[stouset]

Honing is 1,000x more important than sharpening.

When it does come time to sharpen, I constantly see places offering knife sharpening services, and they’re usually cheap enough. Or you could get a gizmo that does a mediocre job (and shaves away far too much material) if you just want to get it done. Or you could learn to do it yourself which isn’t that hard or time-consuming but is somewhat of a labor of love.

[wredcoll]

What exactly is the difference between honing and sharpening.

[itomato]

Making the edge is sharpening. Removing the ripples in it is honing.

[wredcoll]

This is the first time I've heard someone say honing is very important, when I was first learning this, I was told that it was the next thing to pseudoscience!

[stouset]

Absolutely not. A blade can stay sharp for a much longer period of time than it can stay honed. The edge of a piece of paper is extremely sharp, but it only cuts you in specific circumstances due to being difficult to maintain a firm edge.

A knife's edge is closer to that than you'd think. At the scales of sharpness of a good knife, it's impossible to keep the edge straight for very long. A honing rod quickly brings these back in line. I hone knives after maybe a week of use; it only takes a few seconds.

And this is a comically easy property to test. Use a "dull" knife then hone it and try again. It will cut drastically better.