New cooks are afraid of sharp knives. Experienced cooks are afraid of dull ones. A dull blade slides on tomato skin, on chicken thighs, on onions. It forces you to use more pressure. And when more pressure suddenly slips, the blade lands on your hand. Almost every knife injury in our kitchen has come from a knife that needed sharpening.
There are three concepts to keep straight. Honing is what you do every few uses with a steel: you are not removing metal, you are straightening a microscopic edge that has rolled over. Sharpening is what you do every few months with a stone or a pull-through: you are removing a tiny bit of metal to expose fresh edge geometry. Polishing is a finishing step that smooths the burr left by sharpening. Most home cooks confuse the three and end up doing none of them.
The best routine for someone who cooks five nights a week: hone before every use with a ceramic rod, sharpen at home with a fine and a coarse stone every two months, and send your knives to a professional once a year to fix any chips or tip damage you have caused without realizing it. Do this and your knives will outlive you. They will also keep you out of the urgent care.
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