Angle is the hardest part, I'm just now getting the hang of maintaining the angle that I want, which by my rough estimates appears to be around 18-20 degrees. I don't own a protractor so I can't tell for sure. As for the actual sharpening process, other than angles, I've seen several methods, and they all work, from running the blade across the stone in a slicing motion, which works well on a very fine grit diamond stone to get a shaving sharp edge, to running the blade away from the cutting edge across the stone. I saw a youtube video last night where the gentleman, holding the knife pointing away from him, drew the knife toward him 1st to sharpen out to the tip of the knife, then in an s-motion across the strop, pushed the blade away from him to get the rest of the blade. I would start on youtube for a few ideas, just search for knife sharpening, and then take what ideas work best for you. Also, I'd start sharpening with a cheaper knife, so you can keep your good ones from being chewed up.