Honing steel qualities?

[jimwalter]

Is there a large quality difference between lets say a $14 vs $80?
This is for kitchen use. Can someone recommend a less expensive one? Less than $40.

 

[marcinek]

I've found honing/butcher's steels to be pointless. I get the feeling they worked great for super thin, soft butchers knives from the past, but do nothing on current knives.

Though you do get to do that "whick whick whick" thing with it that looks super cool/impressive. Doesn't really do anything, though.

Sharpening/honing my kitchen knives with the same thing I use to sharpen/hone my "not kitchen knives" was one of the smarter things I've ever done.

 

[singularity35]

I've found honing/butcher's steels to be pointless. I get the feeling they worked great for super thin, soft butchers knives from the past, but do nothing on current knives.

Though you do get to do that "whick whick whick" thing with it that looks super cool/impressive. Doesn't really do anything, though.

Sharpening/honing my kitchen knives with the same thing I use to sharpen/hone my "not kitchen knives" was one of the smarter things I've ever done.

Hehehehe. I love the mind's eye pic that you paint.

 

[foxx]

I used them for a while, I was in the culinary industry. When they are new, they can make a dull knife cut a bit better. Now that I know how to sharpen my knives, I wouldn't use a steel at all. It would only rough up my nice edges.
If I worked in the culinary industry now, I'd take in a damn strop, before I'd use a steel.

 

[Gator97]

I've found honing/butcher's steels to be pointless...

I'll have to disagree on this 100%. Honing, when properly done, does restore deformed edge pretty much completely, granted it wasn't significantly damaged. And I am not talking about "butter soft" kitchen knives either. 90-95% of my kitchen knives are in 63-66HRC range, in various steels, although I do need borosilicate rod for the steels that hard.
The difference can be seen easily under even 10x magnifier or simple microscope. Deformed sections get realigned, it's as simple as that.
Eventually, realigned pieces break away, and you'd need to sharpen, but honing will prolong useful edge life and knife lifespan too, especially if you steel prior to use.
One argument against steeling is that it leaves weaker edge compared to sharpening again, which is true, but for light/medium cutting that's unlikely to be an issue.

To the OP, avoid grooved steels(prevents roughing up nice edges as Foxx said), they don't work as rod sharpeners and instead of realigning the edge, tend to rip chunks out of the thin edges. Smooth steels work better for purely edge realignment, and stropping can do the same, except for very hard steels, when you need glass/borosilicate etc rods.

 

[jimwalter]

Interesting, I thought they were used so instead of taking away more metal when sharpening, they just straighten the bent edge?

 

[Frisky]

I sharpen exclusively using honing steels with great results. In fact, it's likely knives sharpened using honing steels are used to cut more meat than knives sharpened using any other method. The steels are used extensively by meat processing companies such as Hormel, Swift, Armor... Hormel's parent company, QPP, will run the hog chain around 1,350 hogs per hour, day and night. That's a lot of meat processing, nearly all done with power knives and standard butcher knives kept sharp by a steel. I use both grooved and smooth steels. A really good one can be had for $2.99 at one popular knife retailer. It's considered a factory second, but you can't tell it is a second. I have steels my dad used as a USDA inspector decades ago. So far, I have not used a steel on knives harder than HRC59 and they work great. I believe there are few knives they can't properly sharpen. The steels work particularly well on scandi grind knives. My steels produce a sticky sharpness I prefer for skinning. A leather strop can really put a razor edge on a steel-honed blade.

Joe

 

[Gator97]

Interesting, I thought they were used so instead of taking away more metal when sharpening, they just straighten the bent edge?

I guess depends how you define the term honing or steeling. We already have "sharpening" which is removal of metal. So, to me steeling is strictly realigning deformed edge, which in most cases is the actual reason for dulling the edge, not loss of a metal due to abrasion, if later was the case, any kitchen knife would take forever to dull, compare wear resistance of even budget steel to that of a carrot or an onion...

If the rod is abrasive, e.g. ceramic, diamond etc, then it's still sharpening, not steeling, just the sharpening device has the rod shape, and that's all. At least for me that works better to differentiate things.