My demo bench knife sharpener cost me 2 hours and a bruised ego
Spent a whole Friday afternoon trying to fix a dull chef's knife with a pull-through sharpener that ended up making it worse, so now I'm wondering if I should just bite the bullet and learn whetstone basics or find a local sharpening service in Portland that actually does same-day drop offs.
A pull-through sharpener doesn't actually fix a bad edge, it just grinds a new rough one that feels sharp for a day or two then goes dull again. You basically took metal off your knife for nothing, which is why it feels worse now. Whetstones take some practice but you'll get the hang of it way faster than you'd think, and a local service is fine too if you'd rather not deal with the hassle.