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Like anything else - practice, practice, practice....
One thing you can try is the Scary Sharp method. It's kinda popular for sharpening woodworking tools. You get various grits of sandpaper - nothing coarser than 100 grit. Tape the coarsest one to a piece of glass (to keep it very flat) and work the edge. When you have a smooth edge with one grit, wipe the knife down and go to the next. Use oil on the sandpaper to make the process smooth. You may be surprised at how quickly you go from dull to razor sharp. I think what makes this method work is that you have short goals that you can achieve - as opposed to a single stone where you keep doing the same thing for a long time before you see a result.
A great piece of advice that I got from an old hunting magazine is to go in the kitchen and get a handfull of kitchen knives. My wife does not understand the concept of 'slicing'. All knives are used for chopping - and not always on a cutting board. Add the usual trips to the dishwasher (AAAAARGH!) and they are all usually dull, dull, dull. Practice up by sharpening a dozen of these knives before you try sharpening your 'good' knife. You can't screw up the kitchen knives, you can only improve the edge, and you'll get the feel for your own sharpening.
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God bless Texas! Now let's secede!!
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