I tried various honing guides, Arkansas stones, sandpaper on glass, diamond stones and water stones but never got consistently sharp chisels and plane blades until I discovered these Lie-Nielsen Youtube videos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1F7q5WGb4ZA and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfX7T6qRut0

For me, the key to sharpening has been a Lie Nielson look-alike honing guide in conjunction with the stop-block jig shown in the video. The jig helps me maintain a consistent angle with the sharpening stone, and that makes it much easier to get a sharp edge. Flattening the blade back also helps. A micro bevel on the plane blade also works well.

The Lie Nielson technique probably works well with sandpaper on glass or diamond stones, but water stones work well for me. Water stones are a little more work because they have to be flattened, but they sharpen steel very quickly. I do the final honing, flattening and micro bevel with a 4000/8000 grit Norton water stone.

A grinder, a cheap Harbor Freight diamond multi-stone, and coarse sand paper on glass quickly establish the bevel angle or remove nicks in the blades.