Ceramic vs strop

[pialia]

I might regret posting this in the Kitchen Cutlery sub forums, it seems more people are prowling general... shame on them!

Anyhooo! What are your guys' thoughts on the whole steeling your knife thing? What do you use? Different for different steels? Right now the only knife I have that I actually care to keep sharp(the rest are abused by my family so I won't even go there) is a 62 RC VG-10 blade and it hasn't got dull enough to need stropping/honing yet. IIRC I've read that the traditional steel rod works better with softer steals and not so well with steels in the 60-65 range, is this correct?

I figure that once it does need honing I'd just use my 0.5 micron diamond strop or the Spyderco Fine/UF ceramics off of my Sharpmaker. But I am a lover of an edge with a fair amount of bite, will this remove said bite over time?

Anyway, what are you guys using?

 

[Chris Pierce]

I don't keep my kitchen knives terribly sharp since my wife still thinks that a marble counter top or a ceramic plate makes a great cutting board, but if I did I'd use my ultra fine sharp maker rod. It works on all my other knives, so why not a kitchen knife?

Are far a having 'bite' I believe that if you use a relatively coarse stone and then skip to an ultra fine stone you'll get a good sharp knife with some 'bite' YMMV

 

[kalaeb]

Steeling your 62 rc vg 10 knife on a coarse rod will chip the edge. I would sugget a simple cromium oxide (2 mc) on a cheap balsa wood base. Imo, Going from a 4k or 5k stone to a co strop, usually leaves enough bite for me.
Of course the phrase "dull enough" would be enough to push me for a few grit laps

 

[HoosierQ]

Steeling is for knives down in the mid 50's, generally speaking, carbon steel knives mostly...but definitely NOT for a VG-10 knife at 62. Now a proper ceramic rod would be fine as long as you don't strike the edge on the rod. Go easy and you won't have any trouble. I have fallen in and out of love with steeling over the years and right now, not having much of a set of kitchen knives (wife's in charge of that arena) I don't find a steel very handy. I have a fantastic one that hangs there unused. Except...I do, believe it or not, find steeling a sliding utility knive works really well when cutting leather and I would certainly go back down that route if I had some Forshner, Robt. Herder, or other German style kitchen knives in the mid 50s hardness.

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

Steeling works great on low hardness knives. A polished steel (no grooves) works very nicely as a finishing step to align your edge. They're not easy to find, though. Friedrich Dick of Germany makes a few. I like their oval "Poliron" one.