How do you sharpen a knife?

I am expanding this answer for James Eisner .
The first thing is to decide what this knife will be for. The more robust the work, the more robust the edge needs to be. That is, you need to have more material behind the edge to make sure it doesn’t chip or roll.

Personally, I put a 25 degree angle on general purpose and field knives, and a 30 degree angle on my tomahawks, axes, and swords. Kitchen knives get a 20 degree angle.
But note, that angle not the overall angle, but the angle of the edge relative to the plane of the blade.

So now that you know what angle you’d like to sharpen at, just how do you go about achieving that angle?
Well, you could use a a quick sharpener.

But I really recommend against using something like this. They’re one-size-fits-all solutions, and tend to take off more material than necessary while leaving an okay edge at best. These are really only for people who don’t want to sharpen their knives, but don’t want to pay someone to do a proper job.
I got something like this for my mother, because it’s not better, but slightly easier and safer to use than the above, but it produces the same results. At least it has course and fine options. I got it for her because I can’t always take my sharper over to keep her knives sharp. It’s for her to use as a stopgap until I can do a proper job for her.

If you want to do a proper job, at minimum you need a stone with a course and fine side.

But what is course and fine mean? It describes the grit of the stone. The higher the number, the finer the grit.
Less than 1000 is typically used to repair damage edges. If you have chipping, severe rolling, or are trying to put an edge on for the first time. It’s also useful for re- profiling an edge, which means to change the edge angle. This is a course grit.
1000–3000 is your typical sharpening grit. If you have a two-grit system, this is your “course” grit. If you have a three-stone system, this is “medium”.
Above 3000 is for honing your edge. Honing is actually polishing your edge. It’s the difference between an edge that is sharp and an edge that is sharp enough you don’t feel it cut you.
Now these are your three basic categories. You get an awful lot of different stones at different grits fro what you want to do. The sharpening system I use, detailed below, has an extra course 120 grit which I’ve never used, course 220 which I’ve used for repair and re-profiling, medium 1000 which is where I usually start for resharpening, fine 3000 grit which I usually use to hone, and extra-fine 6000 grit for when I want an extra-sharp edge.
As for what size of stone to get, that really depends on the size of blade you plan to sharpen. There’s not really a “right” answer, but know that smaller stones will take more passes to do the same work.
6″ stones are the smallest I’d recommend, unless you’re looking for a pocket stone.
8″ is pretty common
10+” are also available and suitable for larger tools and blades.
What about lubrication? Well you should read what is recommended for your stone. Water and oil are the usual lubricants, but some stones can be used dry. Just follow instructions.
For how to actually do the sharpening, you want to hold the blade against the stone, held both up at the proper edge angle, and slightly off perpendicular to the line of the stone.

Draw the blade along the stone, ideally getting the entire length of the edge per pass, though that isn’t always achievable. If you can’t get it in one pass, you’ll want your next stroke to overlap slightly so that your sharpening is continuous. You’ll have to rotate somewhat towards the tip to maintain the proper edge angle.

Now, you should also be aware that there are many ways to actually draw the knife, and everyone is dead-set that theirs is the best way. You can draw towards the edge, away from the edge, base to tip or tip to base.

Personally I think the best way to do it is what is mechanically easiest and most consistent for you, and that produces the best results. With a large stone, where the blade is moving, I usually draw towards the edge, as I find that easier. With a small stone, where I’m drawing the stone and the blade is fixed, such as when using a pocket stone, I draw away from the edge because it’s safer. I’m less likely to slice my fingers.
If your using a bench stone, which is what I really recommend, you can develop your ability to hold the proper edge with guides.

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Until you develop the feel to do this yourself, you can use a guide like this. With this style, it’s fixed to the stone, you feel the angle, and just draw by hand after that. Some guides attach to the blade and travel with it each stroke.
I find that, typically, ten passes on each side, per grit, produces a good edge. However, for whichever grit you use last, I recommend alternating edges to avoid finishing with a burr.
You’ll note that sometimes you do create a burr along the opposite side from which you’re sharpening.

This is normal. It just means that you’ve sharpened that side as much as possible at that grit. When you go to sharpen the other side, that burr should come off as a thin little wire. But you don’t want a burr when your finished, hence alternating sides on the final grit.
When you’re done, you can test your edge several ways. The paper test, as you saw in the video above, or the finger nail test, are popular. However, I prefer to check with my thumb. But this takes experience. Use one of the other methods first.
Once you’ve determined that your edge is sharp, gently draw your thumb across and slightly away from the edge.

If it feels smooth or rounded, it’s dull. If it catches, you have a burr or a nick. If sort of tickles your thumbpad, it’s sharp.
It will take time to develop the skill to test this way, which is why you want to use a more obvious and less skill-dependent method first, and then develop your touch.
Once you have developed the feel, you can determine if your edge needs to be redone from course, routinely sharpened from medium, or just touched up with fine.

However, I have a lot of edged tools, and a while ago I got tired of sharpening everything by hand. I spent about $250 on a belt sharpening system.

Ken Onion Edition Knife & Tool Sharpener
Blade Grinding Attachment, Ken Onion Edition
For kitchen knives, I set the edge angle to 20 degrees, which is really easy on this rig. Then just run the blade over the belt until it’s sharp. Now, I’m a bit of a fanatic for sharp knives, so I put more effort into this than is strictly necessary. But my knives are wicked sharp when I’m done.
I also sharpen my mother’s knives about once a year because she won’t learn how to do it. Even after I bought her a nice stone set (coarse, medium, fine) for about $50. My dad’s belt sander isn’t really suitable to knife sharpening.
Worse, for about 15 years my mother thought the honing rod was the same thing as a knife sharpener. She’d grown accustomed to dull knives, and was amazed at how well they cut. She also cut herself a bunch until she got used to knives that were actually sharp.

Original question- How do you sharpen your knives?

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There are a few ways of doing this. I will list them from easiest to hardest.
you can go to a professional knife sharpener and pay him to sharpen your knives.
You can buy an electric knife sharpener and sharpen your knives using that.
3. You can sharpen you knife with a wet stone jig like this:

4. Final the hardest to master technique is to free hand sharpen.

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