Alternate title: "How I managed to take something simple and make it appear boring and complicated." 
The most crucial aspect of successfully sharpening and maintaining a knife edge is the ability to consistently hold your knife at the same angle while sharpening it. Many people resort to buying complicated and/or expensive sharpening gear in order to accomplish this. Such gear is typically impractical to bring with you outside the home, and you can't always wait until you return home in order to resharpen your knife. A knife must be sharp when you need to use it, and this is why the ability to sharpen your knife in the field is important to learn.
Thankfully there are a couple of easy methods to hold the same angle when sharpening your knife in the field by using a simple angle guide. Angle guides are not normally used in the ways that I am about to describe to you. It's likely that you never realized you could use them like this. You probably thought you could only lay the guide on top of your sharpening stone, and that was the only way to use it. That's not true.
This doesn't rely on any fancy equipment. All you need is either a flat rectangular pocket stone or a ceramic rod of any shape (round, square, triangular, whatever). The next and final thing you need is a small angle guide. These items can be easily carried in a pocket or a pouch of some kind.
The first method I am going to show you is something that I managed to figure out on my own, and it works best if you have a level surface available, such as a table or a park bench. You start by setting your angle guide on top of this level surface. You then place one end of a pocket stone sideways on top of your angle guide. You then hold the blade of your knife at a 90 degree angle to the level surface, or the bottom of the angle guide, or the ground, so that the edge of the blade is pointed straight down and the spine is pointed straight up. Holding your knife in this orientation, you can then sharpen it on the high side of the pocket stone.
If you're confused by my description, then just look at this image:
Hold your knife parallel to the yellow dotted line and sharpen along the side of the stone indicated by the purple arrow.
The reason this works is that the angle of the side of the pocket stone to an imaginary line which is perpendicular to the bottom of the angle guide (represented by the yellow dotted line in the image) is the same as the angle of the guide itself. If your angle guide is 17 degrees, then you will be able to sharpen your knife at 17 degrees simply by holding your knife perpendicular to the ground (straight up and down). It is easier to consistently hold your knife vertically straight up and down than it is to hold your knife sideways while attempting to maintain some arbitrary angle.
Basically it works exactly like using a Lansky Turnbox or a Spyderco Triangle Sharpmaker, except that you will need to manually flip the guide and the stone horizontally in order to sharpen both sides of your knife's edge. 10-20 strokes on one side of your knife, flip the orientation of the guide and stone, 10-20 strokes on the other side of your knife, flip the orientation again, etc., and the whole time you're just holding your knife in the same place straight up and down. Very easy, and very simple.
The second method was not my idea at all. It came from another user on bladeforums. I was completely blown away by their sharpening method because I've never heard of anyone using an angle guide like that before, and it doesn't require you to have a flat or level surface to use.
Basically what you do is press your ceramic rod or pocket stone flat against the top of the angle guide. Holding the guide and stone or rod together in one hand, you then angle the bottom of the guide vertically straight up and down. In your other hand, you hold the knife parallel to the bottom of the angle guide and sharpen it against the high side of your rod or stone (the side which is touching the angle guide).
Hold your knife parallel to the yellow dotted line and sharpen along the side of the stone indicated by the purple arrow.
Hats off to the guy who figured this out. Really, really great, really simple, stupidly easy field sharpening method. I love it. The only problem with it is that there is a risk of cutting your hand if you're not careful. I suggest wearing a glove to protect the hand that is holding the guide and stone or rod.
The best part about this method is that if you have two rods, one on the bottom side of the guide and one on the top side, then you can quickly alternate between sharpening both sides of your knife's edge simply by tilting your hand back and forth to change which side of the angle guide is perpendicular to the ground. It makes the knife sharpening process go a lot more quickly. Here is a link to the original post describing it: source link <----click here
I hope that I was able to illustrate these two methods clearly enough. They really are very easy effective as long as you can understand them.
You can feel free to skip this last part if you're bored easily by things involving geometry.
So what if you're out in the field and you don't have an angle guide? Well, you can try to make one. In its simplest form, an angle guide is basically just a wedge of some specific angle. Finding that angle is the first step.
A convenient example would be that I have a swiss army knife which I need to sharpen at 22.5 degrees per side (I'm told that this is the angle they come with from the Victorinox factory). Well, I already know what 90 degrees looks like. It's the corner of a square. I can use that as a starting point.
So I use 90 degrees as the first corner of a triangle. From this first corner of my triangle, I draw two sides of the same length as each other, and then I draw the third side which completes the triangle. Because I know that all angles in a triangle will always add up to exactly 180 degrees, and I know that one angle is 90 degrees, then the sum of the remaining two angles must also be 90 degrees. Add this to the fact that I know the first two sides were equal in length, and now I know that each of the other two angles must also be the same as each other, which means they are both exactly 45 degrees. 45 degrees is the inclusive angle of my swiss army knife edge. Half of 45 degrees is exactly 22.5 degrees, which is the DPS (degrees per side) angle that I need, or the target angle that I need to make my wedge.
Did Victorinox do this on purpose, or is it just a happy accident?
To get 22.5, I will take one of my 45 degree corners and make it into its own triangle by measuring the same distance outwards from both sides of that corner and then drawing another line connecting those points. I will then draw a line from the center point of that new line back to the original 45 degree corner, splitting it exactly in half, which gives me 22.5 degrees.
Another rule to remember is that all angles of an equilateral triangle are 60 degrees each. So all you need to do is create a triangle with 3 equal length sides and you've found 60 degrees. Next you can draw a line straight across from any angle to the center of the opposite side. This will give you two mirrored triangles with angles of 90 degrees, 30 degrees, and 60 degrees. 30 degrees inclusive, or 15 degrees per side, is another common knife edge angle. So then you can take your 30 degree corner and split it in half the same way that we did with the 45 degree corner from the previous example, and now you've found 15 degrees.
Geometry!
The most crucial aspect of successfully sharpening and maintaining a knife edge is the ability to consistently hold your knife at the same angle while sharpening it. Many people resort to buying complicated and/or expensive sharpening gear in order to accomplish this. Such gear is typically impractical to bring with you outside the home, and you can't always wait until you return home in order to resharpen your knife. A knife must be sharp when you need to use it, and this is why the ability to sharpen your knife in the field is important to learn.
Thankfully there are a couple of easy methods to hold the same angle when sharpening your knife in the field by using a simple angle guide. Angle guides are not normally used in the ways that I am about to describe to you. It's likely that you never realized you could use them like this. You probably thought you could only lay the guide on top of your sharpening stone, and that was the only way to use it. That's not true.
This doesn't rely on any fancy equipment. All you need is either a flat rectangular pocket stone or a ceramic rod of any shape (round, square, triangular, whatever). The next and final thing you need is a small angle guide. These items can be easily carried in a pocket or a pouch of some kind.
The first method I am going to show you is something that I managed to figure out on my own, and it works best if you have a level surface available, such as a table or a park bench. You start by setting your angle guide on top of this level surface. You then place one end of a pocket stone sideways on top of your angle guide. You then hold the blade of your knife at a 90 degree angle to the level surface, or the bottom of the angle guide, or the ground, so that the edge of the blade is pointed straight down and the spine is pointed straight up. Holding your knife in this orientation, you can then sharpen it on the high side of the pocket stone.
If you're confused by my description, then just look at this image:
Hold your knife parallel to the yellow dotted line and sharpen along the side of the stone indicated by the purple arrow.
The reason this works is that the angle of the side of the pocket stone to an imaginary line which is perpendicular to the bottom of the angle guide (represented by the yellow dotted line in the image) is the same as the angle of the guide itself. If your angle guide is 17 degrees, then you will be able to sharpen your knife at 17 degrees simply by holding your knife perpendicular to the ground (straight up and down). It is easier to consistently hold your knife vertically straight up and down than it is to hold your knife sideways while attempting to maintain some arbitrary angle.
