- Knife Sharpener – 5-Stage Professional System for Kitchen Knives, Scissors & Pocket Knives – Multi-Tool Sharpener Kit – Made in USA by Selectool

The tool arrived promptly with an instruction sheet and a link to a video in which the tool is demonstrated on several items. Once you review the video and read the followup instructions, you should have no problem sharpening most anything; however, it's vital to watch and read the instructions first. I found there is a short learning curve, but it's not difficult to get the hang of it and after a little practice, this sharpener produces results that are far superior to those sharpeners with the "fixed" sharpening bars. The SelecTool provides a precise sharpening stroke on both sides of the blade which is the most important factor in sharpening anything. The finishing slot polishes the edge and removes the nearly microscopic burr that grows along the edge when it is sharpened. This burr can fold over onto your edge and interferes with cutting. So far I have sharpened my kitchen knives, serrated and smooth, as well as my pocket knives, a kukri knife and a K-bar knife. All with excellent results. The thicker the blade, the closer you have to watch your technique, but if you can get the edge to the sharpener, it will sharpen it. Be sure to watch for small shavings of metal. If you aren't getting these shavings (and they are tiny) you are not holding the blade at the right angle. Adjust your angle, then try again. After using the Selectool a couple of times, now I can pick up a knife and zip, zip, zip, it's scary sharp. In conclusion, this tool is effective, sharpens just about anything, and is easy to use after a little practice. Outstanding customer support and a lifetime guaranty, I recommend it.

I I attempted to use this tool to sharpen my buck model 285 knife. This tool did absolutely nothing besides possibly dull my blade. The blade actually cut into the sharpening surfaces and I find that absolutely ridiculous. This might sharpen a butter knife but it will not sharpen a good grade knife blade. This was an absolute waste of money and the fit and finish on it is horrible. It's a shame to see this product advertising American-made workmanship and there is no workmanship in the product at all. I would not recommend this to anyone unless you are sharpening a mild steel blade kitchen knife.

It works well but I can never get my knives as sharp as the guy in the video claims. I’ve watched numerous videos over and over and have accepted that maybe I’m just not good at it.

I had one for over 30 years, decided to get another (still have the original, works great) and they are the best and easiest-to-use sharpeners. The box arrived from Amazon empty, we got a refund and ordered another. Even though we had already ordered another, the company contacted us to apologize and offered a replacement free (also provided info on replacement blades). Even better, they sent us instructions for sharpening the blades on our old one. We didn't need the free one, but did have a lot of fun with their instructions to sharpen the old blades. This is such a simple tool to get to know and use, and being addicted to having the sharpest blades on all of my cutting equipment, it is perfect for me. There is nothing to break on it, and the edge it always provides leaves me in wonder, awe and great happiness. After 30 years loving this tool, I now have 2 of them. Twice the joy, I just want to sharpen everything in sight, one SELECTOOL in each hand, but my wife's annoyance at such fervor just might be as sharp as the sharpened blades ... no way, nothing can touch the edge I can put on any blade with either one of my SELECTOOLS!!

This product has a lot of promise for someone looking for a small/portable/light sharpener that is able to work on a variety of different items. For me it didn't really turn out to fulfill that promise though; it's a great idea, but the execution wasn't quite there. It's not all bad, but let me start with the negatives first... * The overall feel is a bit flimsy. I know they were going for lightweight but perhaps material a little thicker would be advisable. There is a lifetime warranty though, so if you break it you'll probably get another one free of charge (more on that below). * The included documentation is rough and could use some updating. I found a few inconsistencies in how to perform certain actions, grammatical errors and wording that made some tasks less than intuitive. When I emailed them asking for some clarification on a few of the less clear descriptions the reply was the documentation is "like 50 years old" and would be updated in the future. I thought that was a facetious comment, but apparently not; if seems the original design is about that old. * There website mentions a lengthy video that teaches how to use the product - which would probably be quite beneficial given the state of the documentation - yet in order access it you have to sign up for an account. That strikes me as a rather peculiar requirement for something I already own. Proper usage instructions are the type of info you want readily available to your customers, and youtube is probably a good place for it. Heck, everything else is there already. * The blade alignment gates do allow enough blade movement so you need to be sure you're repeating the angles precisely on both sides, similar to other sharpeners really. The only reason I mention that is because it runs counter to some of the product claims. Realistically though, how could it be otherwise? Your axe will be far thicker than your pairing knife, so there isn't a way to create a single tool that can sharpen both with equal aplomb. To compensate they did design it such that the insert can be extended, at which point you can then sharpen the larger items by hand. Speaking of the insert... * Mine was stuck in really tight, so the only way to extract it was a vise grip and some good hard tugs. Once removed I was then able to extend it, but in so doing I encountered something unforeseen; the insert does not have sufficient length for it to be extended and still have the tool sharpen scissors. The insert covers both functions so if you want to use it manually you'll have to pull it out to the desired length, sharpen the object (like a lawn mower blade, hatchet, etc) and then retract the blade before doing any more scissors. There's only one screw holding it in place, so the task isn't time consuming, but it does come across a bit like a design oversight. Were it maybe a half inch longer you would be able to configure the insert to whatever length you wanted and still not lose any functionality. There's no indication of what the insert is made of either, but an email from the owner confirmed it's something called Carboloy. It's not as hard as tungsten carbide, but my research indicates it might be fairly close (I had never even heard of Carboloy before, so I had to look it up). Given the composition of the alloy it's more than likely going to last quite a while, so unless you're sharpening a lot of items wearing it out is probably not a concern. The areas I thought were positives are: * The aforementioned lifetime warranty is pretty generous for such an inexpensive product. On one of the few youtube videos I did find about the Selectool the owner of the company even mentions that if you run it over with your truck you can still get it replaced by simply sending him the remaining pieces. I can't think of too many other products with that kind of warranty. * It's made in the USA. For people overseas that obviously isn't a selling feature, but for a lot of us here in the States - myself included - that does matter. * The design is such that you can sharpen a lot of different blades and tools. Obviously it can't do everything, but it's certainly able to cover a multitude of things. It even has a built-in tile and glass cutter. That won't prove very useful for me, but I'm certain others will find it advantageous. * After purchasing it the company sent two different emails wanting to ensure I was happy with the product. One of them even had a link to their Amazon listing encouraging you to leave a comment, good or bad. When was the last you heard of a company doing that? Actually, when was the first time? Might be these folks. And it didn't turn out to be just a bunch of hogwash either. I contacted the owner about the issues and concerns I documented above and he responded promptly. Turns out they really do want to hear from you, and they're willing to prove it. One final note; pay heed to how often you use the sharpening part on your knives. I played around with some dull ones I had in my tackle box, and without too much pressure visible metal shavings were evident. It was literally slicing off metal and leaving behind little slivers. For a really dull knife that has its advantages, but once sharpened you should resist the urge to continue using that part. Instead, after every couple of times you use the knife pass it through the deburring section a few times. That should hone the blade sufficiently, which is technically all you ever need to do with a knife that's kept sharp.