Non knife nuts don't sharpen knives.
Actually they do, just not to you're standards.
Keep in mind that we are maybe less than one percent of the worlds population. The knife nuts are the extreme edge that the rest of the world see's as weird. And they are right. The whole rest of the world is doing well with cutlery that people on this forum wold turn their nose up at. And their sharpening techniques are equally as mundane.
Ihad the great privilege of serving in the United States Army for 10 years. During that time I got to travel to some far off places. I saw people using everything from a river rock to a paving stone to sharpen their knives. Yet these people were far from knife nuts. They just wanted to cut something. In Italy, where we were TDY to Avianno Air Force base, I saw the old Italian ladies come out at about 5 o'clock when they were cooking dinner, and sharpenthier knives on the stone steps to the house. They had old dark gray bladed knives with misshapen blades from years of use, but it's what they had to slice up the lamb, beef, or whatever that was going to be dinner. They'd take a fw swipes and test it with a thumb, and go back into the house to make dinner. The knife would not have whittled hair, or any other silly test of sharpness that knife nuts like to use. But they didn't care. They just wanted to cut stuff for dinner. I've seen a workman take a mill file to a knife blade. Or a local contract worker at Wheelus Air Force base use the edge of a shovel to steel his Douk-Douk. It worked well enough to get a good using edge. In Vietnam I saw a guy use a river rock to touch up his knife. It got pretty sharp.
Last time we were visiting our daughter and family in California, I saw first hand how she keeps her knives sharp enough for her. I had given her a few Forcshner/Victorinox kitchen knives years ago. While making some beef stir fry, Jess decide her chefs knife wasn't sharp enough. She goes and strops it on a coffee mug bottom and goes back to work. I offer to sharpen it for her, but she says no, it's good enough. "Good enough."
To most people who are not knife nuts, that term describes their knives perfectly. "Good enough."
The truth is, most people just don't care if it's hair whittling sharp. They don't even care if it gets dull, as long as they can swipe it on something at hand and it works again "good enough" to get the job done. I used to obsess over how sharp my knife was, and I regret all the time I spent on medium stones, fine stones, ultra fine stones, smoother than a baby's butt stone, and which compound to run into a strop. Now I just use one stone or a coffee mug and get on with life. My knife is just sharp enough to shave arm hair, and that's good enough. It cuts rope/twine, cardboard boxes, fish bellies and guts, and plastic packages. It cuts everything I have to deal with in my 21st century suburban retired gentleman of leisure life style. It even cuts salted eel that we sue for crab bait while crabbing out on the Chesapeake Bay.
Att his point in life I actually avoid the super steels like the plague. Life's too short to obsess over things that won't matter in the long run. I want to spend my time going out and doing, not sitting home and sharpening knives. Most of the rest of the world thinks that way, judging by the amount of 'soft' stainless steel blades sold to non knife nuts. Most people just want to cut, and if it gets too dull to do that, they want an easy fix. A few swipes on a rive rock or paving stone and back in business. I would guess that Victorinox does a lot of market research. They'be been in business a very long time, and make more knives per year than any other three knife companies. They cater to a world wide market, from Japan to Europe, and they deliver what the vast bulk of the clientele wants. A knife that is good enough for most people, and is easy to sharpen.
.
