You need to add a pair of diamond stones to speed up resetting a bevel on hard steel or crappy knives.
People may argue about media and angles and steel. But the name of the game is being able to consistently remove material from your knife blade at a consistent, repeatable angle. And that's an irrefutable fact.
I've been at it for nearly 40yr, and for the last 35 or so, I was the guy folks asked to sharpen their knives, and I've mostly done it freehand with, at first, Smith Arkansas stones. I bought a set of DMT Diamond "stones" in 1987, and still use them today. The blue one with a Gerber steel will deliver a hair-shaving, flesh cutting edge, on good steel, faster than ANY technique/gadget I've ever seen. It can be done just fine by hand, it just takes practice to get the muscle memory. You need to position your body in a similar position when you sharpen, as YOU are the jig. You need light to be able to see the arris. This will tell you if you need to adjust the way you hold/stroke the knife. When the knife will "nick" your nail, it might be sharp enough to steel.
