The most important lesson you've learned about knives.

You'll never find "the one"
And when you do find the so called "one" the Honeymoon will wear off, and the hunt for a new one begins. We are never truly happy, or satisfied. We just keep on settling until the next purchase, and pray to the gods of the knife world that the next one will be the "one", but it never is.
 
Rationalizing credit card spending. I always tell myself I'll pay it off over the course of 2 or 3 months, but the night before the bill is due I get bothered by it and pay it off. Usually have to sell something from the collection to make that happen, since sadly only a few models south of $500 turn my head these days. That's not a brag, because I don't have the income of someone that should have a $750 folding knife hobby. I'm not even certain I make Spyderco money.
 
-Knives lesson - I used to think I needed a stout blade as I’m typically pretty rough on things. While I can still appreciate an overbuilt knife, a simple well made slipjoint can do most cutting tasks much better and hold up perfectly.
-Blade forums lesson - Many folks on here are very knowledgeable but also very stuck in their ways, take advice, comments, and unfortunately sometimes insults here with a grain of salt. Research as best you can before asking a question here, it’s probably been asked and some folks seem to get upset about it being asked again.
 
Most important would be:
1. Overall design and geometry are more important than some give them credit.
2. Best buy is best buy for a reason.

Less important:
Plain carbon steel suits me the best as it's very tough and also takes the edge very easily. It also requires no special sharpening equipment and finally - it's inexpensive.

Cheap stainless steels like 440, chinese steels and 4116 will roll, chip or break with harder use.
High end stainless steels are out of my budget.

3V is the best steel I currently have and I love it, but is not easy to sharpen.

D2 suits me well, but it is a chore to sharpen it.

3V and D2 both require special sharpeners (diamond) which itself is costly, and I am a student.

Bottom line - plain carbon for me over anything else any day!
Dude you can get the small set of multiple grit Venev diamond stones for about $100 bucks and also learn freehand at the same time. I was a bit shy to do freehand until I watched some YouTube videos with Michael Christy. Start with his short Bevel Alignment video. Hope that helps.
 
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