I recently had a birthday and guess what showed up at my permanent mailing address (Not where I currently live).......
an awesome gift from my uncle 
.
Although I don't know exactly what is contained in the box, what I do know is that I am now the owner of 250 knives/swords/who knows what else from Frost Cutlery (Yeah, the same one as seen on TV if you stay up late enough).
This sealed the deal for me on this purchase, as I now have 250 pieces of plastic and scrap metal to practice my sharpening skills on. I will grind the crap out of these blades and see what happens. I'll also still practice using the stones and advice from the knife makers on this forum. Either way, I am willing to spend the money on the machine just for fun now that I have a bunch of items that should be destroyed anyway.
When I'm done, maybe I'll ship them all back to China where they belong and ban my uncle from buying me gifts without first consulting a sane member of my family.
Thanks again for those that replied on this thread and those who sent me pm's,
Mike