Sharpening can be taken to the same extreme as some firearm reloaders. You get so involved in the minutae of ultimate performance the barrel/knife is shot/worn out without ever actually going bang or cut in the real world. First of all, you may want to invest in a few inexpensive moras or opinels. You can learn alot on those knives, besides how many high end blades fail to cut much better <img src="/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> I NEED a wire edge to know when my knives are approaching the desired edge. Knowing you have one is no mystery either. Imagine taking a sheet of aluminum foil and folding a very short edge over @ 90 degrees . Now take your fingernail or a very fine bent wire etc. You will be able to feel the wire edge hooking both. Then you simply reverse the edge and sharpen the other side to the same efffect, knocking off that fold and creating a new one in reverse. It then becomes a progressive action of repeating this with ever finer abrasives and lighter strokes until the wire becomes almost immeasurable. I get my knives to a fine using edge and then switch to a ceramic rod to straighten out the minute bends. This is the same idea as 'steeling' kitchen cutlery and doesn't remove material. I don't have the finess of somebody who 'knows' when a knife is sharp by some zen martial arts intuitive skill. I LIKE to know whats happening with my junk from opening the package to retiring it in the trash. Rounding the tip off is a common pitfall. Remember it is subtly changing in angle and thickness from straight edge to point and you must too. Half the red handles moras come with really sloppy points and to our benefit teach putting a point on correctly.