how do you sharpen for kitchen knives?

(remember dad had a thing like a can opener but with washer that you ran the knife through)

..this guy will show ya.

I've tried different systems through the years with varying degrees of success.
Here's a link to the sharpening tool I'm using now, the first tool I've used that has given me consistently sharp edges. HIghly recommended.

http://www.amazon.com/Work-Sharp-WSKTS-K...knife+sharpener

Bob.

Walk in any day, grab any knife in our knife drawer including steak knives, and you can do that guy's 'paper trick'. I use a Korin Stone for basic sharpening and then a steel to align the fibers. Most important is to sharpen the knife along the SAME angle(s) as it was done originally, DIFFERENT between western and Japanese, and DIFFERENT between one side of Japanese blade and the other.

ront

For sharpening, I prefer working with whetstones by hand.

For very rough sharpening, I have a Norton synthetic oil stone, coarse and medium (more likely medium and fine, but compared to the rest of my stones, it's coarse). On simple kitchen knives, this and a diamond steel is likely all that gets done.

For more routine edge maintenance on finer blades, I have a japanese water stone, with very fine grits. 1000/4000.

I finish with a rouge-loaded leather strop.

J