Sean, nowadays after a few years as a "serious" woodworker
I find most sharpening instructions to be overcomplicated. Taking my cue from 19th century advice, I try to do most of my sharpening with one or two stones and a leather strop. I don't know what type of stone you have, but most modern advice seems to insist that you have multiple stones including very fine grits, which I think you can avoid for the most part. I like to use a Washita oilstone for most of my chisel sharpening, because I have a good old one, but a fine India stone really is fine enough for most work. I do use a coarser stone or even a grinder if I need to radically shape an edge, but for routine sharpening I generally just use the Washita, then the strop. Some people like to strop on bare leather but I usually use a bit of Simichrome paste which serves as well as any rouge compound. There are other brands of similar compound, sold for polishing automobile or motorcycle chrome, so try an auto parts store. It should not be expensive.
I generally sharpen free-hand, but that takes some practice to get good consistent edges. I have had good results with the cheap and common "Eclipse" style sharpening jig for straight chisels. The secondary bevel you mention is what I usually aim for in sharpening. Even of I am only using one stone I will do most of the honing at one angle (about 30 degrees) and then lift the angle of the tool slightly and rub it a few times with very light pressure to form the fine secondary bevel. This trick actually works well with the Washita stone which is why I prefer it. I do the same with curved gouges, working side-to-side across the edge.
I know that description is less than adequate. If you have questions I may be able to answer better, even with pictures, in the next few days. I can also recommend the blogs of Paul Sellers
https://paulsellers.com/woodworking-blo ... lers-blog/ and Christopher Schwarz (Lost Art Press)
https://blog.lostartpress.com/ for good no-nonsense sharpening advice, although in both cases they write extensively and repetitively about the subject so you might want to search around their blogs if you are looking for specific information.