I was honing my kitchen knife and noticed these markings on my steel.

[cchu518]

So my parents had a pretty successful restaurant in NYC for a while about ten years in the 70's through 80's. When they closed shop I inherited some of the tools from the resty. I just noticed that I have something by Case.

My honing steel is marked Case XX, Sheffield England it should be about 30-40 years old or so.

And that's not a patina on the wood by the way, its residual grease that I had never cleaned after years of use and storage, lol.

 

[HwangJino]

I personally never use these on my knives, except emergencies when an edge rolls over (happened once in my career).

But, its best to use it lightly, ive seen people 'clank clank' hit it vigorously and round the edge completely.

softly would be best.

 

[cchu518]

I usually touch up a chef knife once a week or if i have a really ripe tomato in front of me! I do abusive things though like cut into frozen chicken breasts and such. My wife throws the knives in the dishwasher too.