I peeled and sliced six onions earlier..........

[Brother Buzz]

21. A steel is excellent for maintaing a really sharp edge

But it doesn't do squat for a dull knife.

I've never used the Lansky system, but my expertise in sharpening comes from the woodworking realm. I'm heavenly invested in stones collected over decades. My go to stones for flat edges are the synthetic Japanese stones; they are fast and aggressive if you know what you're doing. Soft Arkansas stones are fine but slow, and why use a hard Arkansas stone when you have a soft synthetic Japanese stone at your disposal (again, fast and aggressive). The diamond stones are great for the carpenter because they hold up to being knocked around, and I've discovered they are well suited for kitchen cutlery.

This red one sans the crappy plastic case sits on my kitchen sill: