Looks like you’re on the right track, lots of good suggestions here. As far as holding a consistent angle, I think that’s the #1 problem for the beginning sharpener, with practice you’ll be able to hold it more consistently. Also pay close attention to the sound and feeling when sharpening, when you are working on a flat bevel, the sound and feeling changes quite a bit from when your hitting the angle and when your not. Being able to cut newspaper cleanly means you’re defiantly on the right track. If your still having trouble holding the angle after practice, or just want to try a new technique, try propping the stone up on something at whatever angle you want to sharpen the knife to, then just keep the knife level when sharpening and you’ll come out with the right angle.
As far as your stones, most stones will work, but when you want a fine finish / sharper edge, you’ll have to get some finer stones. Also its important to consider progression of grits, having coarse, med, and fine stones will produce better edges. However you can get decent, usable edges on just about anything, and sharpening cheep knives on cheep stones is great practice, when you switch to higher quality you’ll be that much better. If your interested in experimenting with some really high grade abrasives, and don’t want to spend a lot of money, the scary sharp method is hard to beat. There is lots of info online about it, but basically its using sandpaper attached to glass or another flat surface to sharpen with. You can buy some expensive (and really nice) paper like this:
http://www.toolsforworkingwood.com/...en=CTGY&Store_Code=toolshop&Category_Code=THS But just about any wet / dry sandpaper available anywhere will work, try to get up to 1200 grit. Cheep hardware store stones (like Norton) work great for setting up the bevel when using this method (because coarser sandpaper tends to wear out quickly) then finish with maybe a 320, 600, 1200 grit progression on the sandpaper.
As far as the setup, most people suggest getting a piece of 3” X 11” X ¼” or thicker glass (3 X 11 is 1/3 sheet of standard sandpaper) but if you are really looking to be frugal, here’s what to do. Go to the local hardware store and have them cut you some window glass into 3” X 11” pieces, my local hardware store did this for free out of there scraps. Then go to home depot / etc. and get a piece of ¾” MDF (Medium Density Fiberboard, the brown stuff that clip boards and peg boards are made out of, I think its like $6 for a 4X4’ sheet) and have them rip a couple of 3 ¼” strips out of it for you. Also get some clear silicone bathtub caulk. Go home and cut the MDF strips up into 11 ¼” pieces. Then rub the edges of the glass on your cheep hardware stone to knock off the sharp corners. You can then glue the glass to the MDF using the caulk, squirt out a liberal amount onto the MDF and then press the glass on hard (you can see when its spreading evenly), and your ready to slap some paper on and start sharpening (a glue stick works good for attaching the paper to glass). These are so cheep that you can have one for every grit witch is convenient, you can add rubber feet (the kind used on chair legs) to them to keep them from sliding around, or put them on a rubber drawr liner (the waffle kind) or similar. Keep some of the MDF pieces plain because they work great to rub stropping compound in and use as a super cheep strop.
Some other stones that produce satisfactory results and aren’t that expensive are Norton India stones
http://www.toolsforworkingwood.com/...&Product_Code=NO-WIDEOIL.XX&Category_Code=THO Also for cheep kitchen knives that can take a really good edge, go for Old Hickory by Ontario Knife Co. I’ve been using these all my life and you can really get them sharp vs the often more expensive stainless knives, and they are like $6 for a 8” chefs! That’s less than a buck an inch!
) and you are set. There is a great link to a summary of buying this stuff and how to use it that Jerry Hossum wrote. I can't find it now, but maybe someone else can steer you there. I sort of summarized it, but he says it better. Glad to help--let me know if there are any more questions I can answer. If someone had turned me on to this stuff in the beginning, I would have saved a ton of money and time. My stuff just arrived today, actually, and I just walked in from the garage; I've been playing with my new toys like a kid on Christmas!