Best advice I can give you is to
learn what a "burr" is...Study it...as will save you a lot of frustration and uncertainty in wondering if you are reaching your goal in sharpening effectively....once you get that concept, and can learn to form it evenly on both sides, and then subsequently remove it, it is likely that whatever method you use as long as you keep practicing, will get the knife sharp, and the more you perfect it, the longer your edge will last, until you reach the blade's full potential.
Techniques can vary getting to the burr phase, and also afterwards in final polishing. With different techniques, come different results.
Good news is some of the more reputable guided angle sets come with insructional DVDs, or there are many good resources on youtube etc.
The razor edge book of sharpening really helped me to learn about the burr, and the entire process of sharpening but as I said, there are many great resources.
Now, down to tools..Freehand man myself, typically a DMT or a EzE-Lap to do any major work on the blade, and then move down to fine grit carborundum then to ceramic, and then I have an old superfine stone I found at my grandpa's (almost like slate?), real easy to see if there is ANY wire edge (burr) remaining. Once done with that, just use a strop for polishing/regular maintenance. -
that's a lot of info to throw at you, but as you have seen from this thread, there are many, many opinions on what works best. - The important thing is that you have some type of coarse (rough) grit stone to pofile an edge, and a fine (smooth) grit stone to polish an edge - you can get a dual sided norton and be ok, without dropping a ton of $..at first anyway
If you are new to sharpening, and have not settled on a method, the sharpie trick is a great way to make sure you are taking steel off where you want to, and that your grinds are as even as possible until the burr is formed etc, But, if you are new to sharpening altogether, practice on a knife, or several that doesn't/don't mean that much to you until you get a method that works.
Personally, I would reccomend to that if you feel uncomfortable or hesitant in learning to sharpen freehand at first, or if you want to make sure your edges are as perfect as possible, and there are no scratches on parts of the blade you don't want them on - go with a guided system like those that have been mentioned. You may end up sticking with one for good, and is a great way to understand different angles and what they achieve when done correctly..Then you can learn freehand later for use in the field etc until you can get back to your primary set up.
By the way, please don't take my suggestions as that I think I know everything..have just spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to sharpen properly and get the most out of an edge between sharpenings and have experienced mixed, frustrating, or poor results in the process, until, an old friend of mine taught me about the "Burr"..
which, btw, is a concept we need to understand clearly whether we used a guided set with fixed angles (Edge pro / Lansky etc) or do it free hand...Good luck and have fun! Once you get a Burr, your almost home, it's a guidepost in the process of getting from dull to sharp.
I'm still learning and looking for ways to get the most out of a blade's potential, as well as my own - it's fun to learn.
