Why does nobody talk about the time sink of sharpening by hand?
I kept hearing everyone swear by hand sharpening over electric grinders, so I ditched my machine for a good stone setup back in March. It took me THREE full weekends to get my chef's knife and two boning knives actually sharp enough to do a whole lamb shoulder without fighting the blade. I watched every video, tried the sharpie trick, the angle guides, everything, and I still ended up with a burr that would not come off clean. Finally realized my stone was too soft and I was spending 40 minutes per knife when a harder stone would do it in 10. So now I feel like I wasted a whole month of Sunday afternoons on something that should have been a quick skill check, not a project. Has anyone else found that hand sharpening takes way longer than the hype makes you think, or is it just me and my bad stone choice?