I've been shaving with a straight razor for almost 20 years. I've been using Japanese chef knives for over 10 years.

Using a straight razor, I know what sharp is and what sharp means. But I've learned over the years that I suck at sharpening and maintaining a blade, not least because I'm too lazy. When it's an implement you use on your face several times a week it's nigh impossible to fool yourself. I still own a high quality leather and canvas strop and an expensive Japanese water stone, but in retrospect those were aspirational purchases.

Some pro tips for people who want the performance but don't want to or cannot invest the necessary time and effort.

Pro tip #1: For a straight razor, buy disposable blades. They're actually _too_ sharp, making razor burn more likely. But a dull or deformed blade will cut you up like nothing else and becomes discouraging very quickly. It's the rare person who will make it 20 years using a straight razor if they have to strop it every day and sharpen it every few weeks, so just use a disposable blade. I've been using Feather razor and blades for years. It's the best of both worlds, just keep a light touch when shaving to avoid razor burn, especially the first couple of shaves out of the box.

Pro tip #2: Buy a high quality chef's knife. It doesn't need to be super expensive, just have a very hard cutting edge. I prefer the Japanese kind with a very hard (high 50s, low 60s on the Rockwell scale), carbon steel core sandwiched in softer stainless steel. Hard steel sharpens more easily and, most importantly, holds an edge better. However, it's much more prone to microscopic breaks and cracks. Stainless steel is softer but more resilient--it deforms rather than breaks. It follows that you should never "steel" a hard, carbon steel edge; don't buy a knife that is normally used with a honing steel, no matter how expensive or fancy.

Because we're lazy and know we're never going to sharpen it properly, if ever, the trick is remembering that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Use a cutting board made of _soft_ wood. (Or plastic, but I can't speak to that.) There's a reason the old-school hardwood boards were constructed with the end grain oriented up, but those are rare and quite expensive. Most hardwood boards will kill your knife in short-order, especially those tropical ones with embedded silica particles. I got one as a gift and only pretend to use it when they're visiting. For a long time I've been using a cheap wooden board I bought from Giant supermarket. The glue is failing but it treats my knife kindly.

Use a clever or a cheap knife for deboning.

Never let anybody else touch it, ever. They won't respect it like you do. They won't understand.

Never toss it, or even it gently lie it down, in the sink or anywhere else the edge might accidentally so much as touch a hard surface. For obvious reasons, never put it in a drawer.

I've only gone through about 3 chef knives (2, really) in over 15 years, without ever so much as honing one, and they've always been sharper than anything I've ever used in any other household or kitchen. Including Redneck households where the sharpening stone is kept next to the easy chair.

My first one was a $50 special from an online store. It was incredibly sharp, and I used it for years. I was convinced it was magical, and for the first couple of years actually lamented I had no reason to use my sharpening implements. I traveled overseas with it. I made a dish at a party one time and made the mistake of leaving it lying around while I brought the dish to the table. Satan disguised as an innocent young lady used it to cut her brownies, which were in a glass baking dish. Not only did it destroy the knife, but there was a visible deep nick in the blade. No amount of sharpening would have restored it, as given the depth of the nick it likely would have required removing too much metal to be able to restore the original angle (Japanese knifes are like that). And in any event I certainly wouldn't have had the skill, and few "professional" sharpeners would have the skill, either. My other knives were never as good as that one, but they're still better than anything else I've seen.

Note that I'm not a professional chef. If I were a professional I don't think there'd be any way to avoid learning and exercising proper maintenance. But I do cook regularly, and use my knife for almost every aspect of preparation. I'm one of those people who avoids fancy kitchen gadgets, which is actually an easy preference to adopt when your knife works well.