I’m ready to fight!
I, ahem, prefer folded steel knives, once sharpened with sanding belts and then leather belts, then stropped after every use. It doesn’t take much stropping and you end up removing very little steel by continually maintaining a very honed edge. Cheap steel knives can be sharpened, but they never hold the edge. Good quality steel will not need frequent sharpening if stropped regularly. The quality steel lasts forever that way and really will be easy to work with every time you slice/cut/chop.
That said, most people find the process I’ve described tedious, sooooo…just get some ceramic knives or get some decent steel knives and a decent ceramic steel rod and beat the fuck out of the knives. Honing edges won’t work for most people as they are too brutal on the knife edges (not a criticism. Just a fact. And if you are not likely to care and love a knife edge, then beat the fuck out of the knife and toss it or sharpen the fuck out of it. Seriously, that’s the best way to go).
My not so humble advice then is to treat a knife edge like a baby if you want to keep the knife for years or to buy on the cheap and abuse the knife until it completely fails and toss it.
Both methods work well.
