I'm a firm beleiver in free hand sharpening, once your good at it you can sharpen anything. It is kind of expensive to get a good set of bench stones, but you can start with the basics and collect them as you go (just like guns
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I won't go too far into the whole diamond vs. water stone vs. oil stone thing as I have a mix of all of them and find that they all have their place.
A combination water stone, or a soft arkansas and a hard arkansas would be an inexpensive way to start.
The nice thing about the water stones is they are usually pretty big and cut pretty fast. King makes a combination stone thats something like 800 or 1000 grit on one side and 4000 grit on the other (take note that japanese stones use different numbers than we do, 1000 grit on a japanese stone is like a soft arkansas or medium diamond stone). The downside to water stones is they have to be stored in a container of water (tupperware works, steal one from your mom/wife/girlfriend....maybe offer to sharpen kitchen knives if you get caught) and they dish out alot faster than other stones.
Oil stones store easily, and wear very well. They cut a little bit slow on some of the new stainless alloys, but thats not a big deal unless you've got a lot of reprofiling to do. It is getting harder to find good quality oil stones. Make sure it has a nice smooth face without a lot of voids in it. I've actually seen some pretty decent ones at lowes and wal mart (made by smiths).
I'm only a fan of diamond stones for rough work, even the fine grit ones tend to leave a rough edge in comparison to what I can get with the other stones. They do cut faster than anything else and don't require water or oil. Getting a nice sized one is too dang expensive for my blood, least considering I already have all these other stones.
I guess I should also add that I used to do a fair amount of woodcarving, and now I'm a part time knifemaker so I get LOTS of practice, and maybe don't have a realistic view of the amount of effort a normal person wants to put into sharpening. Its second nature for me, but I suppose if you've only got a couple knives and don't use them much it might be hard to keep your skills up
The sharpmaker is highly recommended, but takes forever to do any heavy work. Thats just the nature of ceramic stones. They're very fine grit, and leave an unbeleivable polish on the edge. I've actually got a big ceramic bench stone I use for finishing knives off before stropping (can filet printer paper)They just aren't meant to remove a lot of material. One way around the diamond sleeves, is I've talked to folks who just wrapped the ceramic rods in wet dry sandpaper. Sounds like a good idea to me, but I haven't tried it
Or if you like the concept of the gatco, a similar system is put out by lansky that isn't overly expensive. Supposed to be fairly good. I don't know which one ranks better.
Or you could go all out and get an edge pro apex. This is the top of the line in fixtures, but costs a lot. I've heard you can get pretty impressive results with it though. And at least for awhile, as a promotion the guy who produced it would sharpen a knife for you (think you had to pay shipping) for free, so you could see the type of results. Haven't heard much talk about that in awhile though.
