Multiple Bevels?

This is an excellent thread! I also love to implement micro-bevels, especially after thinning the shoulder down. Once the edge is really acute, I use the knife to see how it holds up. If it’s too fragile, I’ll add a micro-bevel at a slightly wider angle. I keep this up until I find the optimum micro-bevel for a given knife and my intended use of it. I’d love to hear other thoughts on the subject.

I’m new to the Wicked Edge system, but I’ve been sharpening woodworking tools for over thirty years.

One thing surprises me, as far as I can see the accepted custom and practise with knife sharpening is to work with a single bevel. Maybe I’ve missed something but I read on this forum about people going to quite complex lengths to maintain the same single bevel angle when they switch from diamond stones to the thicker waterstones.

However, in sharpening woodworking tools, such as plane blades, multiple bevels are increasingly the default method. For example with a plane blade it’s common to use a power grinder at one bevel angle (lets say 25 degrees), then on subsequent honing to use an 800 grit waterstone to achieve a wire edge at say 28 degrees, and finally to use an 8000 grit waterstone at say 30 degrees to achieve a polished micro bevel. In fact it doesn’t stop here, a very influential woodworker called David Charlesworth flips over to the flat side of the plane blade and removes the wire edge with another tiny micro bevel.

Coming to knife sharpening from this multi-bevel woodworking culture it seems to me more reasonable to do initial sharpening and wire edge formation at say 20 degrees, then back off to say 22 degrees for waterstones or honing with the objective of producing an almost invisibly narrow, highly polished micro-bevel with just three or four strokes. Of course you don’t get that beautiful fat polished single bevel, but you would save an awful lot of time! Am I missing something?