Nope, Minnesota boy. Just a big renaissance festival junkie who spent a few too many years behind the booth selling sharp things. Yeah, the birchwood chef in my picture is of their "Balrog" line. Mooooooooostly holds it's edge between yearly visits to have the smith touch it up at the festival. Though I have to agree, the edge doesn't seem to appreciate a ton of rough-play on a cutting board.
As to what/how I sharpen - I grew up doing woodcarving with my dad, and at one point had an appreciable set of woodcarving knives, gouges, etc. and learned to sharpen on an oil-stone. So while I have experience with putting a mean edge on things, said experience is for very short/small blades for artistry, with a fair amount of handle. I assume the principle is generally the same, but I admit I am quite uncertain of my technique when trying to apply that to my kitchenwares. (going from a 1-1.25" detail blade to a 9.5" chef is quite daunting to keep things even.)
I am determined to "get good" at using stones by hand to sharpen. There has always been something satisfying about creating with your own two hands.
That said, oilstones and waterstones are two different animals, no? My oilstone is quite fine, and takes for bloody ever to get any progress on these FS knives. I've never used a waterstone. From what I've been watching on youtube it's pretty straight-forward, similar concept? Add a few more drops of water as you go if the slurry of grit and material gets too thick?
If anyone has some really good videos to follow, I'm all ears. I'd rather learn well the first time, rather than have to un-learn and redo. After reading BDL's exposition on stones, as a noob, I decided to start with a Naniwa SS 1000 stone. via @amazon
Universal block is a great idea, and I see them all the time at Bed-bath and beyond (dangerous store if you like kitchen goodies and housewares).
As for the knives used the most, I certainly use my chefs the most, and my wife prefers the smaller paring size. Been looking at some K-sab and the like for myself. That Tojiro 2-set looks pretty good for a "getting my feet wet" .
She is convinced we don't need any more kitchen knives, because we have what we already have. Which quite frankly feels like arguing with a brick wall.
As a back-up to not getting past that gate, I would take suggestions for replacements to my crap $15 triple-set santoku.
*Edit - tried to get a decent shot of the edges of the FS knives. Only the bread knife/meat-fork has serrations. And you're damn right about them being a pain in the ass to re-shape or sharpen.