I JUST bought and edge pro and here is my take:
This thing is the last sharpener I will ever buy, period. Ive done it by hand, with belts, lanskys, sharpmakers, etc etc. Ive made absurdly sharp knives with all those methods. That being said, this thing is the nuts. Not only is it producing sharper blades than i've ever been able to replicate (read: whittling hairs into little trees), but the bevels are GORGEOUS. If you take it through the polishing tapes, the bevels are literally mirror polished. Not close to mirror polished, i mean spotless-see-your-face-in-them spotless. On top of that, they are geometrically symmetrical and even in every way. I was shocked how amazing the bevels looked in comparison to other methods. I think this might be a bigger point for a maker selling knives than someone who just wants their knife sharp, though....I always thought my edge bevels looked good until I got this.
The system seems like it will work on almost every type of blade. I would say TIGHT recurves would need the thinner stones to not dish out the bevel, but thats a problem that i've yet to see a sharpener fix without it using round rods, which has its own disadvantages. The Edgepro site even has tips on handling those situations and makes special stones specifically for them.
I also would avoid using it on integrals or sweeping plunges. The geometry where the plunge line is causes dishing in the cutting bevel due to the stones being flat, but again, thats a problem with every method other than belt sanding with a flexible belt. You could probably modify a stone to handle it, though.
I got the kit with 120, 220, 320, 800, polishing tapes and ceramic rod and i doubt i'll need anything else other than re-ordering 120 grit stones, but thats because i am setting new bevels, not just sharpening existing bevels.
Will it do it faster? It depends....i'd say yes because i've yet to see a human able to hold an 18 degree bevel hundreds of times in a row enough to produce a perfectly even mirror finished bevel. You can whip on bevels that will shave hair in a few minutes, but itll take a little while to go through every stone and tape. For a truely top notch edge, i'd prefer quality over time investment every time.
Thats my $.02....
For a point of reference, here is how sharp i could get knives before the EdgePro...this is a crazy difficulty cut. Single piece of paper rolled, freestanding, severed without knocking it over. Even though I could produce those sharpness blades before, I still think this thing takes everything to the next level:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EK6KIVK6UWk
makes me want to pull the rest of my hair out. I have been using a 1x30 HF mainly for starting a bevel but sharpening this way also has its drawbacks like DONT MESS UP so I try to only use it when needed. I was looking at the apex model mainly because of the price but after reading all the info I could find on the two I see no difference between them besides the size or is that it?