Bought this to bring back the life to our kitchen knives and touch up our pocketknives. The instructions are extremely easy, this is possibly why people are making mistakes and feel they can just gloss over them. I would say there are 3 sets of instructions on how you can sharpen a blade; I prefer the ones located on the cardboard table. This system has already paid for itself since my husband and I did not need to buy new kitchen knives and or take them in on occasion. The construction is very solid and can turn the most novice knife sharpener into a pro if judging the blade edge. If you want to have razor sharp knifes on a moments notice this will exceed your expectations. Only thing I warn is yes the old saying is correct “A dull knife is more dangerous than a sharp one”. However, I would add a razor sharp blade is not as forgiving as a sharpened blade. After sharpening with this system be very careful your knives, they will be scary (in a pleasant way) sharp; more so than from the factory! Some tips below I've picked up that have helped me sharpen my blades quick, precise and without mishap:1. Tape the Blade Up: I place some masking tape on then peel it carefully over the edge to cut a silhouette 1x per side. I peel off then place it aside then with both silhouettes I place them back on just revealing the blade where is will make contact with the belt. This protects the blade while learning efficiently without having to fatting up the knife with tape.2. Practice With a Cheap Knife: The real skill is when to let go of the trigger so that is does not grind more on the tip of the blade than the recommended "1 inch per second" and following the contour of the knife edge while maintaining proper contact with the belt.3. It Can Make a Mess: After sharpening 8 or so blades I noticed my dining table (live in an studio so no man cave garage here) covered in shavings and whatnot. I later noticed it was all to the right of the sharpener. So I placed it to the left of my kitchen sink after making sure there was no water and whatnot on my counter. This made most of the shavings fall in the sink making for easy cleanup.4. Wear Eye Protection: I noticed (thankfully while wearing eye pro) that left grind shoots debris shoots straight up in your face if you're like me watching closely if the knife is properly being inserted and pulled. It would really suck to get that in your eyes and looking back after sharpening 14+ knives. I also wished I had a face mask for the first marathon since you will be looking and making excuses to sharpen every blade in the house to make it pass the paper test.5. Master the Marathon: I noticed that the main difference between say a kitchen knife and pocket knife is the angle since they both use the same main 3 belt grits (coarse, medium and fine). If I’m going to have a sharpening marathon I separate my kitchen and pocket knifes yet use the same belts instead changing the belts per group of knives. The only thing I change is the angle degree. This helps speed up the process instead of changing everything out for each pile or worse per knife.6. Check For Crooked Burrs While Keeping Count: I’ve noticed the best way to ruin your edge is losing count or what side went in last, thus causing an annoying crooked burr. My method is the right side is “odd” numbers while the left is “even” to help with remembering where to start. I count to the total number of strokes ie if it calls for 10 I count to 20 total. This also means I go to right to left until I reach 10 which would be 5 per side and good time to check for burrs. Then 10 more starting at 11 so the “right” side of the system. With this method I have yet to notice burrs ever occurring thus speeding through the process precisely.Thank you I hope this helped, I wouldn’t have spent the time to write this if I didn’t feel this Worksharp didn’t impress me as it did.