Questions missing from this list are:
"Can I spend some amount of money and be done?"
"Is this worth spending some amount of money to be done?"
I have had innumerable projects where they just languished and languished and languished ... until I got annoyed enough to spend some money and then they were done and gone.
Sure, some projects are a "hobby". My hobbies are continuous and I like doing them so spending money to finish them is not relevant.
However, quite often a task languishing is either because I don't really like the task or don't feel like putting in the effort to learn the required knowledge. For those tasks, spending money often works.
(For example, my latest task along these lines was "sharpen my kitchen knives". After farting with far too many whetstones, I finally spent the money to buy a fixed-angle sharpening system. I took it out of the box, set it up, and in two evenings my dozen kitchen knives were sharp and pleasant to use again. I then put the system back in the box and put it in my closet for the next time I need it. I spent way less on that fixed-angle system than I have on the whetstones I tried up to this point.)
Happy it worked for you but a whetstone with an angle guide and you'd be done in a similar time.
I think I can refresh a lightly dull blade in 10min or so, and speaking as a non-pro.
The long-term benefits of a whetstone is that you can get much more feedback on what's happening, while most "systems" work for a bit and then it's hard to see what part is over-worked or not performing as well as it used to.
Just putting it out here because I think people might either not be using an angle guide or just be somewhat misguided, since using a whetstone is really not much slower.
That’s exactly the point: you have knowledge. GP spent money so as not to have to learn that knowledge.
> I think I can refresh a lightly dull blade in 10min or so, and speaking as a non-pro.
This is the same assumption (and problem) that every YouTube knife sharpening video makes.
The people who need those videos, by definition, have knives that are absurdly out of whack for some reason--super dull, badly sharpened by someone who "knew better", chipped because used like a cleaver, etc.
Those kinds of knives require a very coarse (150 grit or below) stone and quite a bit of time and attention on the first pass to fix. You will not fix it easily. You will not fix it in 10 minutes. You will not fix it with a 300 grit stone. You will not get any feedback from angle bite or a burr for a very long time. etc.
Most of the feedback mechanisms you rely on when sharpening with a whetstone do not exist when your knife is sufficiently out of whack. Learning to sharpen on a whetstone with such a knife is extremely difficult.
If you treated your knife like that, even a system wont help.
Either bring it to a professional with professional power tools or buy a new one and start being kind to your knives.
At the risk of triggering whetstone enthusiasts, once you have a properly ground knife, all you need is a two-sided 3000/8000 grit stone. I find that I can resharpen my semi-fancy knives within minutes to cleanly cut a sheet of paper. And I also finish with a leather strap.
From a spend money not time perspective better to take them to a local sharpener!
Not necessarily. Not everyone has easy access to that kind of service. The nearest one to me that I'm aware of is about half an hour drive away. The sharpening system that I have just takes a few minutes. It's definitely easier for me to do it myself than take them somewhere.
I have never sharpened a knife in my entire life so that's an option too.
I would amend that to "Pay a local knife nerd that you trust". Most "sharpening services" use some kind of grinder and they can damage the edge temper as well as do other stupid things.
Funny story time ... my problem with learning to sharpen with whetstones was due to taking my knives to a local sharpener.
I could sharpen two of my knives with a whetstone just fine but could never figure out why. But they were my two smallest knives, so I assumed that it was skill issue when I was handling the bigger knives.
It turns out the local sharpener that I used ground an absolutely absurd angle into the cutting edge on my big kitchen knives--something like 30+ degrees. Given that they did cut for a while, I presume that they also had something like a "microbevel" on them. Of course, the problem is that I am never going to be able to put a "microbevel" back on them with a whetstone.
However, an amateur with a whetstone like me is going to have difficulty figuring all this out because they are always going to suspect their own skill.
Of course, as soon as I put them on the fixed angle sharpener, the fact that the edges had an absurd angle was immediately obvious. And the fact that, yes, it is going to take a while to correct this also became obvious. So, I sat down and stoned the edge with a 100 grit(!) diamond stone for 45 minutes until I got the angle back to something reasonable. And then went up the grits to sharpen it.
Just for giggles, on my last kitchen knife, I used the system to fix the angle, and then I used whetstones. Funnily enough, it sharpened just fine. I'll still use the fixed angle system in the future though.
Quality varies. I was disappointed to see Sur La Table's sharpening service is little better than an angle grinder.
I have a similar story about a clogged kitchen sink.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44521693