Novice Vs. Expert freehand skills

[HeavyHanded]

Agreed with everything you posted, I am just looking at this from a complete beginners perspective and trying to give the OP a few simple things to try.
This can all get very overwhelming when you begin to freehand sharpen.

I don't think you realize the freedom it gives you until you really get comfortable with a solid technique, the problem is, a lot of people give up and turn to guided sharpeners because it seems that freehand is too complicated and overwhelming...

I am just trying to keep things simple in my advice because I don't want the OP to give up....

I'm with it, anything that encourages freehand over manual guided systems is ultimately the better way to go.