I've always envied people who could sharpen a knife to a razor quality edge in minutes with little effort. I bought more knife sharpening systems than I care to admit and some worked OK, some were terrible, but none seemed to give me the razor sharpness I was looking for.

When I retired 3 years ago I vowed to myself that I would learn to properly sharpen a knife - freehand. I purchased full size high quality Arkansas Stones in medium, fine and extra fine grit and a can of honing oil. I practiced with knives that I didn't care about and night after night I would experiment with different techniques, angles, etc. One night everything just came together and viola...... I had my razor sharp knife in minutes! Now the knives in my kitchen are capable of performing surgery..... in fact I usually cut myself in the kitchen at least once a week.

I now routinely sharpen knives for friends, neighbors, and hunting buddies, and actually have become pretty adept at it. It's now fun! The secret for me is that I mount the Arkansas stone in its wooden box in my workbench vise which is the perfect height and angle for me to have full control of the knife blade. A few strokes and the knife is back to razor sharp condition. I'm just ticked off it took me so long to figure it out!

Chief38