440 steel is pretty hard stuff. Many buck knives are made from 440 steel. They are a b1tch to sharpen but do hold an edge quite well.
"Honing" is not sharpening a knife. You are just realigning the metal ions at the edge of the knife. Done with a "steel"
Cutco is one of the best knives I own. They are expensive though, but worth every penny. They are guaranteed sharp for life, and I have only steeled mine periodically to keep it sharp. Look for them at sales and the bay.
The most important thing when using a knife is the cutting surface under your food. If you use a hard surface, Like a ceramic plate, you will roll the edge of the knife, like the guy in the video eluded to. Running a "steel" over it will not straighten this out. The blade must then be resharpened.
If you want to sharpen your knives correctly the hardest part is holding the angle throughout the whole stroke, which with a 10" blade is difficult at best.
Check these out if you are serious about sharpening your own kitchen tools. If you have a couple of friends that cook a lot, or butcher game, chip in and get one together. Or look on the web sites for people selling used ones.
http://www.edgeproinc.com/products.html I
I have seen these units for less than 175 dollars used. You can't really hurt them and you can buy different/new stones when needed.
Another place to look for decent knives is T.J. Maxx. They buy out other stores inventory and I have picked up a few decent knives very cheap there.
(wandered through the kitchen department during one of the many painful drag throughs the wife had me on!)
Spyderco sharpmaker is a great product but again its tough trying to hold an angle on a 10 or 12 inch kitchen knife.
http://spyderco.com/catalog/details.php?product=77
There is a poor mans way to sharpen kitchen knives. Take a computer mouse pad and place it on a piece of plywood. On top of that place a 1000.1500. 0r 2000 grit wetsand paper. Yes the kind for sanding cars. drag the knife backwards along the length of the paper. drag it at the proper angle for the knife. Most Kitchen knives are safe with a 10-15 degree angle. You must drag it backwards, or with the backbone of the knife leading across the paper.
If you look at a knife edge under high magnification, you will see a rather jagged edge. If you want to make the knife scary sharp, you must break these off and sand down the edges until it gets razor sharp. Most conventional wisdom tells you to sharpen the knife in the same direction that you will cut with it. If you dont you will align the edge such that when you go to use the knife to cut something, you will immediately start to push those micro jagged pieces back in the other direction than they were aligned during the sharpening process. There are exceptions to this rule however, called convex sharpening. Like the wetsand paper trick above.
Here:
http://www.barkriverknives.com/convex.htm
I hope I have sufficiently planted yet another destructive seed, which will lead to excesive money spending on yet another incurable hobby! (misery loves company!)
