Sharpening steels. reconsidered

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greebozz

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Jun 30, 2006
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I have made a suprizing descovery how useful sharpening steels are after reading an article about the sharpening of butcher knives.

I have noticed that my perfect razor edges where getting rolled slightly after slicing though a rolled up magazine and things like that.

But light strokes with the sharpening steel straitend out the edge and brought it back to hair shaving sharp.

Also before I sharpend a slightly dull knive it really speeded things up before I used a stone.

Also you can get rid of a burr no problem

Also I think it makes you knives last longer because you are not grinding metal at the first sign of dullness.
 
I have been using one for a while now, its actually the #1200 ceramic steel that comes with an Edge Pro, but like you say, it puts the edge back on in no time at all (Usually 2-4 stokes per side) on everything from a Case Canoe to a TOPS Armageddon.
 
I use sharpening rods from kitchen knife sets almost exclusively for sharpening. Anytime my edge starts to dull, I do a few hard passes, then progressively lighter to remove the burr. That's all I ever need to do to maintain a razor sharp edge.

I only use my stones to do some re-profiling, such as giving a knife a steeper angle or convexing an edge. Sometimes if I get a big chip it's needed to, but the steels can take out most edge deformations I come across in my knife usage.

Using them does preserve the knife steel a lot longer.
 
When an edge dulls one of the major factors in reducing the sharpness is that it is deformed. It is commonly assumed that it is all wear but this isn't the case, the edge impacts and rolls significantly. Even the hardest steels, 65/66 HRC have this behavior even cutting soft materials.

When you use a smooth steel it realigns the edge (and light flattens it through cold working) which restores the sharpness with minimal metal loss. There is some metal lost due to abrasion but it is very light. The upside of this is that you can steel many times before the edge is weakened to the point it cracks off and you need to sharpen. The downside is that the edge retention inbetween steeling is much less than inbetween proper honing on an abrasive.

Now if you use a butchers steel like a file on a softer blade, or ceramic rods or diamond rods these are not the same as a smooth steel as they will all abrade the knife edge just like a sharpening stone. The small carbide sharpeners are somewhere between the smooth steels and abrasive stones.

-Cliff
 
Cliff Stamp said:
When an edge dulls one of the major factors in reducing the sharpness is that it is deformed. It is commonly assumed that it is all wear but this isn't the case, the edge impacts and rolls significantly. Even the hardest steels, 65/66 HRC have this behavior even cutting soft materials.

When you use a smooth steel it realigns the edge (and light flattens it through cold working) which restores the sharpness with minimal metal loss. There is some metal lost due to abrasion but it is very light. The upside of this is that you can steel many times before the edge is weakened to the point it cracks off and you need to sharpen. The downside is that the edge retention inbetween steeling is much less than inbetween proper honing on an abrasive.

Now if you use a butchers steel like a file on a softer blade, or ceramic rods or diamond rods these are not the same as a smooth steel as they will all abrade the knife edge just like a sharpening stone. The small carbide sharpeners are somewhere between the smooth steels and abrasive stones.

-Cliff
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Hi Cliff interesting what you say there, what do you mean when you say smooth steal do you mean realigning the edge with any hard piece of metal or are there smooth steals? I have been experinment with the using the edge of another knife to straiten a rolled edge.

Butchers sharpening steels do abraid to a cirten extent as you say, the reason for my post was I have had a pocket sharpening steel for years that I have always looked down on and paid little attention but was suprized to find it definatly had a role to play.
 
greebozz said:
Hi Cliff interesting what you say there, what do you mean when you say smooth steal do you mean realigning the edge with any hard piece of metal or are there smooth steals? I have been experinment with the using the edge of another knife to straiten a rolled edge.
Click to expand...

There are actually smooth steels you can buy, they are just polished and very hard rods. You can use anything with similar properties.

Butchers sharpening steels do abraid to a cirten extent as you say, the reason for my post was I have had a pocket sharpening steel for years that I have always looked down on and paid little attention but was suprized to find it definatly had a role to play.
Click to expand...

With a little imagination you can sharpen a knife on most anything, some things are more effective than others, but almost everything is an advantage over nothing.

-Cliff
 
Cliff Stamp said:
There are actually smooth steels you can buy, they are just polished and very hard rods. You can use anything with similar properties.



With a little imagination you can sharpen a knife on most anything, some things are more effective than others, but almost everything is an advantage over nothing.

-Cliff
Click to expand...


Funny you should say that I am going though a faze of trying to sharpen with all sorts of items I have been having a lot of fun sharpening with beach pebbles, finding the ones with the right properities. Flint pebbles work really well as they are hard with a very fine grit.
 
How does smooth steel compare to a loaded strop? Would it be more beneficial to steel a knife and strop a knife over just a strop?
 
A loaded strop is just an abrasive like a benchstone. Generally when you steel and then sharpen you end up leaving weakened metal on the edge. This used to be done because high quality steel was expensive compared to user time. So it is better to steel many times than to sharpen once. However it is likely now not a concern. The main thing that shortens the lifetime of blades is edge damage not regular blunting.

-Cliff
 
The most important thing to remember when steeling a knife is to use very light pressure, the weight of the knife only. A steel exerts a high localised pressure on the edge and takes very little pressure to move the microscopic edge back into line. Use to much weight and you will be just rolling the edge from side to side.
Also if you are going to steel a knife don't let it get to dull before steeling or you will be over working the edge, it is better to keep it sharp with frequent steeling (one or two passes on each side only) then to let it go blunt and trying to restore the edge.
 
Meatcutter said:
The most important thing to remember when steeling a knife is to use very light pressure, the weight of the knife only. A steel exerts a high localised pressure on the edge and takes very little pressure to move the microscopic edge back into line. Use to much weight and you will be just rolling the edge from side to side.
Also if you are going to steel a knife don't let it get to dull before steeling or you will be over working the edge, it is better to keep it sharp with frequent steeling (one or two passes on each side only) then to let it go blunt and trying to restore the edge.
Click to expand...

The way "MEATCUTTER" desribes his use of a "STEEL" coincides with what John Juranitch wrote in his book "The Razor Edge Book Of Sharpening". When I first got that book about 5 years ago I was surprised to see that about everything I had been told about "sharpening" and "Steeling" were not true.
That book changed everything I was doing at the time. And what MEATCUTTER is saying about light pressure is totally accurate. Since I read that book I have pretty much only used an F. Dick smooth sharpening steel for touching up my knives after light use.
 
Like JD, I have a Dick Smooth Steel that sits in the knife block in the kitchen. I use it lightly before and after using any of these kitchen knives. When they get to the point where they wont grab a fingernail, I give them a few passes on my Edge Pro Ceramic Rod.

When they really get dull, which is hardly ever, they get the full Edge Pro treatment.
 
This smooth steel from HA works well for me.
http://www.handamerican.com/burnisher.html
steelpair.jpg
 
Finding a "smooth" steel is giving me an amazing amount of trouble.. are they also known a packing house steels?
 
In the UK I have had problems finding a truly smooth steel but HandAmerican do two sizes of smooth 'steel' steels and a Borosilicate (glass) steel which is interesting - Razor Edge also do a smooth steel with an angle guide ( I am not sure if this is important)

Martin
 
Menocu said:
If there's a plain smooth steel on that page I'm not seeing ? I checked there just before posting my question.
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www.knivesplus.com also has the Forschner hard chromed smooth steel.
Forschner makes a good product and knivesplus is a reliable source.
 
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