The 2 things you have to do when sharpening are: 1. To grind your edge bevels at a determined angle until they meet. 2. Once your 2 edge bevels have met, you must clean up their intersection.
Here and
here are several general sharpening guides/faqs. After you have read these, you should have a good idea of what needs to happen. Once you know what needs to happen, you should be able to apply that to whatever sharpening equipment you have.
As regards "
stropping", it is used to put a final polish on the edge and to remove any burr that may be left over from sharpening. It can also be used to maintain an edge. Stropping consists of pulling the knife, edge trailing, along a strop. Strops can and are made of many different materials; such as leather, felt, canvas, and cardboard (if you are on a budget). A very fine abrasive is put on the surface of the strop and this is how it accomplishes the sharpening. The bottom of
this page about razor sharpening has some diagrams that might be helpful.
You do not necessarily need a strop to get uncommonly sharp edges. I can get edges that shave
very well with just a coarse/fine stone and a Spyderco Sharpmaker.
Keep asking questions if you don't understand anything; I am pretty sure someone here will be able to answer.
