[mauvehaus]

For all edge tools be they for cooking, woodworking, forestry or something else: buy steel, not sharp. Henkels, Lie-Nielsen, Gransfors Bruk, Victorinox, or Stanley is only going to sharpen it for you once.

Corollary: learn to sharpen. The best steel in the world isn't going to cut anything if it's dull.

For the record, I sharpen chisels almost daily and I hate sharpening kitchen knives. The carbides set at the right angle in the handle you pull down the length of the blade will keep your knives a lot sharper than a set of Japanese water stones you never use.

[Kon-Peki]

If you live in a reasonably large metro area that has a lot of good restaurants, there is going to be a small handful of cooking knife sharpeners. A large percentage of professional chefs can't afford/justify good quality sharpening equipment for something that they use a couple times per year.

They'll take their knives to these services and pay $5 or $6 per knife, and it will get done to perfection in just a few minutes while they wait. You can use these same services, there is no membership card needed to get in the door.

[mauvehaus]

I live at the literal end of the internet: there are no more poles beyond our house. Surprisingly, one of the hardware stores in the area has a robot knife sharpener. I'm tempted to try it, but the only time I remember is when I'm already there without a knife!

When we were still in the Boston area, a lot of the hardware stores and farmers markets would have a knife sharpening service come one day a month.

[Kon-Peki]

I’ve been told to stay away from any kind of sharpening that isn’t specifically for cooking knives - the angle of the blade is supposed to be different.

I don’t have actual knowledge, just what I’ve been told by chefs.