Not to beat a dead horse but if you have any experience in high end metal work you know a human will never be as good as a computer controlled machine. Through college and high school I worked in a very high end prototype shop of sorts, if you own an oven your gasket was made by our machines. CNC's , plasma cutters, etc. are doing far far more complex cuttings and millings than skate sharpening. This is why they invented the lathe, CNC and a billion other automated metal working machines, humans simply cannot provide the same level of consistency let alone adherence to strict tolerances. The fast majority of things you purchase from large/medium scale manufactures were produced by an automated process. The point is moot though as all these machines are very very expensive and need to be run by a skilled operator who knows the ins and outs of metal working. I don't see a day where you could get any significant return on investment because you would still need to hire an operator that knows at least the basics of sharpening, so why not train him and forget the million dollar CNC. This takes nothing away from a skilled sharpener, any person who is capable of examining metal and then using a tool to properly shape that metal is an artisan to some degree. The higher level guys skills are truly impressive and if you have the good fortune of having one close by I envy you. As an aside I don't know how some of you came up with some of the ideas posted in this thread, automation is what makes all of our lives possible. Automation is in everything from breakfast cereal to paper mills, I suggest you learn more about it before posting.