Waterstone Sharpening

Anybody here willing to teach a guy how to waterstone sharpen a knife? Just got my first Japanese made knife and want to learn how to properly sharpen it.

If you specifically want to use water stones, you can get the info you need from the Internet. In my view, however, there is a better and faster way to sharpen blades. When I moved away from Arkansas type stones, I had planned to go to water stones. But before I made the switch, I went to a woodworking class on the use of hand tools (wanting to improve my skills in that area). Since some of the tools were bladed, such as hand planes, part of the 3 day school was on sharpening. To my surprise, they used only diamond coated steel plates, like those sold by DMT. They were putting fantastic edges on plane blades in very little time, and the DMT plates need no care, unlike water stones. It is extremely important that your stone/plate remain flat. Water stones will dish, as will Arkansas stones, though the former will do it quickly and the latter will take years to do so. Diamond plates will never dish.

So, if your objective is to get a great edge and do easily and with no mess, go with diamond plates. If, however, your objective is specifically to sharpen with water stones, go for it. And when your blade is sharp, then you get to re flatten the stone, so buy the gear to do that when you buy the water stones.

^^^^dern good info sir^^^^^^.