Another side of this... if you're on a budget, you can turn a crap knife into a pretty serviceable knife with a very basic setup. I've got a pair of santokus that were about $20 each (one bigger one for meat and large veggies, smaller one for small veggies) and a set of 3 progressively finer sharpening stones from Princess Auto (the Canadian equivalent to Harbour Freight). About once a month I take the two knives and give them about 5 passes on each side, with the bevel set basically at the angle I get if I have a finger in between the spine and the stone. Takes about 45 seconds and they get sharp enough to pass the tomato test.

They don't maintain their edge, but I've had fantastic slicing for a decade now for $50.