Hot take: buying a $40 chef knife and sharpening it yourself beats a $180 knife you baby
I cooked with a $180 Japanese knife for 3 years and treated it like a museum piece, honing it maybe once a month and never touching a stone because I was scared to mess it up. My brother in law runs a diner in Boise and uses a $40 Victorinox he sharpens on a 1000 grit stone every Sunday, and that knife cuts better than mine ever did. The cheap one gets sharpened so often it never really goes dull, while the fancy one sits at 70 percent sharpness for months because I am too nervous to grind on it. I finally sold the expensive one and put the $140 difference into a good stone and a cheap knife, and I am never going back. The lesson for me is that a tool you actually maintain beats a tool you are scared of, no matter what the price tag says. Am I wrong here, or do some of you still think the premium steel is worth the worry?
A tool you actually maintain beats a tool you are scared of, amen to that! My fancy gyuto sat in the drawer for months because I was terrified of messing up the edge, meanwhile my beat up old Henckels gets touched up on the stone every week and just keeps going. Sold the fancy one for way less than I paid and honestly? Zero regrets.