Looking to start maintaining my kitchen knives better (read: at all). I need recommendations

A little while back I bought some nice Victorinox kitchen knives.

They were ultra-sharp when they arrived, but obviously over time they've worn down. I have a steel, and I'm not sure that I'm very proficient with it as the benefit I get after running the knives over the steel before use is fairly minimal at best.

I've decided that rather than taking my knives across town to a professional knife sharpener (there aren't many of them around here, as it turns out), I would like to look into solutions to put a new edge on the knives as I read that I probably fucked the edges on them by putting them in the dishwasher - lesson learnt.

Given that I'm not super confident with my technique with the steel, I'm hesitant to just buy a whetstone and go for broke as I've read that they're pretty tricky to get the hang of. I've read about all of the elaborate guided clamp systems available at present (such as the Lansky), however I've also read that these are normally better for smaller knives, and not suited to larger kitchen knives (such as my 26cm Chef's knife).

Is this true? Or is that just specifically relating to the Lansky system? What other options might I have to ensure that I can put a nice consistent edge on my blades time after time (rather than a whetstone, which is mainly freehand and thus seems like it will yield inconsistent results when being used by a newbie like myself).

Or are whetstones not really that tricky?

Anyway - if anyone has any suggestions that would be hugely appreciated. Thanks