They are a thing of beauty. Busted out the Spyderco Sharpmaker today and whetted the edges on all the kitchen knives, my edc knives, the wife’s backpacking knife, and the daughter’s Johnny Cade knife. Pro tip: after you finish sharpening a knife, strop it on the back of a tablet or on some random junk mail. That puts the final polish on the edge that takes it from razor sharp to screaming effing sharp.
We’re glowing like the metal on the edge of a knife…
Much to my wife’s chagrin I tend to keep my sharpmaker on the kitchen counter for instant use.
When we go visit relatives I’m tasked with keeping their knives sharp.
And by “strop it on the back of a tablet” Scumpup means a pad of paper, not a hand-held computer…
Now, bring me that tomato.
I regularly sharpen our knives using a special belt sander. Puts a super sharp edge on them. Unfortunately, this usually result in my bride sporting several band aids the next few days. They say that a dull knife is more dangerous than a sharp one. Not at my house, it isn’t.
I keep trying to do it with a honing stone and getting nowhere.
Your wife might be the dull knife then. 
Err, I’m a bit embarrassed to admit that I wondered about that…
Get a diamond hone such as this one from Harbor Freight-
http://www.harborfreight.com/4-sided-diamond-hone-block-92867.html
It works quite well.
That’s exactly the one I’ve been using. No complicated setup, sharpens fast.