I had the basic 3 stone Lansky for around 15 years, and it did good work as long as the knife wasn't almost edgeless. Finally gave it to a buddy when I went to sharpening on a belt and he still has it. The diamond stones work really well, BUT you need to make sure you don't use too much pressure 'cause they'll flat remove some steel. It's a lot better to hone a knife and straiaghten the edge, than sharpen one and have to remove a lot of steel, so the 3 stone did a good job of keeping the edge up without removing excess steel.