The Sharpie Trick and Waterstone Knife Sharpening Guide
The best thing you can do for your knives , especially good ones, is to learn how to use a water stone , but learning how to do this can be tricky. Luckily, this (very detailed) guide from KnifePlanet teaches you how to go from start to finish and includes a simple method to make sure you are sharpened enough to make a difference.
The Sharpie Trick, as they call it, is simple:
Speaking of building muscle memory, here’s a good self-confidence exercise for you: paint over the edge of the knife and bevel it with the point, then sharpen the knife at an angle that will pull the edge off . In many cases it will be close to 20 degrees anyway. When you are successful, repeat the process ten times . Now flip the blade over and do it on the other side, you don’t have to press hard here, just a little. You want to get to the point where you can place the knife in the SRA Sharpie Removal Angle every first time.
You might want to practice with the correct angle of the knife, which you care a little less about, before you break out your favorite knife and go to work here. We must also mention that the Sharpy trick is actually deeply covered in this guide – if you are starting with the basics and have never used water stone, you should start at the very beginning, where the guide explains the different stone sizes available, which are the ones you should select, and the accessories you need for your sharpening station. Luckily, you don’t need much – just a water stone, a stone holder, water and a towel, not to mention your knife.
Hence it is all about learning the correct angles and how to move the knife over the water stone, how to keep it well oiled while you do it, and how to feel the changes you make to the knife’s burr as you straighten the tip. After you sharpen the knife and lift the burr, you move on to actually improving the blade and its overall sharpness.
The video above is a step-by-step guide from start to finish and is well worth watching, but if you want to follow step by step, click on the link below. It is definitely worth bookmarking if you want to learn how to do it yourself (as opposed to sending the knives to a sharpening professional who has already mastered the technique).