My turn to weigh in
While I have some oil stones and ceramic stones for sharpening carving chisels, most of my sharpening is done with "scary sharp". I have not had any difficulties over the years. I started with a flat sheet of Corian instead of glass for safety reasons and switched to a 12" x 18" granite surface plate three years ago. My basic flattenig of the backs of plane blades and chisels is done with an abrasive mesh screen used for smoothing drywall. It does a very quick job, faster than any other technique I know. I adhere the sheets of wet/dry paper to the surface plate by wetting the granite with some water and surface tension holds them in place nicely without the aggravations of adhesive. Adhesives have several problems including lumps and unevenness, the problem of removal, and the wasted time waiting for it to dry. Don't bother.
Depending upon the state of the chisel or plane blade when I start I often establish the basic bevel with a bench grinder to save time. Then it's on to the SiC paper. The lowest I go is 150 grit and often I'm able to begin at 220. My schedule then goes: 320, 400, 600, 1000, 1200, 1500, 2000. Along with a final strop on green Chromium oxide ( applied to mdf or plywood) this gets me what I need. The most important thing to my mind is sharening BEFORE the blade gets really dull or chipped. A few seconds of quick touchup every few minutes of use saves a huge amount of time over the long run. By the way, I sharpen bevels on SS paper by going back and forth across the blade face.
Generally my advice is to take a system (oilstones, SS, or waterstones) and stick with it for awhile until you become proficient. This doesn't happen overnight. Like all manual skills, it takes practice and time to develop the finesse and muscle memory need to get consistent results. I am not fond of the Tormek and other wheen based systems since they don't have high enough grits on their wheels to do a top notch job. They are all right for a start, but it's a pretty expensive start when you have to go to another system to finish the job. Finally, after you have become adept at one system, then you can try another for comparison or because you want alternatives.
Dave Anderson
Chester, NH