Quoted: The best edge will be with a wet stone, but it is also the most difficult to perfect.
I have been sharpening blades using a wet stone for 15 years. I use buck honing oil. I start with a soft arkansas and then use a hard stone the put the finishing edge on it.
If you have knicks in the blade it will take a fair amount of time.
You can achieve a shaving edge with just soft arkansas.
The most important thing is to be consistant with your angles for each side. Try to do the same number to passes on each side of the blalde.
Well that is a start.
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Very true!
To set the bevels I use a Lansky sharpening tool. Yea, I know some consider it "cheating", but it works very well. If the bevels are consistent AND they meet at the edge, then it is very easy to get a very sharp, finished edge.
To learn what is happening at the edge, get a jeweler's loupe (10x) and use it to examine the edge of the blade. When you see the sifference between a sharp edge and a dull one, then it gets much easier to sharpen correctly.
If you are removing a visible amount of metal off the edge while sharpening, then you are grinding too much metal off the blade. It's a very small part of the blade that does the cutting. The rest of the blade is there to support that millimeter-wide cutting edge.