For fixing serious damage, or doing some real re profiling, I use a belt sander.
For speed, nothing beats power tools. I sometimes use a hard cloth buff. Works excellently to put a razor sharp in seconds. This works pretty much the same as a "paper" wheel.
However, I like sharpening by hand. Most of the time I use some pretty cheap diamond stones from Harbor Freight. Diamond does great for quick and effective grinding my hand.
If I want a finer edge than my diamond stones give, I follow up a cheap white ceramic stone. Smith, I think. Was something like a $2 add on from some online knife vendor. Turned out to be fantastic.
Ceramic and diamond can be used dry, but it helps to use something to keep from loading down the grit. Oil will work. Water is less messy to clean up, but tends to dry fast. I have found a pretty good solution: glycerin. I have a small bottle of food grade glycerine. A couple drops on that ultra fine ceramic stone keeps it from loading up, helps to keep down microscopic heat and burring, and doesn't dry or run off the way water does. It also washes off with plain water, revealing a clean, non loaded stone. It seems ideal for non porous stones like ceramic or diamond.
All too often, I end up re profiling blades to suit my tastes. Factory edge bevels in general are often absurdly thick and obtuse IMO.
Quality traditionals tend to be better than average in this regard. In which case, I try to preserve the edge bevel. However, it isn't unusual for even quality knives to leave the factory not particularly sharp, or with large burrs. Or weak edges that fracture or roll upon first use, probably from overheating during final sharpening.
