Everything is sharp now.

A few days ago, knowing that I had a dull kitchen knife, I brought the oilstone and the 3 in 1 oil up from the shop.  Then I procrastinated.  Today, I planned to clean up my case project with a block plane.  I also knew I needed to sharpen the block plane, 'cause the case project  had mortise and tenon joints, and trimming them means cutting across the grain, which only works if the plane is good and sharp.  And I didn't want to carry the oilstone back downstairs to the shop without  dealing with the kitchen knives.
   So, first kitchen knife is a big 12 inch Gerber chef's knife from a yard sale.  Must have been a bad day at the Gerber plant when this one was turned out.  Gerber uses stainless steel bandsaw blade stock to make their blades, and this knife's blade came from a bad batch of stainless.  The stuff rusts on the sharpened edge and has little inclusions of crud that drop out leaving a ragged edge.  Dunno how that happened, Gerber is a quality name in knives.  So, a few drops of oil on the stone, it's a two grit silicon carbide stone.  Start with the coarse side.  Hold the knife, by hand,  at 15 degrees or so, for a good fine edge.  Work it back and forth until I can see bright fresh metal all along the edge from handle to point.  Add a drop or two of oil each time the stone looks dry.  Then flip the oilstone over to the fine side and repeat.  Inspect edge from time to time.  You will see when the fine side of the oilstone has polished out the scratches from the coarse side. 
   Now, as long I am on a roll, let's do the other knives  kicking around here.  My Swiss Army pocket knife gets sharp from just a bit of stoning on the fine side.  It's stainless, and a better batch of stainless than the Gerber, no rust spots, no little inclusions of crud.   A little two inch no-name lockback knife some child brought back from summer camp, and I use for opening bills,  sharpens up nicely with a few strokes of the fine stone.  An NRA knife needs more grinding on first the coarse side and then the fine side before it is as sharp as I like a knife to be. 
  So, now I can take the oilstone back downstairs to the shop and deal with plane irons.  I have a home made jig to hold the plane iron at 32 degrees while I slide the stone back and forth.  Keep at it until the iron shows bright fresh metal all the way across.    Then lay the iron flat on its back and stone the back flat, and as a side effect, stone off the wire edge from sharpening the bevel.  Repeat with the fine side of the stone.  After this treatment, the plane will cut cross grain without tearout.
  Anyhow, we are all sharp now.