Some questions on honing rods and steels

[junkers]

I have the small white ceramic rod that comes with the Edge Pro, but is it OK to use this for all knives (both German and Japanese chef knives) as a regular honing rod? Or does it take off too much metal to be used as a daily 'steeler'?

People go all out and buy the smooth steels or borosilicate rods, but is the performance gain worth it? Or is it more that they're using very high polish knives which they don't want ruined by a gritty rod?

Would anyone ever buy or use a ribbed steel? They're sold everywhere and comes with practically every knife block set, so they'd be the easiest to obtain, but not sure what they'd do to my cutlery since they get a lot of flack on these kinds of forums.

 

[HeavyHanded]

The ribbed steels and the smooth ones are very good at maintaining the cheaper, soft steel that most lower end kitchen knives are made from. Using them on a harder steel IME results in burrs after as few as four or five passes. Don't know exactly why the softer steels seem to not result in burrs so much. For my cheap kitchen knives I use and have used both steel rod types exclusively for several years. Using them on a better grade of knife, or on pocket knives means they need to be followed with a strop to remove the burr. One of the best uses for either steel rod is the maintenance of machetes, corn knives, and smaller grass and vine sickles.

 

[stitchawl]

I have the small white ceramic rod that comes with the Edge Pro, but is it OK to use this for all knives (both German and Japanese chef knives) as a regular honing rod? Or does it take off too much metal to be used as a daily 'steeler'?

Ceramics remove metal. Steels and glass don't. Both restore edges.

People go all out and buy the smooth steels or borosilicate rods, but is the performance gain worth it? [/quote]

It is to me. I only remove metal once a week, but steel on glass rod daily.

Or is it more that they're using very high polish knives which they don't want ruined by a gritty rod?

No... it just that the glass rod brings my knives back into the condition I like. No need for more.

Would anyone ever buy or use a ribbed steel?

Sure. Anyone who wants a very aggressive edge.


Stitchawl