Sharpening a blade is the most commonly practiced art of blade maintenance.  This process is where an edge of the desired blade is made fine enough to produce a clean, sharp cutting edge to adequately perform the owner's desires for the blade at hand.  This scroll will give a brief step by step guide to blade maintenance and sharpening of the blade.  But first some pointers concerning your blade.

Metallurgy of the blade is vital in understanding how the shape of the blade edge will cut cleanly.  Different metal alloys yield different strengths.  This is also a factor within metallurgical studies.  And last but not least, the abrasives used in achieving the sharpness, in our case our whetstone, must be of great quality to achieve the lasting sharpness we all desire in our knives.

Achieving the edge is relatively easy.  First step is to examine the knife-edge to see what degree the edge of the blade is beveled to.  These angles, usually ranging from 5 degrees or less, to 30 degrees can make the angle of the blade, or break it so it is important to pay attention to your knife's needs in the sharpening department.

Next step is to choose the appropriate stone for the job, ranging from coarse sandstone to fine water stone.  Chances are, one would use both coarse sandstone and fine water stone in the process of sharpening the knife.

Now is the time for the actual sharpening to start.  Hold your blade against the stone at a 5-degree angle and start doing sweeping motions across the stone.  Be sure to maintain the angle at which you are sharpening the blade with.  Maintaining this angle can be made easier by using a small stick relative to the thickness of the blade.  This stick, known to weaponsmiths as a rub stick, is placed onto the surface of the stone.  The knife blade is then rested on it as it is swept back and forth on the stone.  Rub sticks can be acquired for any angle between five and twenty degrees.

Belt knives used for general purposes other than only woodworking should be beveled at a higher bevel between 25 and 30 degrees.  Belt knives for the most part are also not serrated so the entire length of the blade can be sharpened to its maximum keenness.  When sharpening bread knives, a 5-degree bevel sharpening method is almost always employed as also the case if one cannot avoid the serrated portion of the knife blade.
In conclusion, the type of blade and its uses determines the degree of bevel a knife-edge should be sharpened at.  Its alloy and general shape determines the type of blade.  The uses can be entirely general, or specialized like a bread knife or a woodcrafter's knife.