Recommendation? Knife sharpening kits for newbie suggestions.

If you would like to learn more about my "conditions" and situation on my knife journey, I just posted an introduction post here, New Member hoping to learn. | BladeForums.com. I am about to receive a Victorinox Fibrox 8 inch chefs knife has my first personal chefs knife and have a "wartech" cheap chinesium edc knife that I carry. I would like to invest in a sharpening system. I would prefer a classic stone based system as that would be what my dad would use even though he is not a knife fanatic. I also know those automated drag through sharpeners are set at a specific angle and do not necessarily give you full control on the results. I have done some interenet research and this is what I have read in summary so hopefully one of you can set me straight. From one long lost forum website and thread "A concrete block used at a good angle and a piece of wood to clean the edge up can sharpen a knife, what you use is not always the important part." but I know how far you take it can mean how long it last. Along with "You have to remember the lower the grit, the more metal you will be taking off at a time." From my reading, and based on the last quote, in terms of wet stones it seems to be and correct me if I am wrong but a 1000 grit is the best go to grit for cleaning up an edge that is used and bring a sharpness back to it. If you have a crap knife that will be abused, you could stop at the 1000 but for edge retention and to have a cleaner edge, most decent knives you want to go up to at least a 3000 grit stone and any higher then that is just to give a mirrored look, minus your strops and honers to clean up the edge and any burrs that have been left.

On to what sharpeners I have looked at, I always see the Lansky shaprening system come up and I see it is oil stone based but I also see the fifty dollar kit starts at a 70 grit and ends at a 1000 grit. Would such a kit be really useful at least the lower grits? Unless you say go beat your knife edge up against a brick wall 20 times or so? The sharpeners I have considered are this one Work Sharp Benchtop Whetstone Knife Sharpener which has a 1000 and a 6000 grit wet stone which is decent size and I feel would be good for maintaining something such as a chefs knife? The downside to this, is the guides are only 15 and 17, and from my reading and asking my dad what angle he uses for the low amount of sharpening he does I am understanding a 17-20 degree angle is good for a chefs knife, with a 20 degree being more common default/factory grind on standard chef knives and a 17-15 degree grind being seen on Japanese and other foreign style knives? I also have read for something like my EDC I would benefit best from something in the 22-25 degree range to hold up to heavier use. The second option I found is Work Sharp Benchtop Benchstone Knife Sharpener which has lower grits but still seems to have a nice follow up in grits but no fine 6000 grit stone (if that is even needed truly) This allows for a 20 or 25 guided angle which I assume would allow me to sharpen my chefs knife to a 20 or my EDC to a 25. I am open to suggestions and some clarity. I know there is a lot of different ways to sharpen a knife these days but know there are some that give a better edge then others and different skill levels.

 

I am no where near ready to get into stroping. But thanks for the shaorening suggestions

 

Thanks!