The best tips for sharpening if you have not done this much are to get a Spyderco Sharpmaker with the video on using it and if you can afford them get the extra diamond triangle rods as these remove stock from the blade much quicker and with hardened steel you will be suprised at how long it can take if you have allowed the edge to become dulled to get the right angle and stock removed to give you a razor sharp edge.

Get a black marker pen and magnifying glass and run the pen down each side of the edge before starting. This will help you see your progress with the loop as you begin the task of restoring the edge.

Use the 30 degree angle to remove stock from the blade edge and then the 40 degree angle to bring it to a sharpened edge....forget the flat sides of the rods and just use the rounded edges as this is much quicker. Once you have all the black removed from each side of the edge go to the finer triangles and finish the edge off with light strokes only being needed on the fine white triangle rods.

When it is razor sharp get a cheap computer mouse board and cut a strip about the width of a bench stone and same length and glue it to a wooden base. Wrap some wet and dry grit paper in the 400 then 600 then 800 grit bands around the board and strop the blade backwards like it was a leather strop. Use all the paper weights and colour the edge before beginning this as you just want to do this to blend in the 30 degree to 40 degree secondary edge so that you get a proper appleseed convex curve right to the edge.

This will probably lose some of the razor effect....restore this with very gentle use of the white rods and use the rounded triangle edge..when no black marker is on the edge you have taken it properly to the fine "razor" pinnacle you want.

This all takes time and hence why I suggest the marker as this will show you the progress you are making......otherwise you are easily convinced you are doing it wrong.

After the time spent restoring the edge like this.....you will become a fan of "topping up" the edge after each use of the knife. This takes a couple of minutes......reprofiling a dull edge to the right angles for maximum cutting ability ( a 30 degree - 40 degree convex curve ) can take hours if the edge was dulled badly.

Alternatively read Horn Dogs posts on edge profiling and sharpening using a belt sander and get one of these and practise before doing the good knives with cheap ones. This is quicker but don't let the blade get too hot because it will damage the temper of the edge.

Simple really.....seriously it takes a while to get good at this so doing a SAK or other smaller blade to begin with is a good idea...infact I would go this route with the sharpmaker as well.

HTH's.