Knife Sharpening Magic Angle Finder Heres a quick Technique of the Week to get us started.

You often read that you should sharpen your knife to 20 or 15 or some other seemingly arbitrary number. If you have a standard European-style (German, French or something along those lines) chefs knife, it probably has edge angles of 20-25 per side. A western-style Japanese chefs knife (Shun, Mac, Global, et at) will have edge angles about 15-16 per side. The trick is being able to find and repeat those angles. Thats where the Magic Angle Finder comes in. I wont go into the math, but you can divide the height of the blade (at the heel) by a specific number to find out how high to raise the spine above the sharpening stone for a given angle. It sounds more complicated than it really is. Heres how it works: For 20 divide by 3 For 15 divide by 4 For 12 divide by 5 For 10 divide by 6 For 8 divide by 7 So, if your chefs knife is 1.5 inches tall, measured from spine to edge, and you want to put a 20 edge on it, just divide 1.5 by 3 to get .5 inches. Lay the knife flat on the stone and then raise the spine .5 inches. You have just set the edge angle at 20. It works in metric, too. If you want to put a racy 12 edge angle on your Japanese gyuto and it is 45mm wide at the heel, just divide 45 by 5 to get 9. Raise the spine to 9mm above the stone and you are good to go. It can be a little tedious to sit there with a ruler, checking to make sure youre at the right height but the payoff in consistency is well worth it. It also helps ingrain the angles into muscle memory so that the next time is much easier. Materials Best value for a generic, three stone, synthetic, Japanese waterstone kit: CKtG's kit which includes a loupe, a felt block for deburring, a Beston 500, Bester 1200, and Suehiro Rika. My synthetic, Japanese waterstone kit: Beston 500; Bester 1200, Chosera 3K, Gesshin 8K. My stropping compounds on a balsa base, used for polishing: 2u diamond, followed by 0.5u or 0.25u diamond. I occasionally use an un-loaded horsehide strop on a hard, flat base to true a very hard knife and/or an extremely asymmetic edge. I don't do basic sharpening on a strop. I don't do anything on sandpaper anymore.

Best "cost is no object" synthetic Japanese waterstone kit: Gesshin 400, Gesshin 2K, Gesshin 8K (Gesshin stones are availible from JKI only). Best cost no object flattener (my choice as well): DMT XXC. Best value for flattening: 3M Drywall Screen. Best cost no object rod hone kit: Idahone 12" fine ceramic + HA borosilicate. Best value rod hone kit: Idahone 12" fine ceramic + nothing. My choice of rod hones: Old, worn, fine Henckles + HA borosilicate. Best choice for deburring: Felt block, wine cork, and/or a piece of soft wood.