Years ago, when I lived in Seattle, I remember meeting an old Japanese blacksmith. I found him when I was looking to buy some of the pull-style hand saws, but when I met him to pick up the wares, it turned into a bit of a social call.
He must've been around 80 or so, lived by himself in a house that was half home half workshop. Got into talking about saws and chisels and blades and sharpening, complete with a Mr.Miyagi-esque riddle of "what does it mean to cut something?"
I walked out of there having learned how to quickly and effectively sharpen a blade -- hold a steady angle consistent with the rough grind of the edge, push into the grain of the stone, and remove the burr. Seeing that in this book brought this memory back :)
Practice. It is one of those things like riding a bike that you have to put in the time and mess up at if you want to master. It might take an hour or two to get that first blade sharp but once you develop the skill it will become easy. The biggest thing is to pay attention to what you are doing, how you hold the blade and the movements you are making and how that affects the edge. Check the edge often and examine the marks left by the stone, nice straight parallel even grooving tells you things are as they should be; they will appear slightly curved and/or look as if they fade away if you are changing angle during the stroke. The marks will actually tell you everything you are doing wrong or right once you learn to read them and some purposeful and exaggerated 'mistakes' can be helpful in learning to read them.
He had different wedges of wood with angles matched to different plane irons -- the wood would slide on the table/bench while the edge of the blade would go over the stone. Holding the iron against the angled block seemed to keep the angle consistent.
Roll the blade forward until the oil/water squeezes out from under it. You’ll see that happen when the blade is flat. Check out Rex Krueger’s sharpening videos on YouTube to see this in action
I can't tell you how difficult it was to sharpen my little paring knife accurately.
And then I tried on my big chef's knife, and it was soooo much easier to hold the angle properly.
2) Your knife doesn't need to be razor sharp
I see this all the time, but putting that good an edge on a functional knife is useless wankery (if you're shaving with a straight razor, this does not apply). Studies show that the edge dulls itself down almost immediately upon usage. The edge still works well, but it won't cut your hairs anymore.
do not believe other answer that says to just "practice" - you cannot hope to steady a blade with sub-millimeter precision, you must secure it...if you are off by a fraction of a mm you are resetting the edge
Kitchen knives are a laughably low bar for sharpening and most chefs don't care because their knives are destroyed, damaged or stolen in short order anyway
In kitchens I have worked in, knives were delivered by a service once a week, no one wastes time honing. Those chefs showing off their $5k custom knives get them stolen by dishwashers, these are for home users only imho
Sharpening straight razors is where you actually learn how to hone
Japanese saws were written about in one of the editions of the Whole Earth Catalog, which I had read back in the day. The WEC was on the front page of HN recently.
He must've been around 80 or so, lived by himself in a house that was half home half workshop. Got into talking about saws and chisels and blades and sharpening, complete with a Mr.Miyagi-esque riddle of "what does it mean to cut something?"
I walked out of there having learned how to quickly and effectively sharpen a blade -- hold a steady angle consistent with the rough grind of the edge, push into the grain of the stone, and remove the burr. Seeing that in this book brought this memory back :)