I'll admit I have a penchant for convex grinds. They're a little tougher to maintain, but this grind flows the already cut material away from the edge for less drag than most other grinds.
my izula and esee 3 both have a 17 degree bevel, came with 20, but i knocked em back a little with a lanskey system. rowen has 1095 down. they slice a little better , and dont seem to have really lost any edge holding ability. i remember somebody on bladeforums narrowed their izula down to like 7 degrees before it began to fail. think he brought it back to 12 and was happy.
Well I was taught the old way with a two sided stone, and then a strop. The most important thing with stone's is to never get them wet or oiled. Good quality stones are porus, and liquids will damage the stone, and all you'll be doing is chewing up the stone.