Step 4: Sharpening the knife. Starting with the coarsest stone needed for your knife, you'll progress through each finer stone until you've reached the desired level of sharpness.
Rest your knife on the stone at your chosen bevel angle. An easy method for determining the angle by eye is to visualize a 45 degree angle and then take half that amount. That will give you a ballpark estimate of the angle and then you can adjust accordingly up or down. With a slicing action bring the length of the knife across the stone with a motion that starts with the heel of the knife on the stone and ends with the point of the knife. The motion should resemble a sweeping arc pattern across your stone. Be very careful to maintain the angle of the knife on the stone. Longer curved knives provide additional challenges but as long as you can maintain the angle you'll be sharpening very effectively. Repeat this process on the other side of the knife and continue repeating until you've sharpened your knife though all your stone grits.
