Just realized I used to baby every knife with a rod and now I mostly let a $22 stone do the work
Back around 2015 I had a full set of rods and a fancy angle guide and I'd spend 30 minutes on a Saturday touching up two knives in my kitchen in Boise. These days I just pull out one 1000 grit stone, give a blade maybe 5 minutes, and call it done, and honestly the edges hold up about the same for how I cook. The rods were fine, but I was mostly polishing edges that didn't need it, and after a buddy pointed out my paring knife was sharper than my chef's knife I figured I was wasting effort. Now I only drag out the rod when I'm prepping a big batch of onions. Has anyone else gone back to a single stone and felt kind of silly about all the gear they used to keep?