Originally Posted by rburg

One of the first steps to take is acquire a good magic marker, the permanent kind. Don't believe the permanent part, it grinds right off! Then make a line about an eighth inch wide right down the cutting edge of both sides. A good magnifier helps a bunch. Then take a few strokes and look at your line. It tells you where you're taking metal off. Anything above the first 1/16th of an inch means you're wasting your time, effort, and the knife material. You only sharpen the edge, nothing else.