Sharpening Knives

[yocan]

I think my swiss army knife is around 18 or so, a ka-bar is 20, cold steels are from 25-30 in practice (the website suggests 23-25)

The stone sharpening kits that lock the blade down due to variances in the distance from the sharpening stones pivot point and the blade, the angles will not be consistent throughout the blade. However lock it near the handle and the "fine working" part of the blade gets the higher degree angle, and the end gets the lower degree but longer lasting edge, the only problem is to avoid slight rolling curves, I think you would have to lock the blade in the same place consistently every time you sharpen it. I good stone works fine, start going backwards across the stone, then at the end go forward alternating every swipe to eliminate any burs, curls in the metal, due the sharpening in a motion that the whole blade is gone over in every swipe or you can develop steps in the blade.