Haven't tried the electric sharpener, so don't know about those. I have bought blades at Harbor Frieght, and some cheap ones off of ebay, forgot which shop, someone on here posted about the deal though. I hated the harbor freight ones, trash in my opinion, and the ebay ones aren't much better, so from now on, I'm only buying name brand ones, will just try to catch sales/coupons! With some things, you truly do get what you pay for.