Paul Block sharpener

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I've not used one, but it appears to be nothing more than a couple of tiny butcher's steels held at a preset drag-through angle. I'd opt for a pocket stone before one of those personally. Preset angles are great when you don't have much of a clue what you're doing, but when you know how to hold a proper angle, being able to control that angle becomes much more advantageous.
 
I have one. It acts like a pair of "guided" butcher's steel. I feels it works faster and better than butcher's steel and you do not need to maintain the angle as the spring tension will follow the bevel angle of the knife.

Just take note that, just like a butcher's steel, it does not remove steel and may not work if the knife is already very dull.
 
A grooved butcher's steel is hardened enough* to remove steel from most knives used with such a tool, i.e., stainless kitchen knives. The proof of that is in the dark swarf removed from the steel with a rag, moistened with a little bit of Windex or water. More aggressively-grooved steels act just like hardened steel files, for all intents and purposes (it's essentially what they are), and can strip kitchen-knife stainless away in pretty large shards, just like a file, if used in the aggressive manner most often seen on TV.

* As an example, there's a 'How It's Made' video on youtube describing the manufacture of a grooved sharpening steel. They heat-treat the steel rod to be "...20 percent harder than the average kitchen knife." If comparing to a stainless kitchen knife at 55 HRC (typical), the sharpening steel would be at around ~ 66 HRC. The rods are also chromium-plated, which itself is quite a bit harder than average cutlery steel. So, the abrasive potential to remove metal is certainly there.


David
 
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Obsessed with Edges said:
A grooved butcher's steel is hardened enough to remove steel from most knives used with such a tool, i.e., stainless kitchen knives. The proof of that is in the dark swarf removed from the steel with a rag, moistened with a little bit of Windex or water. More aggressively-grooved steels act just like hardened steel files, for all intents and purposes (it's essentially what they are), and can strip kitchen-knife stainless away in pretty large shards, just like a file, if used in the aggressive manner most often seen on TV.


David
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If it's a good quality one, at least.
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
If it's a good quality one, at least.
Click to expand...

Agreed; that helps. Although, of the three I've used, all of them relatively cheap ones, at least two will show swarf coming off when I wipe them down after use. One is an accessory in a 30+ year-old Chicago Cutlery block set of my parents', another is a similar throw-in to an equally simple cutlery set of Japanese origin (probably 1980s-vintage). The third one is a home-made (or home re-handled) piece of junk I picked up for about $1 or less at a Goodwill store. No idea where the rod itself came from, but the handle had been replaced with imitation PEARL (nicely tacky) with aluminum pommel & guard. That one is *kinda* marginal, in it's ability to do much but align or roll the edge on my cheap stainless kitchen knives. :D


David
 
I've always wanted to see what the edge looks like under magnification... from this sharpener in particular. Maybe somebody who has one, can post some pics?
 
HeavyHanded did this in the past - micrograph pictures from an edge after using a pull through sharpener (usually carbide pads) before and after he had aligned/flattened those carbide cheeks. That of course is a bit a different beast but maybe, if he chimes in, he has some pictures of edges after "butcher steels" too. I know that he has tinkered with it.
 
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