Dave, I have two methods that I use. One, I have a piece of 1/4" plate glass that's about 12" x 18". I use 3m spray adhesive to attach automotive we dry sandpaper to it 400 grit, 1000 grit and 4000 grit. I don't use a honing guide I just carefully maintain the angle of the bevel with both hands on the plane iron moving it back and forth across the paper. Also, I am using a spray bottle to wet the paper and "float" the metal particles. It actually creates a little bit of a slurry that supposedly helps the sharpening process at the very least it keeps the paper from clogging up with metal.
The other method is really the same method but just using a water stone instead of the paper and I actually like it much better not having to deal with gluing the sandpaper down. I have a water stone that has 1000 grit on one side and 6000 on the other. If I have a really dull blade or a nick or something to take out I use a coarser stone that I got from Harbor Freight to start off with.
After sharpening the bevel at each grit level I lay the plane iron down on flat it's back side and take one swipe on the stone or paper. If the backside of your plane iron is not polished out you can actually go through the grits with the backside first and get it polished and then do the bevel. You wont need to do much to the backside of the iron after that.
I don't use a honing guide but there's nothing wrong with using one if you feel like you need to.
Some people use a bench grinder to sharpen but you have to be really careful not to overheat the blade and screw up the temper of the metal.
Paul Sellers on YouTube has several great videos on sharpening planes and chisels:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gE4yVgdVW7s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbAo4RpM7oM
