I've amassed quite a collection of "Sharpening steels" over the years and I've experimented with them quite a bit on different blade steels with mixed results. But the one thing I came to the conclusion of is that only high quality sharpening steels are worth using IMO. After a lot of trial and error and finally obtaining good results I found that the sharpening steels I own made by the F. Dick Company out of Germany is truly the top of the line of all the sharpening steels I've compared them to.
Now F. Dick offers up sharpening steels in about every type imaginable. I have about a dozen of them all together in different grits and grooves and the two of them I use the most are the Poliron ( an extremely hard and smooth sharpening steel) and the F. Dick "Multicut" which is a very unusual sharpening steel that actually has some abrading properties to it. Now F. Dick also makes a diamond grit sharpening steel but I don't have one of those yet.
The one Brother that mentioned that the overall purpose of a sharpening steel is to re-align a rolled over edge is mostly correct. However with the F. Dick Multicut steel I've been able to take culinary knives which were somewhat dull and really enhance the sharpness of the blade. For a really quick tune up the F. Dick Multicut sharpening steel has a lot of interesting properties to it. It's fluted and furrowed and actually does abrade minor dings and so forth.
Now to get an already sharp edge even more wickedly sharp use the F. Dick Poliron smooth steel to really get the edge perfectly lined up. The F. Dick Poliron really does enhance the cutting ablility of an edge that's already close to being razor sharp. And I've found that the smooth Poliron steel even works on extremely hard blade steels like ZDP-189, M390 and S90V. I'm still learning more about sharpening steels and will be keeping a close eye on this interesting thread. But if anyone knows of a manufacturer who makes better sharpening steels than F. Dick out of Germany I would sure like to know about them. Very interesting thread!
Now F. Dick offers up sharpening steels in about every type imaginable. I have about a dozen of them all together in different grits and grooves and the two of them I use the most are the Poliron ( an extremely hard and smooth sharpening steel) and the F. Dick "Multicut" which is a very unusual sharpening steel that actually has some abrading properties to it. Now F. Dick also makes a diamond grit sharpening steel but I don't have one of those yet.
The one Brother that mentioned that the overall purpose of a sharpening steel is to re-align a rolled over edge is mostly correct. However with the F. Dick Multicut steel I've been able to take culinary knives which were somewhat dull and really enhance the sharpness of the blade. For a really quick tune up the F. Dick Multicut sharpening steel has a lot of interesting properties to it. It's fluted and furrowed and actually does abrade minor dings and so forth.
Now to get an already sharp edge even more wickedly sharp use the F. Dick Poliron smooth steel to really get the edge perfectly lined up. The F. Dick Poliron really does enhance the cutting ablility of an edge that's already close to being razor sharp. And I've found that the smooth Poliron steel even works on extremely hard blade steels like ZDP-189, M390 and S90V. I'm still learning more about sharpening steels and will be keeping a close eye on this interesting thread. But if anyone knows of a manufacturer who makes better sharpening steels than F. Dick out of Germany I would sure like to know about them. Very interesting thread!