Honing with blade upside-down

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speedbump47

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Oct 5, 2009
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Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I recall reading somewhere a while back that honing (steeling) with the blade upside down worked well and in thinking about it, it made sense to me.

However, in all the reading (books/forums, etc.) I've done, I've never seen it mentioned again.

If you're trying to re-align an edge that's flopped over due to being pushed down through something, shouldn't you try to flop it back by reversing the motion that caused the flopping in the first place?

Is there a reason that this is not the recommended method? (harder to do properly, less safe, less effective, not markedly more effective, etc.?). I rarely do things unless they make rational sense to me, which is why I've been wracking my brain wondering about this and finally joined the forums in order to post this to the experts.
 
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If you're just talking about sharpening, stropping, or steeling with the edge trailing, I do that all the time. I don't mean I do it exclusively, I just mean that when I'm sharpening on the Sharpmaker or on a benchstone, I'll reverse the direction every so often to straighten the edge.

Stropping, of course, is always done edge trailing, AFAIK.
 
Thanks for the reply Dale. I was hoping that it wasn't doing any damage, so it sounds like it's fine in that respect.

I guess I'm curious as to why every demonstration/video/tutorial I see on steeling never even mentions doing it edge-trailing.

Wasn't sure if there's an underlying reason for this that my lack of expertise on knives was not allowing me to see.
 
If you're interested, there's an active thread on this very question in the Maintenance, Tinkering, and Embellishment subforum. Might be an interesting read for you.
 
Steels do not do nice things to edges, so I would suggest to never use one on a quality blade.

The edge of your knife does not flop over and a steel does not re-align anything. When a edge receives damage that's exactly what happens, damage, when you use a steel its pushing the damaged/weak steel to a sharp point. After the edge has been steeled its sharper than before but you now have weak steel that will receive damage much easier leading to faster edge loss.
 
I agree with Knifenut1013, a steel is made for soft, cheap knives. The kind you see in most kitchens. If you have a Shun, or something made of VG-10, 154CM etc... I would not touch it with a steel.
If the edge is folded over steeling it will push it back straight, but that steel will be significantly weakened. Same concept as breaking a wire by bending it back and forth. Except good blade steel isn't nearly as bendy as your average wire.
 
A good quality steel properly used can and will freshen up and improve the cutting edge of some knives in some cases. Most steels found today are far too coarse. I's my opinion that traditional butchers steels are best used on traditional carbon steel kitchen type knives. Diamond steels are the way to go in most cases today..
 
Thanks again for the replies guys. I was in fact referring to kitchen knives (I'm not a pocket/hunting knife type of guy), and I have a few Shuns (with VG10), a Henckels (not the cheap, stamped type) and some low-mid range stainless steel Cuisinarts that I upgraded from.

The steel that came with the Cuisinart set is grooved and I know that's a no-no; plus it's probably not hard enough for the Shuns anyway (have to buy a ceramic rod for that sooner or later). I realize that bending the edge back/force will likely weaken it over time, but as the only other alternatives would be to re-sharpen (and thus grind away) or live with it until re-sharpening, it seems like steeling is a good way to prolong the inevitable without completely resigning myself to degraded cutting performance. Looks like there's a whole bunch more to learn, so I have quite a bit of reading ahead.

I'll check out the other threads in Maintenance to further my knowledge on these topics.
 
Lansky sells an 8" ceramic rod, part # LSLSS8CM, which I use on my kitchen Shuns and pocket knives. I believe it's 1000 grit. I stopped using a modern grooved butcher's steel after coming here and reading about knife maintenance.
 
speedbump47 said:
Thanks again for the replies guys. I was in fact referring to kitchen knives (I'm not a pocket/hunting knife type of guy), and I have a few Shuns (with VG10), a Henckels (not the cheap, stamped type) and some low-mid range stainless steel Cuisinarts that I upgraded from.

The steel that came with the Cuisinart set is grooved and I know that's a no-no; plus it's probably not hard enough for the Shuns anyway (have to buy a ceramic rod for that sooner or later). I realize that bending the edge back/force will likely weaken it over time, but as the only other alternatives would be to re-sharpen (and thus grind away) or live with it until re-sharpening, it seems like steeling is a good way to prolong the inevitable without completely resigning myself to degraded cutting performance. Looks like there's a whole bunch more to learn, so I have quite a bit of reading ahead.

I'll check out the other threads in Maintenance to further my knowledge on these topics.
Click to expand...

The grooved steel is fine as long as it's not too deeply grooved.. If you smooth it up a bit it should work ok for the mission at hand..
 
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