I purchased this because I was getting sick and tired of dull useless knives. I've been cooking more at home and have found that nothing is more upsetting than trying to slice and dice with dull blades. Even my in-laws have this problem; old knives piling up in the drawer that couldn't slice bread or a simple piece of meat without flattening it first, argh! While my mother in law attempted to carve roast with one of her *practically a butter knife edged blades, I decided to test this out on it. I slid the blade's edge against the fingers as instructed (which can be as many as 10-12 times) and after a cleansing swipe of a paper towel to remove excess metal flecks, managed to cut through the meat like butter. Fantastic! It's small, and fits in the same drawer with the other utensils. It's a wonderful sharpener when used correctly. I love it.