A sharp knife in the kitchen is non-negotiable. Blunt knives are clumsy and dangerous, and they can do serious damage to your food and fingers. As someone who’s hacked up both with a dull blade, I recommend you keep your knives as sharp as possible. Bring them to a professional sharpener at least once a year. It’s extremely cheap – on average less than $5 a piece – and you’ll save yourself a lot of frustration (and bloodshed) in the kitchen. Here are the best places to go for a good grinding.
And to all you DIYers hell-bent on sharpening your own blades, a word of caution: proper knife sharpening on a whetstone is a difficult skill to master, and you can easily mangle your blade if you don’t know what you’re doing. When you consider how cheap it is to pay a professional, doing it yourself isn’t worth the risk.