The only measure of quality that counts is how well the knife serves you. The knife boards are awash in acrimonious debate over the virtues of SV30, D2, ATS-34 steel, and a myriad of common and proprietary steel alloys. My personal opinion is that heat treatment and configuration may be more important to many of us.
My local sporting goods store will sharpen knives for a couple bucks. Assuming they've been at this business for awhile and they're not gonna draw the temper on a bench grinder, that strikes me as a screamin' deal. I sharpen my own knives on a Hook-eye belt grinder I picked up many years ago, but they don't need or get sharpened very often. I don't like removing any more metal than necessary, so I steel them after about every use and hone them only once or twice a year (for knives I use daily). I will use ceramic rods in a V holder every now and then to configure the secondary edge. Easy does it--pressure just distorts and overworks the edge.
Just as more wear is commonly inflicted upon rifle bores by cleaning than by shooting, careless knife sharpening accounts for a lot of damage. A Lansky type sharpening system and reading up on the angles to use on a good edge will help a lot if you'd like to do your own. Otherwise, have someone who has good experience put a good edge on your knife and keep it working by getting and learning how to use a good quality knife steel (the burnishing/filing tool, not the metal).
I apologize for the rant about steeling, which is not called for if you regularly use a steel and have just reached the stage where you can't realign the edge by steeling any more. Otherwise, you may be amazed at what a good steel can do to extend the life of an edge.