I think t he biggest "secret" or "trick" that I ever learned sharpening is that there IS NO SECRET OR TRICK.
ANGLE gets way too much credit and blame.
Things the OP and anyone who's able to put a shaving edge on a GOOD piece of steel knows:
One of the biggest fallacies is that one has to hold a specific angle - or that one has to hold an angle at all. If sharpening a plane iron or wood chisel, yes, but a jig can be used to establish that angle and even maintain that angle, or once the angle is established, it can serve as a rough guide itself.
The specific angle is dependent upon how easily you want the edge to cut, and how well the steel/HT will stand up at that angle. The more obtuse the angle, the harder it will be to cut with it. The more acute the angle, the better it cuts, but it's more fragile.
If one insists on putting an angle on a blade, the angle does not have to be precise. Even three degrees or so off - no one's going to notice.
I personally avoid angles on blade edges and will say now that the concept of the "true Scandi" is an imagined standard that Scandinavians never applied, especially in their earliest days of knife-making. It's OK to expect two perfectly flat, mirror-polished surfaces to meet at a "zero vertex." Outside the shop, not so much. You can't spend all day sharpening in the woods and then babying the edge thereafter. Again, in the shop, fine.
Even my Scandinavian-grind knives have a slight convex to their opposing faces, yet mirror-polished. I'd be aghast to see that on a chisel or plane iron, but it is an unreasonable and inefficient expectation on a knife.
This does not mean that the knife's sharpness is inferior to the chisel or plane iron either - only that one has not held a precise angle to cut large, flat surfaces or square holes.
All you're doing is shaping and polishing steel. How you do it varies mostly by what you have or what best works for you to achieve this.
Establish a reasonable thinness and taper from the edge to where it ends and the rest of the blade begins.
Make the above CONSISTENT along the length of the cutting edge - work toward a FINE, long, even burr one one side of the edge.
Once that burr is established, turn the knife over and do the same so the burr forms on the OTHER SIDE now.
Each time you've done that, step up in fineness on your chosen abrasive and do it again.
I use mostly 320, 400, 600, 800, 1000 wet/dry abrasive papers flattened out on various surfaces as platens, lubed with cheap WM "Spray Lube." Don't spend a bunch of money on water stones - or any stones, but a few GOOD diamond plates can be invaluable. Just remember that all you're doing is shaping and polishing metal. They used stones in the stone-age because they didn't have stuff we have today. I'm a pretty die-hard traditionalist, but I don't still wipe my butt with last year's corn cobs and I sure as hell stopped believing the "magic" of natural or synthetic stones not long after I stopped believing in Santa.
Stones are great. I have many and use some of them, but don't blame your inability to put an edge on steel on the stones or the lack thereof. You're just shaping and polishing steel and there are a lot of abrasives out there to do it with. Everyone will find his or her preference. If you can cast a decent bullet and remember different moulds' personalities, you have the ability to sharpen to a razor's edge. You just don't know it because of all the implied magic involved. If you USE stones and they work for you, you've mastered this using a flippin' ROCK! You're awesome! I'm being facetious about the ROCK, NOT your ability. Not everyone is going to get aloing with a rock, especially the new student, so take pride in doing marvelous work with a stone-age tool, but don't spread rumors that it has special powers, manna, if you will, and learniers will be better off. I'm an old-fashioned guy, but there are SO many things we have today which are way more efficient or at least easier to use.
Anyone who doubts their ability sharpening think about THIS: did you know that you have to MAINTAIN water stones? Hell, I even have my first sharpening stone still - a Norton "coarse/fine" ("fine" on this stone is "coarse" to me now) and it is dished so badly from me trying to learn to sharpen on the wrong tool for years that I use it to rough form the convex on axe edges. It's also a reminder of ho long I spun my wheels and how many knife blade I ground to oblivian with it.
No special sause required and no magic in a can. WATER for diamond plates and wash with hot water, Dan and a toothbrush frequently - or use water/Dawn as your cutting fluid. When "oil" is required, I use cheap WM "Spray Lube." Something like 1K in a spray can is all it is. Works better than any expensive snake oil anyone is bottling and labeling as "Honing Oil." Maybe t here's a snake called "Honing," I don't know.
Finer, finer, finer... I used two grades of stropping (buffing compound,) one is sort of medium fine and one really fine. Green DICO, #2 and White Mibro WR1, respectively. DICO is hard to find in the US now, but readily available in Canada and one person sent me some, another drove up and got us so me. One 1"x4" stick of either will last a lifetime and you can cut it up and have some on the bench and a bit in each bag for field touch-ups. Incidentally, I "touch up" a lot, like for a year after (sometimes during) each use and really only have to actually SHARPEN a well-used knife once a year or so - even the pocket knife I carry and use daily. I use leather - HAIR SIDE UP - contact-cemented to scraps of hardwood as strops. I have a couple that are 3.5" wide and 12" long, made of MDF, but 6" is plenty.
I also use blocks of hard, dense wood (maple) with the finer (white) compound on one side and Simichrome (like Flitz) on the other for plane irons and chisels. The FINER you polish, the SMALLER the stress riser you will have trailing out to the very edge of your cutting edge and the better it will cut and more DURABLE it will be. You won't have little, microscopic bits beaking off, degrading the edge.
Don't abuse the thing! DO you want a knife or a garden hoe? Respect that edge and be mindful of it.
The number one cause of frsustration sharpening is frustration sharpening. Don't get BORED and start grinding harder! If you're doing that, step up the coarseness and use moderate/light (light/moderate?) pressure. Pressing harder, grinding faster - that just means you're using too fine an abrasive. Once you tune an initiual factory edge to shape, you won't have to do that again - IF you fon't abuse the knife and you touch it up from time to time.
As an old (educated) hillbilly used to say to me about everything, "this ain't rocket surgery." Once you break the bullshit bubble and realize that all you're dong in shaping and polishing steel, you'll see that.
Yeah, there's much, much more to it, but think about anything else you do daily. Tying your shoes is EASY, but it really is COMPLICATED, but you learned and now it's a snap. Not calling out anyoine still struggling with that one, really. If that's you, just shut up and no one else will know.
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