Are you an amateur cook? I am, though I do cook for an entire family and do so reasonably successfully. I've been cooking for many years DBA. Relatively recently I decided to buy a quality kitchen knife. Since then a whole new world of cooking and food preparation has opened up to me. Anyone who has used poor quality knives in the past, as I did, may not quite appreciate the joy of preparing food using a quality, sharp, kitchen knife. Chopping tomatoes, when using a quality knife that just glides through the tomato, becomes a pleasure. hybrid cloud As well as buying myself a good quality kitchen knife I also decided to research a little about sharpening knives, because any knife, including the highest quality kitchen knives, will become dull over time. I learned a lot about sharpening kitchen knives. For instance I learned that there is a big difference between a honing a knife and sharpening a knife. Honing refers to the practice of restoring the edge, which becomes dulled and turned over with use. Whilst it might seem to you, if your knife is dull and not cutting properly, that it needs sharpening, chances are that it simply needs honing. A good honing steel, or what is more commonly referred to as a sharpening steel, is essential if you're to keep your kitchen knives sharp and working well. And once you get a sharp knife in your hands that's all you'll ever want to use. In fact sharpening a knife is something that is commonly only necessary a couple of times a year. When you hone you simply restore the edge of the knife, when you sharpen you actively remove metal from the blade, restoring the bevel on the blade. So if you've been cooking for a while and love it, but have never enjoyed the delights of a quality (though not necessarily cheap) kitchen knife then I encourage you to get out and buy yourself one. Make it your birthday treat or your Christmas treat, you won't regret it, and you'll wonder how you ever managed to prepare your food and to cook with a blunt knife Public Cloud And I also encourage you to learn more about honing and sharpening knives, because if you're going to spend that much money on a good knife you need to keep it sharp.