Honing and ceramic "steel"

C

ClimbinMonkey

Joined
Dec 28, 2013
Messages
25
I recently took a good deal to time to rebevel the family kitchen knives to a 15/20 and want to keep them in top shape so I don't have to do all that work again. In a post about sharpening I read, the author recommended a smooth steel or even better a ceramic steel for honing. The reason was that the ribbed steel people typically use is supposedly to aggressive for well kept edges. Therefore a smooth or ceramic. Anyone have thoughts on this claim before I get to my main question?

Well I got a Messermeister ceramic rod for honing as suggested, and despite it being quite smooth to the touch I am noticing metallic lines when I hone. Which to my mind shouldn't really happen since I just rebeveled them and they don't have bent edges. Before I got it I googled messermeister rods and they said they were something like 1200 grit if I remember correctly. Anyho, did I make a mistake in buying this rod for honing? Is it actually to agressive?
 
80 plus views and no one has an idea? Must be a common question others have. Someone want to put in thier two cents?
 
High grit is good, the amount if steel removed by a 1,200 grit is almost nothing, for my kitchen knives I have about 400 grit ceramic rod.

I know the wife will cut on plates, I know they will go in the dishwasher, I know they will get dropped off of the cutting boards on the way to the sink.

For this reason alone I simply steel and home the blades until it's time to sharpen them again.
 
ClimbinMonkey said:
I recently took a good deal to time to rebevel the family kitchen knives to a 15/20 and want to keep them in top shape so I don't have to do all that work again. In a post about sharpening I read, the author recommended a smooth steel or even better a ceramic steel for honing. The reason was that the ribbed steel people typically use is supposedly to aggressive for well kept edges. Therefore a smooth or ceramic. Anyone have thoughts on this claim before I get to my main question?

Well I got a Messermeister ceramic rod for honing as suggested, and despite it being quite smooth to the touch I am noticing metallic lines when I hone. Which to my mind shouldn't really happen since I just rebeveled them and they don't have bent edges. Before I got it I googled messermeister rods and they said they were something like 1200 grit if I remember correctly. Anyho, did I make a mistake in buying this rod for honing? Is it actually to agressive?
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1. yes smooth steel or ceramic is preferable to ribbed.
2. not sure what you mean by seeing metallic lines when honing. If you have a ceramic hone is is normal to see some metal being removed, as the ceramic material is significantly harder than blade steel, and even the smoothest steel/hone will have some texture to it.

What kind of knives are you honing and what steel are they? With thinner and harder edges you need to be careful because the small area of contact between the edge and the steel multiplies the force compared to putting the edge on a stone.
 
An old valve stem makes an excellent steel. You can get them free (usually) at engine rebuilding shops. I use a burnishing rod (an oval steel rod, about 65 RC) from Lee Valley Tools for a steel.
 
olpappy said:
1. yes smooth steel or ceramic is preferable to ribbed.
2. not sure what you mean by seeing metallic lines when honing. If you have a ceramic hone is is normal to see some metal being removed, as the ceramic material is significantly harder than blade steel, and even the smoothest steel/hone will have some texture to it.

What kind of knives are you honing and what steel are they? With thinner and harder edges you need to be careful because the small area of contact between the edge and the steel multiplies the force compared to putting the edge on a stone.
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The knives are all Henkels or Wustof (sp? sorry) kitchen knives ranging from chef's knife to parers. I was concerned about seeing some minor metallic residue because I had just sharpened them on a sharpmaker and am thinking, well if i just sharpened them there shouldn't be any bending of the edge that the hone would catch and straighten (as long as I kept the proper angle when honing). Hope that made sense. But you guys mostly alleviated my concerns. I just didn't want to take a bunch of steel away from the edge with an agressive hone so I would have to go back to the sharpmaker earlier than planned. And before someone points out the obvious, yes a light touch when honing is important.
 
Sounds like you've got it figured out, no need to hone when a knife is fresh off of the stones. :thumbup:
 
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