[quote author=mastertangler link=1292687983/10#17 date=1293052465]Son,
I wish you could see the freezers of fish my "plastic toy" has helped me get through. And most of those fish had big tough scales. When you come to my house for dinner you know what's being served.  8-)

Oops, sorry, MT didn't mean to be patronizing (or did I?). Anyway I was, so my apologies.  It's just that for me, those fixed carbide shapeners eat a lot of steel and are very unkind to blades.  For cheaper knives it doesn't make that much difference but for a nice quality blade I think it's worth learning to sharpen on a stone.  ST is right, it does take a little practice getting the angle right and to be honest I'm always playing with that.  It's much easier, for example, to sharpen a plane or chisel blade than a knife because the plane or chisel blade has a nice bevel to rest on the stone  whereas with a knife it's mostly by feel.  But really it's not that big a deal.  If you have a couple of knives that you really treasure you might want to give it a try.  Still, when all is said and done, if you're getting the results you want with what you've got, why mess with it?