[chefboy2160]

Good day to all you sharp knife lovers ! I have been reading a lot of posts on sharpening chef knives and for the most part I see either sharpen to 20/22 degrees and some who include a double bevel with a 15/20 (ala Chad). I have mostly been a 20 degree guy for chefs knives with a small micro bevel on my finishing stone (surgical black Arkansas). My grandpa used to call this micro beveling cleaning up the edge and I never really gave a thought to micro beveling until reading some of these forums on knife sharpening.
A question: Do you think cleaning the edge by raising the knife very slightly is enough of a micro bevel or do you think results would be better by actually trying to get as precise of a 5 degree micro bevel as possible? My current burr removal probably adds 2 to 3 more degrees to the final edge.
Also I have recently changed the bevels on a couple of Forschner fibrox and rosewood stamped blades to 15 degrees instead of the traditional 20 on info read on this forum and man what a difference it has made in there performance!
I also find steeling softly between stones aides burr removal. I think I am going to take some of my old hi carbon knives, Sabatier, Old Hickory, Old Forge and Regent Sheffield and bring them down to a 15 degrees also.
I use three stones in my sharpening a Norton India combo course/fine,
a Halls combo soft and hard Arkansas and a surgical black Halls Arkansas.
All stones are 2" x 8" except the black which is 3"x 8"(a great deal for 50 bucks at the local cutlery store as no one wanted a stone that big).
I use an old F-Dick steel which used to have fine grooves ( 25 years ago my chef gave it to me as it was almost smooth and wore out in his opinion) so Ive just hurried the smoothing process with some sandpaper and now its a pretty smooth steel.
Also does anybody use a strop for a final polish and if so what knives do you use it on?
Thanks and stay sharp, Doug..............