Steeling a knife

Ultrastick said:
Just as a point of information, I have two grooved steels left over from defunct kitchen sets. I used them recently to touch up a couple of Griptilians. I noticed that afterwards they did not slice typewriter paper near as nicely as before steeling. Think I'll make tent stakes out of them and buy a smooth one, or just settle for stropping.
U
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This is not a steel (even though it's made of steel), it's a sharpener. It also leaves a very rough edge which is why the knives would not slice paper smoothly.

A sharp polished edge will cut paper rapidly but take it to a piece of 1" poly rope and you'll be pretty disappointed becuase it will slip off the material and not bite as well.

That's why a happy medium between a polished edge and a not so polished edge work well for most cutting needs IMO. Highly polished edges are nice to look at and great in the kitchen but not much beyond that.
 
The type of steel in the knife you want to tune is important. High Carbon non-stainless knives were the norm in butcher shops when many steels were sold. As pointed out the steeling is a burnishing action. The edge on non stainless knives is more flexable than a stainless knife edge. When the owner of a carbon steel knives moves to stainless steel knives the value of steeling deminishes. The stainless knife needs to be resharpened not steeled. Ceramic rods or steels come into play as the remove metal along with burnishing to regain the edge, and that is necessary for most stainless steels.

Sound is very important with the steeling of a non stainless blade. As the edge is burnished and smoothes out the pitch of the sound of contact goes higher in pitch. When the pitch quits changing the knife is done with the steeling process, if you continue to steel you are degrading the edge. This steeling might be only 2-4 passes per side to get the pitch to quit changing. Next time you are at a meat shop or plant listen to the sound of steeling, or try it at home. Listen to both types of steels, non-stainless and stainless against both types of steels, metal and ceramic. The sound tells alot...Ed
 
For impromptu steeling/sharpening the top edge of a rolled down truck window works real well. Although, if I have the truck with me I'll likely have a sharpener close also.
 
cpirtle said:
This is not a steel (even though it's made of steel), it's a sharpener. It also leaves a very rough edge which is why the knives would not slice paper smoothly.

A sharp polished edge will cut paper rapidly but take it to a piece of 1" poly rope and you'll be pretty disappointed becuase it will slip off the material and not bite as well.

That's why a happy medium between a polished edge and a not so polished edge work well for most cutting needs IMO. Highly polished edges are nice to look at and great in the kitchen but not much beyond that.
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Happy medium I use:
1. Initial bevel at about 15 degrees per side or convexed edge.
2. Polish the bevel like crazy.. esp. for the convexed.
3. Hone the very edge (about 20 degrees) to shave but not polish.

This seems to have enough bite for most things and when slicing, still glides easily.

P.S. Interesting point above about steeling carbon vs. stainless. Opens up a new level of discussion.
 
I dought you'll see any non-stainless, carbon steel knives in a packing house anymore. Non-stainless is not considered a "food contact surface" by the USDA anymore so they are mostly out. People are free to use them at home, or on meat that is not to be put into commerce.
 
Just a thought. the first post mentions the victrinox steel coming from sheffield. That doesn't seem odd to me as vicorinox gets a lot of the steel from the knives from here. (I think it's a place in stanington which is very near to my house)
My dad uses a mix of groved steels and a glass rod for a smooth steel with rather good results. A stone gets used every so often but it's surprizing what the mix of 2 sharpening rods and a glass rod can do in the right hands. It what he always did as a butcher and still does that. Some butchers still prefer a softer carbon blade as they roll rather then chip. I don't see many butchers steeling quite as often as mentioned but they do it a lot.
I find rods/steels very good for softer steels like that found on SAKs butnot so go for VG10. For that I do use a glass rod to realine the edge. I do this at a degree or so more then I sarpen the knife at
 
I would say that steeling a knife has a lot to do with sharpness. I didnt know how much it helped, until I got a RazorEdge Systems sharpening kit complete with pocket steel! Anyway, I had a knife that was sharp, but after I used the steel whatever happened made it scary sharp. I could cut hair with it before, but after using the steel the hair would just jump out of the way. And this is just doing 1 swipe for each side of the blade. Not like a chef does it or whatever.

Lee
 
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