I have been doing some sharpening lately on a specific knife and measuring the loss of steel as I go. I started off sharpening the knife 10 times each session, with destressing the edge by cutting lightly into the stone 4 times and then making 50 passes per side on my 1000 grit King water stone. I repeated this 10 times in one evening and found it removed about 0.01" from the width. The next time I dropped the number of passes down to 30 per side, with everything else the same. Surprisingly, the width removal went to about 0.005". Next, I tried a different stone, otherwise the same, 10 times, 4 destressing passes, same angle (17 dps). The two differences were this was a Norton Economy stone and I went free hand. The other sessions were done on my angle block. This removed about 0.009"
Now, I intend to do this 30 times, to simulate nearly a year of daily, metal removal sharpening. So far, each individual sharpening seems to be removing 0.001" or less, and with care, it's about half that. A small burr is formed each sharpening, so I know I'm reaching the apex and beyond. Ideally, I'd like to be able to not form a burr, but just barely apex the edge, though a small burr will always be there at this stage, even if just on some sections of the edge.
I feel most people don't sharpen their knives nearly on a daily basis, so this might well represent 10 years of sharpening by the time I'm done.
Now, I intend to do this 30 times, to simulate nearly a year of daily, metal removal sharpening. So far, each individual sharpening seems to be removing 0.001" or less, and with care, it's about half that. A small burr is formed each sharpening, so I know I'm reaching the apex and beyond. Ideally, I'd like to be able to not form a burr, but just barely apex the edge, though a small burr will always be there at this stage, even if just on some sections of the edge.
I feel most people don't sharpen their knives nearly on a daily basis, so this might well represent 10 years of sharpening by the time I'm done.