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It’s a tactile thing, how you position your wrist and the pressure you apply to the blade when creating the burr. Quite satisfying when you discover it. But you’re finding the angle that is good for you, not the angle the blade may have had when you first brought it. So that angle will be slightly different for different people as their technique for finding the angle is different.
If that makes sense. -
How on earth do people get a consistent angle?
Keeping my arms as a static frame, and generating the movement with my upper body seems to work.
I've not done any courses though, and have no external reference point, so could be doing it entirely wrong.
Also, my sharpening stones are cupped af.
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Practice. Not every day, but at least once a week, for years in my case. I use a double sided DMT diamond stone for everyday sharpening, I can reach for it and get my regular chef’s knife sharp in a few minutes then down to slicing. A Wickededge would be a faff by comparison, but I totally understand the appeal, and the frustration it removes. When I started sharpening, videos on how to do it were few and far between. I can also remember using the coin under the blade method for judging the angle, which is completely unhelpful. Blades come in different widths. They taper, and they curve towards the point. It’s a problem you have to solve with your perceptions and your body movement, not with coins. Like other forms of mastery, it’s great when you start to get it, but a royal pain before that point.
With all that said, when I take in knives from friends and neighbours to sharpen, they are often so blunt that even a beginner’s efforts with a stone would yield some improvement, so I always encourage people to try themselves. Just because you can’t slice tissue paper doesn’t mean you have failed.
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@nick_h.
How on earth do people get a consistent angle? If I did a course I'm sure I'd understand the theory, but I couldn't train my hand to do precise, consistent 15 degree strokes. And forget about changing to consistent 25 degree strokes for a different knife. If you don't practice your sharpening every day, how do you ever become competent? The joy of the Wicked Edge gadget is that even the first knife you sharpen can be perfect.