What michiganroadkill wrote is worth reading twice. If you get 10 experienced makers together there will be 10 different ways to sharpen a knife. What ever method they use, practice has a lot to do with their success in using it.
michiganroadkill mentioned that he doesn't use a belt grinder to sharpen his knives. We do use a belt grinder. It is a variable speed Dozier grinder. That thing is slow when it is going wide open. We use Lansky type system we adapted to the belt grinder with a worn out 400 grit belt running slow. It gives us a very controlled grind to a nearly finished edge. The angle is adjustable and easily repeatable on both sides of the blade for a very crisp looking symmetrical edge. It is not a quick sharpening fix. It is a slow process that is very deliberate and it still takes practice to be proficient. The most important word in this paragraph is "slow."
If you are going to use a grinder to sharpen the finished blade, be careful, go slow and be very deliberate in what you are doing. Bad things can happen very fast with a grinder and a sharp blade.
