Which sharpener for far away family members?

[Rimu]

As you all know, using a truly sharp knife, pair of scissors, garden tool etc is such satisfying experience, which sadly I fear the average person gets to experience with any regularity.

It always makes me happy to be able to sharpen knives for family and friends, but some of them live far enough away that it can be quite a while in between visits to my T-8...

For people that live farther away is there a layman's sharpener that I could give them to help maintain their edges?

Obviously it needs to dead simple. Is a normal steel the best option or?

[RichColvin]

The T-1 is my recommendation.  My sister moved away and needed such a solution. She now has a T-1 and loves it.

[Royale]

Consider a hanging leather strop as a user friendly alternative.

It's flexible, conforms to the cutting edge (especially useful for people who sharpen infrequently), and it won't change the blade geometry so much that you'll have to reprofile their knives each time they bring them over to you (saving time)

The risky part of providing an alternative (like a honing steel) is that you're not there to stop bad technique, or over sharpening.

Even though I sharpen knives for a living, I don't sell customers any sharpening tools, only a leather strop mounted on a rectangular plastic backing. That way, it's much more forgiving to bad technique, and saves me time with reprofiling the next time they visit. (I've repaired too many concave knives to trust customers)

[tgbto]

The only system I advise for people not interested in learning basic sharpening technique is a rod-based system where fine-grit ceramic rods are set at a fixed angle and the knife is held vertical.

It's rather foolproof and will not damage the knifes too much, while keeping the edge in an acceptable shape. Alternate strokes on each side, not more than 3 strokes when the knife feels dull. And it occupies very little real estate when stored.