Not everyone is fortunate enough to have a good local sharpener available. A belt grinder is a terrific sharpening tool so long as the sharpener is competent with it. If s/he's not it's a good way to ruin a knife in a hurry! While I sharpen higher end Japanese kitchen knives on natural and synthetic waterstones, I generally sharpen outdoor/sporting & "tactical" knives on a 1" x 42" Kalamazoo belt grinder. It works very, very well! I can get a kitchen knife probably 85%-90% as sharp in three minutes on the grinder as I can with forty-five minutes on stones. Sometimes it makes me want to throw all my water stones down an elevator shaft!