I've been trying my hand at free hand sharpening for some years now. Early on i had only a pocket sized soft arcansas stone. I got decent results with this as i learned. A couple of things improved my results dramatically. The first was stropping. Even if you have only a coarse stone or sandpaper, a strop gives you the ability to knock that burr off and quickly bring an edge to a higher level. I just use a leather pad and lay it on a flat Surface or wrap it around pvc for recurves. The second thing that helped me was using multiple grits. Sandpaper worked for me. I would recomend dmt diamond "steels" and stones. Using the kit below i have managed pretty astounding results for freehand. The knockout in the picture will actually whittle hairs. I dont have any steels pictured because i currently don't have mine with me. Good luck and haply sharpening.
