For standard boring stuff I use 1 orange and 1 yellow Diamond stones freehand.
Since I cannot break my mother or in-laws of using glass cutting boards, its not worth the time to get their scary sharp.


I bought a kit in the 80s - a razor edge system with 2 stones and a blade guide that attaches to the back of the blade.

I bought mine at cabela's- but they sell direct at http://www.razoredgesystems.com/

This kit always gets things sharp, and extremely consistent.

I am looking at switching over to this at home http://www.sharpeningwheels.com/index.html.

several knife forums swear by it- knives so sharp that you can WHITTLE hair, not just shave it...