Reply To: Struggling to Improve Sharpening Technique
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Maybe this will help: Keep remembering Paul’s admonition to spend a lot of time on the heel. Working the heel doesn’t help the edge you are trying to get at the moment, but distributed over many sharpenings, you are spreading out the work needed to deal with a thick edge. Doing this will reduce the work when it comes time to deal with the thick edge.
Some people don’t like the idea of using a coarse stone once a bevel has been polished out and like to resharpen with finer or even the finest stones. That’s fine, but you can still go to the coarse and stay only on the heel for a bit, then go to the finer stones for the other work. Paul doesn’t do that, but goes to the coarse and takes it all the way to the edge on each sharpening. That leads to the second suggestion…be patient and let the sharpening work its way to the edge rather than lifting the handle or otherwise increasing the angle. With time, you’ll probably start to notice there’s a grabby sort of feeling that happens as the sharpening reaches the edge and there’s a change in sound, too, to a bit of a scratchy sound.