The one thing you need to make sure you get right when sharpening fillet knives is keeping a consistent angle on the knife blade as you sharpen. A good tip to know is that a good angle is to place two quarters on your sharpener and lay the top of the knife on the edge of the quarters. Once you remove the quarters, keep that angle as you start sharpening.

Knife sharpening should always start with finding the right angle for the blade. Many types of chef knives work best with a 22.5-degree angle. Follow these simple steps to find the perfect angle for restoring the sharpness of your blade.

1. Place blade down: Hold the knife with the blade down, at a 90-degree angle.
2. Rotate blade halfway: Move the knife to a 45-degree angle, halving the distance between the 90-degree angle and the table.
3. Rotate blade halfway again: Once more, move the knife to half of the remaining angle. Now you have a good estimate of the appropriate sharpening angle. You can adjust the angle up or down as needed.

Once you have done the first set of sharpening, you can carefully rub your finger down and away from the cutting edge to feel for a burr. The burr tells you that you have created a new edge and you are ready to move on to the next stone. If you do not feel the burr, that is okay. Continue doing the previous motions in increments of 10 sweeps until you feel a noticeable burr.

Whether you go from coarse to medium or medium to fine, complete the same exact motions for another 30 to 40 strokes on each side. Now that you are on the fine grain, you are going to polish the stone. Since the grain is so fine, it polishes the blade when you strop the blade. Think about old-time westerns where the cowboys used their leather belts to strop their knives. Same thing! But with a polishing stone.