as y'all who have not read the post have used technical terms like bevel, grit and variable speed file sander, here are a few helpers.
bevel - the knife is thicker at the upper part, the 'spine' that you use for hammerin' and cracking skulls. it is thinner at the edge where you cut stuff. to get from one to another, the steel is hammered or ground so it forms a triangular shape, which has an angle associated. to sharpen it we grind the edge at a slightly larger included angle, this produces a band of shiny steel along the edge, this is the bevel.
if you use a grinding wheel all along the edge it takes out a groove of metal, with a little rounded trench on either side meeting to form the edge. this is generally the sharpest, and is called hollow ground. it is also the weakest and the edge cannot stand up to any great punishment.
if you use a flat stone, or the diamond coated metal versions, and maintain a constant angle while pushing the blade along it, you get a flat grind, like a V, generally you lay the edge flat on the stone, lift the spine a bit and push the edge away from you with a bit of pressure, imaging it like you are trying to shave a thin slice of the stone. turn over & repeat till the other side is the same. be consistent; repeat with finer stones till you are happy. hone the edge on a suitable hone, leather strap with polishing compound, old belt, your calloused palm, etc. more on that later.
if you are not as precise with keeping the angle to the stone, you get a smooth transition from the side of the knife to the edge, rather than an abrupt transition as with a hollow or flat grind. this is how most people sharpen a knife instinctively, it's the famed convex edge. the trick is to know when to stop and how far to go.
a sneaky way is to get it as sharp as you can with the flat stone by mark one eyeball, not worrying about the angle too much but try to be fairly consistent. then take a std. elcheapo mouse pad, the foam backed kind, glue some emery cloth (auto supply house has the largest range of grades) to it, lay the edge almost flat and pull the edge along the pad with the edge trailing, the weight of the blade will cause a natural smooth convex edge. do NOT lift the spine any more than needed to keep from scratching the nice shiny side, if you are using it as a working blade, lay it flat & don't worry about scratching the side. use progressively finer grits ( i get an 'assortment' pack of emery cloth & cut the mouse pad into 3 or 4 bits and glue a rough (400 grit), medium (600) and fine emery cloth (1200 or higher) to each of them). if you do it right, you smear the metal from the edge out to where it curls a little hook of thin smeared metal on the other side, you can feel it with a fingernail if you scrape it from the side of the knife out past the edge (not the other way or you'll cut yourself). if you get that, it's a wire edge, turn over knife & do what you just did about as long, you want a balanced edge on both sides.
honing is similar to the above, just using a leather belt impregnated with jewellers rouge or polishing compound to break off the remnants of the wire edge and polish the edge to it's final glory.
to cheat even more, buy a linisher,
which is techy talk for a motorised belt grinder that allows you to remove the backing plate & grind with a slack belt, if you get that far, you'll understand all the posts here about using a belt grinder to sharpen with.
p.s. - for small knives (under a foot long blade or so) fix the stone, mouse mat & move the knife. for large blades like kuks, swords etc. fix the blade and move the stone or mouse mat. some people like to glue emery cloth to a wooden ruler or one of them flat paint stirrers & run that along the edge.
