steeling to sharpening-high grit stones?

[hardheart]

While making some light passes on my 13K stone after a little cutting, I got to wondering - what is the dominant effect, aligning the edge against the hard stone surface, or abrasive removal of steel? Pressure and number of passes would be important factors, but it seems to me that a couple passes on a slick stone (maybe 6K+) would be about the same as working the steel/borosilicate glass/day old bagel with just a smidge of feathered steel removal.

 

[Jason B.]

Edge damage on any level is not the bent teeth that some like to think. The stone would be a much better option because its removing the damaged steel instead of pushing it stright. The steel is only popular because you do not need to know how to sharpen to use it (even a monkey could use a steel ), though it works it does not do nice things to the edge.


Just keep using a fine stone your edges will be sharper, last longer, be easier to fix when you must do a full resharpening. Think of it like this, do you really want the bent weak metal breaking off in your food while you are cutting it?

Here are some good pic's of what steeling does
http://mse.iastate.edu/fileadmin/www.mse.iastate.edu/static/files/verhoeven/KnifeShExps.pdf