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Sumo
I learnt to sharpen by watching a load of YouTube videos and then practicing on a relatively cheap knife and some nice quality Shapton stones.
In my opinion you really don’t need a kitchen knife to be able to cut through tissue paper or shave the hairs off your arm. Yeah, it’s kinda cool, but I’ve never come across anyone in a professional kitchen maintaining their knives to that level of sharpness in over 15 years. If you can slice a tomato, you’re good to go.
(I used to be a head chef for the restaurant group of a celebrity chef and the executive chef used to hone his £500+ Japanese knife on the corner of the stainless steel worktop while demonstrating new menu dishes. Not to mention all the chefs I’ve seen with gouges on knives near the blade heel where they’ve been clattering it into a steel way too hard. Or the chefs that open tins with expensive knives. Or store their knives uncovered and tip down in a stainless steel gastro.)
And here’s a top tip for anyone ever staying in an Airbnb where the knives are blunt and there’s no steel/stone: flip over all the plates and bowls and look for one where the ceramic is exposed/not glazed - ta’da! You’ve now got yourself a perfect surface for sharpening your knife on.