> zero maintenance kitchen knife First, use a wooden cutting board. Or soft plastic. Ceramic knives (Kyocera) are harder and more wear resistant than any stee

> zero maintenance kitchen knife First, use a wooden cutting board. Or soft plastic. Ceramic knives (Kyocera) are harder and more wear resistant than any steel can be, but they're also brittle. The edge can chip if you hit anything hard. You can't cut bones or crusty bread. Don't hit it against any hard object by accident. Don't twist or bend. You could get several years of use out of it, but when it wears out and gets dull, you'd need diamond files to sharpen it. European chef knives are softer steel (56 to 58 hardness in Rockwell scale), but they are not brittle. Wusthof is a premium brand. The Victorinox Fibrox is very good value at about $40. The steel will bend and give in, but not chip. If you use a honing rod weekly and sharpen every couple of months, you can always have a nice sharp knife. A single 1000 grit sharpening stone like Shapton should suffice, but not everyone wants to learn hand sharpening. You can also use a pull-through sharpener, some are ok but some are just bad. A skilled hand sharpening will produce a finer edge, though. Then there is a whole world of Japanese chef knives, called gyutos. Rockwell hardness is usually from 61 to 64. They are thinner, lighter, nimbler and sharper than Western style knives, but the steel is so hard that it can be brittle. Hard steel can be sharpened to a small angle to get a very sharp knife, but if you hit a hard object the edge will chip. Slicing vegetables is just a breeze. Honing rod might also damage the edge, unless you apply very light touch. Pull-through sharpeners might destroy the edge. Some "super steels" are very wear resistant so they stay sharp for months, but wear resistance also makes it more laborious to sharpen them.