So, about the type of steel....

[Laminarman]

First post here, and have had a T1 for a while and still on the lower part of the learning curve.  The dreaded burr question first, related to the second question: How the heck long can it take to develop a burr, and I'm sure it has to do with the quality of the steel in the knife. I have some no name knives, Henkels, Victorinox and others.  I have a cleaver and a boning knife that I swear I have spent forever developing the nondeveloping burr.  I have used a sharpie so think my angle is correct.  I have some carbon steel knives from my father and some from flea markets, they seem to sharpen easier.  Is there a reference for types of steel used as far as hardness and ease of sharpening? Most of what I have is stainless but some have no markings as to type of steel.  As is typical of me, once I start something I try to go all in and learn all I can. This is just a hobby but now I need to get good for all of my hunting knives and kitchen knives. My results are OK at best, and I get frustrated when I watch a video with 5 passes and the knife cuts paper      I detest a dull knife!!!

[Royale]

I think a key consideration is how you're detecting the burr.

I gently run the edge of the blade across my thumbnail (perpendicular) to "feel" the burr, and I also use a digital microscope for close up inspection.

A knife with a burr will still cut paper. You'll notice that in these YouTube videos, they tend to cut thicker paper, make very quick cuts, and you often don't get to see if the cut paper had a clean or ragged edge. (Got to remember that most of these content creators deal in the currency of attention) I stopped looking to these videos for inspiration or to benchmark my performance, and instead use my digital microscope.

Try the thumbnail method, and maybe get a cheap magnifying glass as a start (like I did)