I think I've jumped in head first. I did some reading then I pulled out my benchmade 940 in 154cm and went through the 1600 ceramic stones then I dropped 1 degree and went through the 5 and 3.5 pastes on balsa. I spent a little more time on each step and whoa baby it passed the hht!! Now I'm excited so I got out my spyderco in cpm m4 set it up at b on the top notch at 16 degrees with the angle cube and went to work. I did the same progression on each step I did scrubbing then sweeping strokes then dropped 1 degree and when through the pastes. Oh my does m4 get stupid sharp!!! It passed the hht no problem but it still won't push cut toilet paper. It does slice paper towel though. Anyway now my wife thinks I'm crazy but she was impressed.

Congrats on your success!
Nothing nicer than a sharp blade, one that you sharpened youself, in your pocket..
Well possibly nothing other than using the blade..


Phil

I'm still playing around with my Hogue EX01 tanto, but I just realized I've been horribly spoiled by the Wicked Edge already. I got a CRKT M16 14SF in for a customer and friend of mine and I'm really unimpressed by the factory edge! The grind is nice though, maybe I'll end up upgrading it for him

I've always had good luck hand sharpening but I've gotten spoiled too by the speed and ease that I can try new things and get repeatable results. That hasn't always been the case freehand. It takes a lot of the worry out of the process because if you try something and you don't like it or it doesn't work out like you thought it is easy to go back to what you know works or try something else. I would upgrade... with his permission of course.