or just being a better steward of my time? Time was, before crock sticks, Sharpmakers, and DMT, that I spent hours freehanding edges on all my knives. The bevels were never quite the same from side to side 
but they were always hair-poppin' sharp.
Short of re-setting bevels, nowadays I tend to swipe them a few times across a stone and then run them through one of the jigs like a Sharpmaker, Lansky, or DMT aligner for 10 or 20 strokes and I'm done. Nice, even bevels and still hair-poppin' sharp. Just a few minutes per blade vs. what used to take an hour or more on novaculites.
Problem is, after learning and doing it the hard way for 35 years, I feel a little guilty about how easy it is to get a great edge on even the toughest steels.
but they were always hair-poppin' sharp.Short of re-setting bevels, nowadays I tend to swipe them a few times across a stone and then run them through one of the jigs like a Sharpmaker, Lansky, or DMT aligner for 10 or 20 strokes and I'm done. Nice, even bevels and still hair-poppin' sharp. Just a few minutes per blade vs. what used to take an hour or more on novaculites.
Problem is, after learning and doing it the hard way for 35 years, I feel a little guilty about how easy it is to get a great edge on even the toughest steels.
