No doubt a blade can be honed razor sharp on a bench stone but the bevels will be more consistent using a Lansky, Galco or Edge Pro.
You can bore a 3/8" hole through a piece of 3/8" x 2" steel plate clamping it with your boot on a 4x4 with a hand drill, or step it up a notch and hold the drill with two hands while a vise holds the plate...I will use a drill press.
I picked up a bag of leather form hobby lobby and a 1x4x24 piece of Red Oak, glued brown, white, gray and green leather to the boards and have strops for any rouge I will every use.
