Get a whetstone, then you can use it to sharpen all sorts of stuff. Gives you complete control of your knives
Yes. If you can maintain a precise angle. The whetstones only do the same thing as the ceramic wheels or the v-shaped devices or the motorised grinders. You rub the knife blade at an angle over the oiled abrasive surface. The skill is in being able to keep the blade at the edge angle - there is no magic in this. The skill in using the whetstone is where you put your fingers under the blade as you move it around. Put them too far in and the angle is too great, too far back and the angle is too shallow. Some whetstone kits come with angle blocks to help you achieve the correct angle but they’re a crutch. Anyone skilled just slips their fingers under the blade.
Professionals who use knives constantly (industrial butchers) have their blades sharpened off site by specialist companies and in-between they use spring-loaded edging tools - the original was called the ErgoSteel but Caribou, Dick and Victorinox etc. make something similar now the patent has elapsed. Have a look at a Cutting Edge Services website for proper tools.
https://www.cuttingedgeservices.co.uk/knives-steels-and-blades
The only thing I can say is I was working in a factory in Germany and I was allowed to do the knife sharpening course run by Dick Messer Sölingen and they did whetstones, steels, Dick’s version of the ErgoSteel and they all do the same thing. They wipe off tiny bits of metal to achieve an angle. It doesn’t really matter what that angle is, so long as it’s less than 20 degrees. The lower the angle theoretically the sharper the knife but as you drop the angle you weaken the edge so it’s easier to nick it on a bone or if you hit the cutting block underneath. And once you nick the edge you have have a saw, and that rips the thing you are cutting, rather than slicing through it.
If your knife is being destroyed by a sharpening device then it’s because you are applying too much pressure or you’ve bought a chocolate steel blade. A lot of cheap knives are soft 410 or 420 stainless steel. Wüsthoff use their own version of 425 stainless steel (56 hardness) so is still pretty soft and easy to sharpen (or destroy the edge). Global use a 440 stainless steel (58 hardness) and that’s why they sell a ceramic sharpener. You won’t get them sharp any other way. The industrial knives from Dick, Victorinox etc. use anything up to 460 stainless steel so you can grind them and use them all day, but they are brittle and snap easily.
There really isn’t anything clever about this. Set the angle all along the blade and it will cut. I’m pretty sure
@EdwardTeach bought a MinoSharp and it would be interesting to see what they think of it.