You've gotten a lot of good advice, but let me throw in a few random suggestions...

I use Tuf-Glide on all my knives. You can spray it on or wipe it on with with a cloth. The stuff dries and bonds with the surface layer of the metal. It's a great lubricant, but it also prevents rust and provides some physical protection.

There is nothing inherently wrong with pull-through sharpeners, but avoid any sharpener that uses carbide as the abrasive. There are some excellent and easy-to-use sharpeners with ceramic and diamond rods. My field sharpener is the AccuSharp Diamond Pro. It's easy to use, compact, and produces a surprisingly good edge. I've given the to all my friends and they've stopped bringing me all their knives to sharpen. :-)

There is some decent damascus out there, but most of what you get in lower-end knives is really terrible. Materials science keeps uping the game of knife steels, but 440C was considered one of the best maybe thirty years ago. It is still a solid performer with a good balance of edge holding, toughness, rust resistance, and ease of sharpening.

Don't use your knife for things it wasn't designed to do. Get yourself a small cheap prybar to pair with it. Something like 3" prybar will save your blade and do a better job of prying anyway. I prefer mine a little longer than that, so here's a 3.8" prybar.

Have fun!