Sharpening

I'm really disappointed with myself. I thought I would enjoy, and be good at, sharpening knives. I don't and I'm not! I have two Shapton water stones and I can get a nice edge on my chisels with a jig that maintains the angle for me, but I just can't get a good edge on a knife. I don't know if I'm not patient enough, if I just can't hold the angle well enough or what, but I give up.

My wife is, understandably, frustrated with a kitchen full of dull knives and bought one of those drag through carbide/ceramic sharpeners and I can't even make that work - I drag a blade through a few times, there is a pile of swarf in the sharpener, the blade looks sharp - but it's dull as dull, maybe even worse than before "sharpening".

We have a range of knives from grocery store mild steel, through decent consumer Mundial and Victorinox to one low end nice Global.

Appreciate any suggestions!

I just got a leather strop for the first time in my sharpening journey and what a difference!

I sharpened all the straight edge knives at my in-laws before Thanksgiving Day and finished them with the strop and compound. Unreal!

I'll post links to what I used if it's allowed.

I know its nothing fancy, but it's a huge step up from the no-name, no-info stone I picked up from a restaurant supply shop years ago. I'll keep y'all posted on my adventures.

Also, where is everyone?