[DiamondWillow]

I saw a demo at a Carving show, the demo was put on by Mr Ellenwood.
He used MDF board and glued a piece of 300 grit sand paper to it and then sharpened all his tools on that. Then laid 500 grit over that 300 piece and fine tuned the tools. He then honed them on the cardboard from a tablet with some white abrasive rubbed on it. All tools including V's, gouges, knives....

The MDF was not turned or in a circle, it was the size of a piece of sandpaper. The whole process was very, very simple and it would be a very good (cheap) system for any new carver.

It does take some time to sharpen a tool, but is certainly cheap. I did buy his video, because I was very impressed with his sharpening method. (Even though I do also own a Burke Sharpener)
The sand paper method would be very good in a class or seminar situation.
Now that is probably more info than you needed.

Gene

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

That's kind of a simplied version of 'scary sharp' Gene...I still use it that system in conjunction with the burke and stones and etc etc.... Difference is I start with 400 grit, then 800, 1200 and end with 2000 then strop......shiny as a babies ...errr bottle!