What Irwin said about the dishwasher. Heat and harsh chems.
I also forgot to add that having a steel is important.. and your good knives should be straightened often.
I say straightened because that's essentially what a steel does. Think of the edge of your knife after use like your hands with interlocked fingers...
Running it over a steel smooths the edge back as if you moved your fingers back into a prayer hold...
Actual sharpening on a stone should only be done if you truly know what your doing, or taken to a pro.
That is assuming you want to keep a nice edge on your knives for along time.
The other alternative considering the price of very decent knives these days is to just buy a new one every year or two, and hand me down the old knife of change it's duty or location in your household. I have some nice old wustoff knives that pull duty in my garage now, when I replaced them with newer ones.
