Tell it where your edge is and where you want it. Get the exact stone sequence, in order.
Each stone erases the scratches of the one before it, so jumps bigger than about 3x the grit number make the next stage slow and frustrating. The other rule: stay on the coarse stone until you feel a burr along the whole edge. Leaving coarse too early is the number one reason progressions fail. Everything after the burr is refinement.
High carbide steels change the tools, not the logic. Swap waterstones for diamond plates in the same grit slots and finish on a strop loaded with diamond compound instead of bare leather.