I'm still playing around with my Hogue EX01 tanto, but I just realized I've been horribly spoiled by the Wicked Edge already. I got a CRKT M16 14SF in for a customer and friend of mine and I'm really unimpressed by the factory edge! The grind is nice though, maybe I'll end up upgrading it for him

I've always had good luck hand sharpening but I've gotten spoiled too by the speed and ease that I can try new things and get repeatable results. That hasn't always been the case freehand. It takes a lot of the worry out of the process because if you try something and you don't like it or it doesn't work out like you thought it is easy to go back to what you know works or try something else. I would upgrade... with his permission of course.