High praise. I've just burrowed through the opening chapters on metallurgy and hardening. What an eye opener. Like others here I've taken a few demo classes on sharpening. And when I bought my Veritas Mk II power sharpener, the Veritas guy spent some time showing me how on plane blades and chisels. Even to the point of eliminating a burr using stops and compounds. So, for 6 years I've scrubbed away.
I thought I knew my way around edges. And I read Ron Lee's sharpening book. Hock has a different slant on matters. Some readers might find the discussion of crystalline structures in various forms of steel overly complex or technical. Just read those pages a few times, however and you'll have a mental picture of that phantom that us Galoots (Neanderthals) forever chose -- the perfect edge. I now use tools according to a plan. And sharpen them accordingly.
My first step was to go out to the shop and identify the steel in all my planes, chisels and saws. The O1 tools are now designated for soft woods. The A2 are dedicated to hard woods. That alone will reduce the maintenance workload tremendously. (if you don't know what you are dealing with, you can gauge by the spark color and pattern by briefly touching the blade to a grinder wheel. My dad, a machinist, showed me this technique in the early 1950s. But what teenager listens to his dad?)
For those motivated by economy Hock explains all the methods, including the use of only two stones instead of 5 or 6.