The Best Method For Sharpening Straight Edged Blades

I have seen many videos on YouTube on "how to sharpen a blade" and. There seems to be a hundred methods out there. My question is this is divided into 3 parts...

Firstly, what is the best angle to sharpen your blade to? I have found that the steeper the angle of the blade was the sharper i could make it however it also dulls faster.

Secondly, putting the angle aside, is there a correct technique when using a sharpening stone?

And lastly, inevitably we are going to run out of conventional ways to sharpen our knives, what would you recommend we use and how?

 

I've used the penny method.. being, on your stone you place a penny at the edge of stone. Place your blade on top of penny. That should give you the degree of angle to sharpen.. it's been said that 20°- 22° is the best. But I'm not Bill Nye by no means. So my grand father used this penny method and I have and it works.
Also I have used the car window method. But, I will say that if you use this one, make sure your knife is truly dull. If you try this with already sharp blade it will dull it.
Hope this helps.. and remember a sharp knife is no longer a knife, but a useful tool..

 

I cheat. I use an electric knife sharpener with the correct angle built in.
I dress up the blade with a sharpening steel.
I do have stones in different grits.
I also use a small belt sander with 600 grit paper.
I make the paper belts from 600 grit wet/dry paper.

Not this one but like it.
http://www.rockler.com/rikon-50-151-1-x-30-belt-sander-5-disc-sander?utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=(ROI) Shopping - Power Tools&utm_term=1100005069319&utm_content=Sanders

Yard and garage sales my friends.
Being old and retired has some advantages.
Money isn't one of them.

I ASK at every sale I attend: "got any firearms you want to sell?" "Grandpas old rabbit gun?"
etc.
I bought a real nice pump Winchester .22 that way for $40 bucks!
I traded it for a modern .22 rifle with decent scope.