I spent a good bit on my knife set. MUCH better than the crap my mother gave me when I moved out. (Still thankful though. Good 3 years of service)
How often do you guys have your knifes sharpened?
Depends on how often I cook and what knife we're talking - I have a few and they're not all the same steel. Carbon steel, like on an Old Hickory, will need it's edge touched up sooner than something made out of D2 or VG-10 under the same workload.
Generally, I hone my knives every 2 or 3 uses, usually on ceramic crock sticks or a fine 1500grit diamond coated chef steel. Maybe once a year, if that, I break out the rough stuff and give the whole bevel a bit of a leveling, making sure the angle is exactly what I want.
So sharpening at home is not a bad idea? Have a good tutorial?
A chef's steel is not actually a sharpening tool - it's just meant to straighten small dents in the blade. It's not a bad idea to take good knives to a steel occasionally but it's not going to make them sharp.
Quality knives should be sharpened periodically, but in my view true sharpening may be better handled by the professionals unless you cook a ton. it requires some real sharpening equipment and a reasonable amount of skill. If you have a good knife sharpener in your town you can get your knives blazing sharp for $2-3 apiece, once a year, which is plenty for most people. Alternatively you can buy a decent sharpening system (e.g., a Spyderco Sharpmaker or costlier sharpeners) and do it at home, but you will likely never do as good a job as a professional sharpener unless you invest in some fairly high-end gear.
DO NOT use an electric sharpener or one of those cheap pull-through sharpeners, both of which will do more harm than good. DO NOT give your knives to be sharpened without doing some research (Yelp, Google Local, etc.) into who will be sharpening them. Many high-end supermarkets will sharpen knives for free but I wouldn't be comfortable handing over a nice knife to them.
A dented edge is a damaged edge. If it's dented, you will want to sharpen it to restore the edge to its original geometry.In general a chef's steel is not actually a sharpening tool - it's just meant to straighten small dents in the blade. It's not a bad idea to take good knives to a steel occasionally but it's not going to make them sharp. Supposedly the diamond-coated ones have some limited sharpening ability but it's still not a substitute for a ceramic surface purpose-built for sharpening.
If you're not a professional chef, you're a moron.
We can leave it be, we all know his knees are well-practiced at typing.Most chefs I've met didn't have ridiculously expensive knives, they just had them professionally sharpened on a regular basis.
It behooves you to do a little more research...
Let's be honest here, 90% of the people giving advice in this thread either can't cook or cook like shit. I guarantee it. I don't give advice on American muscle cars. Why are you guys giving advice on a subject you really know nothing about.

It's the Hattori Forum FH-7 240mm gyuto (Western-style Japanese chef's knife).
http://www.japanesechefsknife.com/HattoriForumHighEndChefsKnives.html
LOL @sharpening a knife takes "special skills". Yeah, if you're retarded.
Yes, because a GPU is like a knife.I'm surprised nobody's mentioned this, but I wouldn't trust (or buy) anything designed by forum enthusiasts. I mean, could you see yourself buying an AT-designed GPU?
Pretty knife. Looks more like something you hang and show off to guests than use to cook.
My wife and I are big fan of Global chef knife. We use it everyday and abuse it. The knife has worn down and is lot smaller from decade use. I want to go ahead and replace it another Global but my wife is too fond and attached to the old knife.
How well do those Shuns with the crazy handles work with pinch grip?OP has a long way to go.
I would like to see a retarded kid sharpen a knife free-hand on stones.LOL @sharpening a knife takes "special skills". Yeah, if you're retarded.