My husband has a Lansky kit too and the diamond stick is falling it out of the handle and we bought them about 3 years ago or so, but they doa nice job. When he doesn't want to bring it with his uses a plastic hand held one, he has a gray one and a yellow one. The gray one is about 7 years old and the other one I just picked up w/in the last year. The advantage though is that you have the different coarseness all in one box. My dad always used a wet stone and he used to have to figure out how much pressure to use and when, which is a draw back if you don't have to sharpen your knives very often. I guess to each their own, it's all personal preference and which one gives you the result you want.