Basically it works exactly like using a Lansky Turnbox or a Spyderco Triangle Sharpmaker, except that you will need to manually flip the guide and the stone horizontally in order to sharpen both sides of your knife's edge. 10-20 strokes on one side of your knife, flip the orientation of the guide and stone, 10-20 strokes on the other side of your knife, flip the orientation again, etc., and the whole time you're just holding your knife in the same place straight up and down. Very easy, and very simple.
The second method was not my idea at all. It came from another user on bladeforums. I was completely blown away by their sharpening method because I've never heard of anyone using an angle guide like that before, and it doesn't require you to have a flat or level surface to use.
Basically what you do is press your ceramic rod or pocket stone flat against the top of the angle guide. Holding the guide and stone or rod together in one hand, you then angle the bottom of the guide vertically straight up and down. In your other hand, you hold the knife parallel to the bottom of the angle guide and sharpen it against the high side of your rod or stone (the side which is touching the angle guide).
Hold your knife parallel to the yellow dotted line and sharpen along the side of the stone indicated by the purple arrow.
Hats off to the guy who figured this out. Really, really great, really simple, stupidly easy field sharpening method. I love it. The only problem with it is that there is a risk of cutting your hand if you're not careful. I suggest wearing a glove to protect the hand that is holding the guide and stone or rod.
The best part about this method is that if you have two rods, one on the bottom side of the guide and one on the top side, then you can quickly alternate between sharpening both sides of your knife's edge simply by tilting your hand back and forth to change which side of the angle guide is perpendicular to the ground. It makes the knife sharpening process go a lot more quickly. Here is a link to the original post describing it: source link <----click here
I hope that I was able to illustrate these two methods clearly enough. They really are very easy effective as long as you can understand them.
You can feel free to skip this last part if you're bored easily by things involving geometry.
So what if you're out in the field and you don't have an angle guide? Well, you can try to make one. In its simplest form, an angle guide is basically just a wedge of some specific angle. Finding that angle is the first step.
A convenient example would be that I have a swiss army knife which I need to sharpen at 22.5 degrees per side (I'm told that this is the angle they come with from the Victorinox factory). Well, I already know what 90 degrees looks like. It's the corner of a square. I can use that as a starting point.
So I use 90 degrees as the first corner of a triangle. From this first corner of my triangle, I draw two sides of the same length as each other, and then I draw the third side which completes the triangle. Because I know that all angles in a triangle will always add up to exactly 180 degrees, and I know that one angle is 90 degrees, then the sum of the remaining two angles must also be 90 degrees. Add this to the fact that I know the first two sides were equal in length, and now I know that each of the other two angles must also be the same as each other, which means they are both exactly 45 degrees. 45 degrees is the inclusive angle of my swiss army knife edge. Half of 45 degrees is exactly 22.5 degrees, which is the DPS (degrees per side) angle that I need, or the target angle that I need to make my wedge.
Did Victorinox do this on purpose, or is it just a happy accident?
To get 22.5, I will take one of my 45 degree corners and make it into its own triangle by measuring the same distance outwards from both sides of that corner and then drawing another line connecting those points. I will then draw a line from the center point of that new line back to the original 45 degree corner, splitting it exactly in half, which gives me 22.5 degrees.
Another rule to remember is that all angles of an equilateral triangle are 60 degrees each. So all you need to do is create a triangle with 3 equal length sides and you've found 60 degrees. Next you can draw a line straight across from any angle to the center of the opposite side. This will give you two mirrored triangles with angles of 90 degrees, 30 degrees, and 60 degrees. 30 degrees inclusive, or 15 degrees per side, is another common knife edge angle. So then you can take your 30 degree corner and split it in half the same way that we did with the 45 degree corner from the previous example, and now you've found 15 degrees.
Geometry!
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