG Trident Tanto to sharpen it, and this knife had been VERY poorly sharpened and was so dull it wouldn't cut cardboard at all. After a few passes on the carbide part of the sharpener (it takes off a lot of metal, so be careful), the chips were gone and the edge was decently profiled, and then I used the diamond followed by ceramic sharpeners. After about 30 minutes, the knife had gone from chipped, unevenly-edged, and dull to a razor-sharp polished straight edge. I've since convinced my co-worker to stop trying to sharpen it with his keychain sharpener.

I bought this for two reasons, the diamond stone, and the ceramic rods. Both are excellent. I’ve run easily sharpened blades, 440, 8cr13mov, and the hardest D2. Brings a fine edge on all. The only caveat I’d it feels like one of the ceramic rods is slightly larger, causing it to be difficult to put into the base. I’ve tried both ends, and both spots in the base, difficult in all, while the other rod fits great. I’m guessing the plastic base will wear slightly for a nice fit.

This is my first time trying this kind of sharpening system. I used to use sharpening stone. It does the job but most of the time, I ended up messing up the edge. And it is hard to sharpen curved blades with stone.This thing is great. I was considering Spyderco system but it is 3X the price of this. I'm sure they both do the same job. I have sharpen few folders, fixed blades, kitchen knives and a butcher knife and they all turned out great. Very sharp without disfiguring the edge.The good:1) Price2) Does what it supposed to do very well3) Good construction quality4) Storage for the sharpening rods5) Portable6) 3 different ways to sharpen your knivesThe Bad:1) Sharpening stones are short, so not good for longer knives (Chef knives)2) Hard to clean metal residues from sharpening rods3) Mine came with a small chip on pointy part of the sharpening rodTo sum it up, this is a great system for the price and it will keep your knives very sharp and super easy to use. You can easily find how to videos on YouTube.

This thing is incredible! It's built in a super cool way in which everything stores easily without getting ruined or ruining other things. It works VERY good. I sharpened two knives that I love. The Ka-Bar Mule (a half serrated blade) and the Ka-Bar Kukri machete. Both ended up extremely sharp and without much sacrifice of the blades metal. The hand guard was a much needed add-on. I owned the Smith's Pocket Pal but threw it out because it was designed so poorly that I sliced my fingers open numerous times just trying to hold it in a decent position. The instructions are as clear as day and really easy to follow. It's small enough to not be encumbering and big enough to not be unusable. I have no complaints on this item at all.