I have tried waterstones and oil stones back and forth, with grinding, honing guides and free-hand. All good stuff, but it took to long and I always postponed my sharpening.
Now I have landed on the best routine ever (imo)
I use the dmt diamond stones, coarse, fine and xtra-fine (the extra extra fine 8000 stone I don´t use as it takes to much breaking in) and end on the strop with honing compound.
I use the old method where you free-hand a convex bevel. I learned it from Paul Sellers on youtube, and now it only takes me 2 minutes max to get a perfect edge on a chisel, or a plane iron. No fuzz, no hassle, so simple it hurts. You should really check out his (not really his, oldschool) method on youtube
Regards
-- David, Copenhagen, Denmark
