Sometime recently, a whetsone appeared in our kitchen. It looked lonely, so I spent some quality time with it and our various kitchen knives yesterday.

I'm sure my technique can be improved, but the results are encouraging. Our 8 inch chef's knife is the knife that sees the most use in our kitchen. I think it went from "I'd be pretty happy to find a knife this sharp at my [friend/family]'s house" before to "oh, that's right, you cut by gently guiding the knife in the direction you want to cut" afterwards. So at least part of the sharpening did the right thing.

Chopping apples later, though, it felt like the direct-chop action was not quite as good as it had been. So I suspect my mid-knife sharpness got tweaked during the process.

So now I need to try it again. More practice and all that. The process seems less indimidating, having done it once.

(And no, I didn't start with the chefs knife. I couldn't cook if I screwed that one up! Before I got my confidence up to do that, I did the paring boning knife and 6" utility knives. I don't remember the last time the paring knife was this sharp.)