Every knife needs sharpening. A good one makes it worth doing. Here's how to keep yours performing the way it should.
Wash by hand with warm water and mild soap, straight after use if you can. Never put it in the dishwasher — the heat, moisture, and contact with other cutlery are hard on both the edge and the handle. Dry it immediately with a towel rather than leaving it to air dry, especially around the handle and bolster where moisture can sit.
Store it in a knife block, on a magnetic strip, or with a blade guard — never loose in a drawer, where it can knock against other utensils and dull or chip the edge. If it came in a wooden presentation box, that's a perfectly good home for it too.
These are two different things. A honing rod doesn't remove metal — it straightens the edge between sharpenings, and is worth doing every few uses. Actual sharpening removes a small amount of metal to create a new edge, and is needed every few months depending on how often you cook. A whetstone gives the best result; pull-through sharpeners are faster but more aggressive on the blade over time.
Use wood or soft plastic. Never cut on glass, stone, or ceramic — these are hard enough to blunt even the best steel in a handful of uses, no matter how carefully you cut.
The layered pattern is created by folding the steel, and it's genuinely tougher than most single-alloy blades — but it isn't fully stainless. Avoid leaving it in contact with acidic foods (tomatoes, citrus) or sitting wet for any length of time, as this is when staining is most likely. A wipe-down straight after use avoids the issue entirely.