Finally Found Field Sharpening Steels

psy-ops

psy-ops

Joined
Sep 27, 1999
Messages
3,164
I was walking around North beach the other day. I went into Columbus Cutlery on Columbus in SF. It is not a bad store mostly cooking knives but there are a few things to checkout. They had a Frosts scandi clipper for $15. That thing was sharp as hell. :thumbup:

Anyway, I was just about to walk out then I checked the bottom self and there they were...mini sharpening steels. I bought them without hesitation.

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The longer one on top is 5.5" and the shorter one is 3" overall, perfect for my PSK.:D


I love sharpening steels, especially for field sharpening. Most knives (Especially carbon & AUS8) after a day of using don't need to have metal ground off, they just need a realignment of the burr. Basically, the burr gets all bent out of shape and it is not uniform. This leads to poor cutting performance. A sharpening steel doesn't remove any metal. It aligns the burr again to make it uniform and Voila, it is razor sharp again.

Finally, after all these years of searching.
 
i wonder how hard it would be to cut a kithen sized one down to size also.

i'm sure its pretty hard stuff but could be done.

nice to find them small though
 
THey actualy realign a damaged edge...The tiny blemishes, rflat spots and rolled bits that occur through using a blade can be etraightened with the stell and make the blade servicable..beyond that once "steeled" the blade can be much easier to sharpen.
 
neat find.

i don't personally believe in what steels do, i much prefer to strop than to steel. stropping removes a burr, and removes a tiny bit of metal, so i think that it leads to a sharper edge that is more stable.

but if that's what you dig, then cool that you found them. :thumbup::thumbup:
 
I can't help but wonder if those who say steels don't do anything have actually used them ?
I find that for most the time I can get by without sharpening my knives as using a steel keeps them sharp. When your knife feels dull it is often only because the finest part of the edge is out of alignment and using the steel restores it as good as new !!!
 
dipbait said:
Im going to have to get a steel for the vehicle. How much were they?
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They both totaled $8.60.


Cutting a steel down was something thought I would end up doing, until I found these.

Yeah, Pit. All those chef's in the western hemisphere must be nuts.
 
Nice find psy-ops.

I've never used a steel,but I'm interested in how it works.
 
I've found that the steels that aren't completely smooth but have really fine ridges in them do remove some metal, just a really small amount. I was at a friends house and his kitchen knife was very dull. All I could find to sharpen it was a steel. It took a really long time but I was able to get the knife shaving sharp.
 
HJ, I am not sure about the gold spike.


theonew, Yeah, I bet a some steel comes off if you do a lot of passes.
 
I've been looking for a compact steel for quite awhile. I found one the other day at a dollar store. Took it home and tried to use it. My Buck Alpha Dorado actually cut into the steel! :eek: At first, I thought it was aluminum but it sticks to a magnet, so I guess it's really soft, untempered steel and, of course, useless. :(

Guess I have to keep looking.

Doc
 
Not trying to be a killjoy but what is the point of a steel? do they sharpen? or polish?
If you want something to sharpen with (and you do not want to carry a stone) , get something like this folding Dmt diamond rod.
DMTFSKF.jpg


If you want to polish, Get a small leather strop.
 
Many years ago I bought an Eze-Lap diamond rod .4" long it telescopes into the handle. I still use it after all those years !
 
Doc, that is a good one. F.Dick is a respected chef knife company.

Gazaati, You are not killing my joy. They work, they work really well! I own all kinds of sharpening methods. I will chose a steel hands down for most knives that have recently been sharpened.
 
You only have to stand in a real butchers shop for ten minutes and you will see the butchers touching their knives up on a steel between serving customers, they don't pull out their diamond EZ-Lap or start rubbing compound into their strop because they know that the edge can be restored quickly and easily using a steel !!!
 
mete said:
Many years ago I bought an Eze-Lap diamond rod .4" long it telescopes into the handle. I still use it after all those years !
Click to expand...

i got one of those and it works great especially on recurves where you cant get a regular stone to do the job.
 
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