I came across this excellent and entertaining piece on the dark art of knife sharpening. This guy actually talks sense! (Except regarding scissors -- pfft! And I have yet to see a pull-through sharpener worth its weight in horse...radish.)

A lot of this I had to learn the hard way. And, as always, there's more to learn.

https://forums.egullet.org/topic/26036-knife-maintenance-and-sharpening/