Not all knife sharpening machines are going to work for Japanese knives. You should stick between a 17 and 20 degree angle for those, and note that traditional, high-end Japanese knives are only sharpened on one side. This means that even though we’re using one side of the knife, it’s only sharpened from one angle (flat point) instead of most American knives, which are beveled and have an equal sharpening process on both sides of the blade.\r