After 6 years of thinking it over, I ended up buying the KME.
There are others:
The Lansky has been around a long time and is available in department stores.
For one reason or other it does not seem to be favored much these days.
It is a low budget option and "sloppy" compare to other systems.
I will say no more about it.
The Wicked Edge is wickedly expensive. That is probably all you need to know and all I need to know to move on. It requires you to have two "stones" of each grit, doubling the cost of adding any capability. It might have merit if you are some kind of commercial high-volume sharpening service. Maybe.
With any system a big question is what stones are available for use with the system and whether you are getting locked into some proprietary stone setup.
So this leaves us with the Edge Pro versus the KME.
I am leaning strongly towards the KME.
These are both well regarded by serious knife freaks.
The key differences are as follows:
This is all about ergonomics. Which is of vital importance of course. An excellent piece of advice is to watch videos demonstrating the use of both systems.
The KME has a clamp to hold the knife. The Edge Pro requires you to hold the knife against a rest. Both are jig systems that sharpen at controlled angles. I am hearing more good things about the KME.
Tom's Knife Info / [email protected]