I don't think I'll ever be decent at sharpening.
I've been trying to get the hang of sharpening for years. I have various grits of oil stone, water stone, diamond stone, files and so on, along with strops and compounds.No matter what stone I use, or what blade I'm trying to sharpen, my skill seems to max out at slightly sharper than a hotel butter knife. I've read through the info on this subreddit and watched hours of YouTube videos (including pretty much everything on outdoors55's channel) but I just can't get it. I've tried Buck knives, kitchen knives, Leatherman blades, Swiss army knives, Kershaw, and at absolute best I can cut a straight line through printer paper.
I'm paying attention to the angle, keeping my finger on the back of the blade and the stone to maintain, keeping smooth movements and moving my whole body, and everything that seems like it should be the correct technique. I can get a burr on both sides, but as soon as I minimize it to the point where stropping would be the next step, the knife is dull enough that I can run my thumb down the full length of the blade and there's no risk at all of getting cut.
I have no idea where I'm going wrong or what else to try. It's like I'd be better off just buying cheap knives and throwing them away and replacing once they lose their factory edge because this skill seems permanently out of my reach.