: I'm interested in
: sharpening my kitchen knives but I'm also a bit scared to do it.

Your only fear should be dropping the sharp knife and having it hit your naked foot, point first. Wear leather shoes and go boldly forth to your new adventure. Oh, and buy a new box of band-aids in case you nick a finger.

: With chisels and plane blades, I used Lee Valley's Honing Guide.
: With knives, I'm worried that I won't be holding the blade at a
: constant angle to the stone, and therefore may really screw up
: the edge.

For kitchen knives a honing guide is overkill. People have been sharpening knives by eye ever since mankind moved away from flint and into the bronse age. Unlike woodworking tools, or metalworking tools when there is a great deal of pressure on the cutting edge, a knife is slicing through relatively soft stuff. The actual angle of the edge doesn't make a whole lot of difference. You have a wide latitude for picking the angle you put on the edge.
Follow the general angle of what is already there. If you are really picky, check the website for the maker of your knife, and see if they have any suggestions. You can use a honing guide meant for plane irons and sharpen a few inches of the knife blade at a time if you wish, but I think you'll get a better result freehand.

Does your knife really need sharpening? while a razor is stropped, and a chisel is honed, the edge on a kitchen knife is frequently restored with a "steel", a rod-shaped device which is finely grooved and made from hardened metal. It functions as a long sharpening stone. Sliding a kitchen knife along the edge of the steel for a few strokes on each side removes any micro-sized burrs from the edge, restoring the edge. If your knives aren't ad dull as pencils, that may be allyou need. Do this just before you carve the next Thanksgiving turkey and the edge should still be good for the leftovers.

Otherwise, any plain-old sharpening stone will do a good job. You don't need your knives to be razor sharp. I think making then with such a sharp edge is counter productive. Such a fine edge dulls easily when the knives are stored in a block or rack.

If you were making knives from scratch, or had to sharpen a lot of them, then a grinding wheel would be the way to go. Twice a year the local Jo-Ann's fabric store would have a prefessional in to sharpen knives and scissors. He used a wheel and did a knife in about 15 seconds for $2. That would be $480 an hour if he did it for a full hour! Nice work if you can get it. Find out from tyour nearest fabric store if they have such a deal. If so, go and watch the guy work on someone else's knives, and ask for advice if you want--but don't be a pest and take up too much of his valuable time. For what he is getting paid, it really is valuable time.

Boy Scouts who get their first pocket knife tend to obsess with getting the edges razor sharp. Working on a new blade with the factory edge cut at a fairly blunt angle would take them a while, maybe 10 minutes. After that they were splitting hairs, trying to get an edge which would split hairs.

: I'd like to hear about other people's experiences
: trying this, if they have any tips or other suggestions for me.
: I guess the other option is to buy a knife-sharpener like this
: one from Lee Valley:
: http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=32995&cat=1,43072,43079&ap=1

Save your money. practice doing it by eye a few times, and if it is not as sharp as you want, try again. Once you learn you can sharpen your knife anytime with a minimum of fuss.

Here's a couple websites on sharpening kitchen knives:

http://www.ehow.com/how_2282_sharpen-kitchen-knives.html

http://www.ehow.com/how_6134085_sharpen-knives-sharpening-stone.html

http://www.cornerhardware.com/howto/ht083.html This one also has an animated illustration.

The illustration below is from the last article, on http://www.cornerhardware.com

Just my thoughts. Good luck and don't cut yourself trying to see how sharp the darn thing is.

PGJ