General knife talk

[blades]

I use the Edge-Pro doohickey to sharpen my knives. and I keep a log of what 'settings' aka 'angles'
I use a 10x loupe to see/evaluate what I'm doing/have done.

for 10 years I did the free hand stone thing - never managed to impress myself.
the Edge-Pro is far superior for establishing a consistent edge - and the cutting performance of the same knives speaks to the doohickey's ability to produce a bad-xss edge.

there are any number of similar sharpening gadgets. since I don't sharpen knives on a weekly/daily basis and don't have 30 years to perfect my skills . . . these styles of guided sharpening devices are a real boon.

chef's: 10 + 8 + 6
slicers: 10 + 8 + 6
plus santoku, boning, , , and misc paring, etc etc

I too use the edge pro. A guided system like that maintains a consistent angle throughout the process and produces a better edge in less time. My kitchen knives are all Japanese made with thin hard blades and I use 15 degrees per side for all of them except for cleavers which I grind to 25 degrees per side.