TaxJ-
You have a great knife that should have a great edge. Here is my suggestion. Spend $40 (shop a bit) and get a Spyderco Sharpmaker. It will last you the rest of your life and the lives of your kid's kids too. Trust me on this. I'm a lazy doofuss and there is not an easier way, for that amount of money, to get a really sharp edge on a knife. It works on plain edge/serrated/scissor/planes/etc. Very versitile, easy, quick setup, small storage.
Many knife knuts don't know that Spyderco did not start out as a knife making company. They started out as a seller of really good knife sharpeners. After sharpening a couple gazillion crappy knives the owner said, "I can make better ones than these junky things." And he did. But his Spyderco roots are with sharpeners.
If you get a Sharpmaker -
Use the edge of the gray Sharpmaker rods at 40 degrees until the knife is very sharp. AUS8 is good steel but not usually a really hard steel that will cause you problems. If it seems you are not hitting the primary micro-edge bevel (the teeny edge at the verybottom edge of the blade) put some magic marker black on the edge and see where the rods are touching. They will remove the black marker where they are touching. If you are not touching/sharpening on the teeny primary edge, then the knife is probably too dull and you need to drop back to the 30 degree setting and plan on spending some time on the gray edge working the blade back to sharpness. This is called profiling or reprofiling.
Once you have the edge really sharp on the 30 degree position, then switch back to the 40 degree position, use the gray edge until really sharp, then the gray flats until really sharp, then the white edge until really sharp, the the white flat until really sharp. Don't go to the next step until each step feels really sharp to you. Try to keep the knife in a vertical position while you sweep it across the rods. Don't expect this happen quickly. Allow enough time to do the job right (and it can take quite a bit with a really dull knife but its worth the effort).
If you really want to polish the apple then get/make a leather hone with a little CrO on it to polish the edge.
Be careful if you do these stepss because your knife is now very sharp and will definately cause you some stitches if not handled safely.
Here is some info about sharpening and honing that may be of help. I like the pictures.
http://forums.egullet.com/index.php?showtopic=26036
My hero, Mr. Dave at D&R
http://www.drsharpening.com/leatherhone.html
My other hero, Mr. Joe Talmadge at the top of this forum
http://knifeart.com/knifedfaqbyj1.html
I have used up my daily quoto of bytes so I'll shut up now.