Yeah , Ive gone to the diamond hones , and when Im done with the diamond hone I move onto a steel rod , to remove the very slight bur , when Im done it shaves …
After this , a bit of work with the steel maintains the edge …
I can maybe go 3 to 6 months with the steel rod [ maintain edge ] , and then re do the edge with the diamond hones … and so the cycle continues …
I use diamond stones and then finish with a ceramic steel.
I myself usually just use a sock to remove the any kind of burr inbetween stages, sometimes a few times during a stage if it’s the coarse stage. This works out well because I usually sharpen in my room. And where I sharpen is about 4 feet from my hamper.
I’m guessing that when people say they can’t get it that sharp that they are not going long enough with the coarse stage?
I think if you keep going in the first stage until you get a burr along the edge and if you keep getting finer with the proceeding stages you’re bound to get a razor sharp edge.
I dont think its necessary to always have the burr.. maybe the first time you sharpen a knife when giving it a new edge.
A lot of people have a problem keeping the same angle during the sharpening process. That will lead to big time screw-up.
What a riot, just last night we watched “The Butter Shave” (Kramer discovers shaving with butter)
I think Seinfeld was the best comedic show of all time.
BTW, for my light beard, I have always used Noxema Skin Cream to shave.
I was beginning to suspect that my problem has been patience, and this thread reinforces that. More strokes,folks, is what I’ve needed (the right kind, that is).
Tried this with mach3 and it didn’t work I think 
OK, welcome members of the shaving sharp knives club.
Post a picture of your partially shaved calves and / or forearms. 
this is IMHO my biggest problem. ah how I wish I could get my knives to shave…
I would, but I have almost no hair on my forearms anyway.. I just see them on the knife. :D
@Hokum: There are tools for that. Little chocks of metal or wood work well, but its best to train a lot until you can do it by hand/with your fingers to keep the distance. I sharpened 8 cheap knives from almost numb to razor-sharp before I started with the expensive ones. I got faster from knife to knife and had to remove less and less material.
Oh, and sharpening knives is really satisfying. People always give me that weird look until they feel the knife and cut something.. or shave. :D
I would say if you have never been able to shave with the edge more than likely you need to work with the coarse stone some more.
If you have previously been able to shave and now can’t you can probably just strop it back into shape or at most go to the fine stone.
I know that’s how it worked for me. As far as keeping the same angle I just lock off my wrist and quickly use the same motion. Your body remembers this motion fairly easily.
I would say it’s like anything else. It seems hard until the first time you are able to do it. After that it’s easy.
Here’s a fun YouTube video.
If you’re lazy (like me), just get the accusharp 1 pass system. The cheap imitation also work ok, but not as good as the original.
I'm lazy like you. Links? Esp for the cheap cheap imitation. 
Murry Carter is the guy I attribute my sharpening knowledge to. http://www.cartercutlery.com/ I bought a sharpmaker a couple years before and and couldn’t get knives ‘shaving sharp’ every time but, after watching Murry’s videos, I can do it easily with varying girts of wet/dry sandpaper. NightCrawl, it’s my opinion that the burr IS necessary even if it’s barely detectable. How else would you ensure that one side of the blade meets the other and that you’re creating a sharp edge?
Damn I deleted that photo of my nutsack 
I don’t know if it makes a difference. But I clear my stone and edge as much as possible. I just think grinding the knife edge against little pieces of itself will dull it.
This is their site: http://www.accusharp.com/
For those in the US: Amazon.com
Many imitations on Ebay: http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?\_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&\_nkw=knife+sharpner&\_sacat=0
It works via two hard elements (tungsten carbide?) at some angle (I think 30deg on real one) and it removes material until the edge conforms with the profile. Just slide knife through and insta-sharp.
Ah I see, Accusharp is the angled carbide ones. I already have a few of those imitation ones.
They do get the job done fast, but takes too much metal off. And the sharpness is limited to paper cutting sharp. Also, this seem to work better for thinner steel knives (kitchen) but not as good for thicker blades.
Anyhow, for quick sharpening of kitchen knives this works really well.