DRuger

That Gizmo is indeed brilliant, and I like the larger stone, but not the larger price! However it raises one question, that wider stone I don't think will bend around the sharper curves at the tip of many knives very smooth. At least not keeping much of the stone in contact with the knife. I'm looking at this from the standpoint of an engineer who's not actually used it. Any input on this?

That Gatco set is exactly what I use now (I no longer have the case, so didn't have the name). It produces a nice edge, but the clamping system is weak, and it's a pain to hold it in place while you try to sharpen. It's a lot cheaper than the Edge Pro, but I'd be willing to say it might do just as good a job. (same concept)

Just looked that Edge Pro up, and it's very simular to what I use now, except a lot easier to use from what I can see, and much more expensive also! I'll have to wait and find a "deal" on one. That Chefs Choice is the electric model I've had my eye on. Anybody actually used one?

Well I took the giant leap and bought a set of swiss diamond fry pans, and two small sauce pans. Sofar I LOVE them. Nothing sticks, they cook even, they don't warp like most of the cheap supermarket ones we've bought in the past, and I expect them to last a LONG time. You can see the difference when simply boiling water, rather than seeing the pattern on the bottom of the pan when the water starts to boil like our cheap pans, the water boils around the whole pot, even up the sides. We also cook with less heat! Can you scratch them? I feel if you dug a fork into it you could, but we don't plan to. I plan on getting some of the larger sauce pans, and maybe a stock pot. I'm loving these pans!

I was reading the thread about knives, and what people like to use, however I'm happy with my Chicago Cuttlery knives I got 13 years ago. My problem is sharpening them. I'm not good at doing it by hand. I've purchased some diamond hones that I put in a jig, and it holds the hone at the correct angle, and I get a good edge this way, but it takes a lot of time. I've seen several electric shapeners, and wonder if anybody has tried them, and liked them. I don't know if I'm allowed to mention specific companies here, but there's some electric sharpeners in a mail order catalog for about $170.

I don't own the Vita-Mix, however my wife loves her blender. She's burned out about 3 of em since we got married 13 years ago. We bought a Kitchen Aid model because of how heavy it appeard to be built and we like it. Fortunatly the catalog we purchased from had free lifetime replacement cause we've used it twice now! A friend has a Vita-Mix and I often ask him to put it to use to make peanut butter, and he to loves the power of that Vita-Mix. It will crush rock I swear, it cleans easy, and the customer service with them he said is great. It's true that the Vita_Mix will pretty much make a liquid of anything. Put it in and it's gone. If you want to make smoothies on an occational basis a (good) blender will do fine, but if you want long term reliability, & power, get the Vita-Mix. You won't regret it. My next "blender" will be the Vita-Mix.

Ed, Are there still two different grades of these pans? I've found several companies offering the "swiss diamond" here in the US, but wonder if they are still not as good as the professional grade pans. Do you still sell the pro grade yourself? If so what's the price differences?