read a lot of positive comments about this sharpener, especially on this website. So, I bought two of them, one as present to my friend (they cost almost 3 times more in the UK than in the USA, by the way). Today I got the sharpeners.
First of all, you cannot keep the right angle on the sharpener. It seems to me the angles at the rubber bottom are about 30 degrees. You cannot keep your knife vertical and sharpen the knife with right angle as shown in instructions, in my opinion. So, keeping the right angle is not that stright forward as on spyderco Tri-Angle.
Because you cannot keep the angle, I do not see much difference of this sharpener from ordinary sharpening stone - you can keep a stone under desired angle in your hands and sharpen knives. The only difference is you can buy for the same money a bit larger stone, so it will be more convenient to use.
Another problem I had is that I could not make Victorinox Pickniker sharp enough to shave my hair on my hand - my usual test which I do after I sharpen knives on grey rods of Spyderco Tri-Angle before they are ready to be sharpened on white rods.
So, I am disapointed. I thought it would completely replace Tri-Angle on long trips, but it does not look even near to Spyderco in quality. I completed sharpening my knife on Tri-Angle, so I cannot say if Tri-Seps really improved the sharpness of my Pickniker.
Could you advice me if I expect too much performance from this sharpener? Can I sharpen knives with steels harder than of Victorinox that they could shave a bit, or at get to acceptible sharpness? I am thinking one of the reasons for such poor performance might be brand new stone - I had to rub Spyderco rods on each other before first use, as was recommended in instructions. I did rub Tri-Seps using my Spuderco rod as well, but did not feel any difference.
Advice is much appreciated.
Regards,

Omega, I am not familiar with the Gatco, but I do have a Spyderco Edgemaker and I like the performance of the angled rods. I also bought the extra-fine rods. I will say this though, after taking a relatively sharp knife to it and following all the steps, which takes a long time, I was not all that impressed with the end results.
I saw a CRKT Slide Sharp on the web and thought that looked like a neat concept. So, I found one for $22 US and had it mailed to me. Within 5 minutes I had that same knife extremely sharp, something I had not been able to do with a water stone, the Spyderco or Smith's angled rod sharpener. So, I was impressed! The knife was a 4in fixed blade Grohmann Boat Knife.
The CRKT sharpener is sort of cheaply made but it works really well on my knives. I would love to own a EdgePro sharpener but I have not felt free to spent almost $200 on one yet!
You may consider trying a CRKT Slide Sharp, pretty handy for the cost. Cheers!

The Gatco Tri-Seps is a small, keychain/pocket sharpener for field/emergency use.

The Spyderco Tri-Angle Sharpmaker is not in that same category.

I went and looked up the Gatco, and I see what you mean. I have a smiliar device made by Lansky called a dog bone, smaller than the Gatco and has a built in angle guide on the ends to aid sharpening. I think I paid under $3 for it and keep it in my PSK for touch ups if needed.

Sorry you are finding the Gatco Tri-Seps a challenge, but it was never meant to replace something like the Spyderco Sharpmaker. The Tri-Seps is a pocket-sized field sharpener, which is what I have recommended it for, the Sharpmaker is designed to be used at home, or at least not designed to be carried into the field. It's heavy and bulky. I and many others I know who have used the Tri-Seps or the similar Lansky Dog Bone have not had any problems sharpening with one, though one cannot expect a short, handheld sharpener to hold an angle as exactly as a Sharpmaker with a large rigid base designed to hold fixed angles. That's unrealistic. If you can use a flat stone effectively, just lay the Tri-Seps down flat and use it that way; it becomes a small stone in that mode.

Thanks for replies,
Could you refer me to a website with instrucitons how to sharpen on Tri-Seps?
And could you advice me how sharp knife I should have by the end of sharpening? Maybe I demand too much from my sharpener...

You may wish to put a convex grind on your SAK. WIth some sandpaper, an old mousepad, some polishing compound and old cardboard, you'll have your hair popping SAK in about 15 to 20 minutes or so.
Even a doofus like me managed to do it. All my EDC SAKS have a convex edge (even the classic). Touch ups are via stroping on a piece of cardboard and its back to hair popping sharp.

See the instructions HERE