Honing steels, just don't.

David Mary

David Mary

pass the mustard - after you cut it
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Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
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Synopsis, honing steels not only don't straighten rolled edges, but they also shred the apex while so don'ting and the only thing they actually straighten is a burr which shouldn't be there in the first place.

 
Old school technology. Mainly from the butcher/meat cutting industry.
Knives were much softer, the burr was ‘thicker’ and kept on, centered.
Realigned the toothy edge with the honing steel.
 
I didn't get to watch the video yet, I will later.

But I disagree.

Unless this product is something different, I've been using a Gossman sharpening steel for a few years now, and I Love it.

I stroke it maybe 10 times per side After sharpening on my stones, and there is a world of difference. Testing before and after on paper and arm hair is very noticeable. It's slightly more aggressive than stropping.
It Works.
 

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I use a ceramic honing rod for this reason. Ive also seen diamond honing rods which look like the diamond sharpener of honing rods.
 
I hate watching people gnash and smash blades into those hones with no angle control, wild pressure and edge trailing strokes.
I use light edge leading strokes at a very precise angle. For a soft (56 HRC) santoku, it sharpens it dramatically in 10 seconds. Every few months I do a complete sharpening on stones.
 
I hone all my knives on a ceramic rod. Kitchen knives, edc blades, fixies. It brings the edge back after a few strokes. If there’s a roll or chip the rod does nothing. But if my kids abuse my kitchen knives for a week the rod brings them back to an edge that glides through magazine paper.
 
Crag the Brewer Crag the Brewer and Richard338 Richard338 are you certain you are not simply centering a microscopic burr? I have tried various so called honing steels over the years. They always seemed to work as they were supposed to in a professional restaurant setting, for a time anyway, on the knives that we received through a knife rental/sharpening service. But no honing steel ever seemed to do anything good for my own personal knives.
 
David Mary said:
Crag the Brewer Crag the Brewer and Richard338 Richard338 are you certain you are not simply centering a microscopic burr? I have tried various so called honing steels over the years. They always seemed to work as they were supposed to in a professional restaurant setting, for a time anyway, on the knives that we received through a knife rental/sharpening service. But no honing steel ever seemed to do anything good for my own personal knives.
Click to expand...

I'm not familiar with the rods. I've seen them, but haven't used them.

Mine, I got from Scott's website has flats that I slide my edges against. It also has a rounded edge, but I like the flats.

Apparently it's coarse ground Hard D2?

I've got the large one, but I wish it was bigger.
Now that I've "got connections in the industry" haha. ... I thought about making a Bigger bench top version? Idk, so many Other projects

As you know I like using hard HRC steels, and so far they all seemed better afterwards.

I'm going to try some Hard 10V later this year, maybe that won't work, idk?

From what I read, it's more aggressive than stropping. Removing more material.
 
David Mary said:
Synopsis, honing steels not only don't straighten rolled edges, but they also shred the apex while so don'ting and the only thing they actually straighten is a burr which shouldn't be there in the first place.

Click to expand...
I didn't watch the video .

But 50 or 60 years ago , I watched butchers and restaurant chefs use butchers steel to good effect .

Sure seemed to work fine for them . So ...IDK ? Maybe knives have changed . ;)
 
Interesting. My dad kept a honing rod in the kitchen and he used it all the time. The distinct sound of a large knife being slid across the rod is something that stuck with me. My dad was not a dumb guy and he never did anything just because it was what other people did. He always had to understand everything to the smallest detail, and everything he did had a purpose. I wish I could ask him about it but he's not around anymore.

As for myself, I never use them. 🤷‍♂️
 
G Guy McVer I don’t think it’s about using a steel being dumb per se. He speculated that the common understanding of sharpening was not as complete at the time honing steels were conceived and so if people really were leaving a microscopic burr (as I suspect is the case with the restaurant knife services we used when I was in the industry) then a honing steel would have worked to restore that cutting ability for a limited number of times.

In fact when I went to chef school they said exactly that, that eventually it would no longer work because the edge would eventually break off. Thinking about it now that totally tracks with a burr.
 
Guy McVer said:
As for myself, I never use them. 🤷‍♂️
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Actually I take that back. I do use a long ceramic rod with a wooden handle. I just never thought of it as a honing rod, but I guess that's what it is? If we're going by the way the video is framing it. I use it for putting on the final touches, not as a metal honing rod would've been used.

David Mary said:
G Guy McVer I don’t think it’s about using a steel being dumb per se. He speculated that the common understanding of sharpening was not as complete at the time honing steels were conceived and so if people really were leaving a microscopic burr (as I suspect is the case with the restaurant knife services we used when I was in the industry) then a honing steel would have worked to restore that cutting ability for a limited number of times.

In fact when I went to chef school they said exactly that, that eventually it would no longer work because the edge would eventually break off. Thinking about it now that totally tracks with a burr.
Click to expand...

I think you're giving people from back in the day too little credit. I think it's more likely that we've lost some of the understanding that they already had, and the definitions of things have also slightly shifted and/or been refined as time has gone on.

When I look around I see a lot of people that do things without knowing why they do them, and lacking a basic understanding of how things work. They follow directions more so than anything else. The conceptual understanding isn't there.
 
Guy McVer said:
I think you're giving people from back in the day too little credit.
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People are people and they were “back in the day” as well.

Guy McVer said:
When I look around I see a lot of people that do things without knowing why they do them, and lacking a basic understanding of how things work. They follow directions more so than anything else. The conceptual understanding isn't there.
Click to expand...

Maybe, and this is just speculation, that happened “back in the day” too.
 
David Mary said:
People are people and they were “back in the day” as well.

Maybe, and this is just speculation, that happened “back in the day” too.
Click to expand...
Fair point. I'm just not willing to grant the idea that honing rods were created very specifically as they were for no good reason. As if to say "Hey, guys. Instead of taking off this burr, let's use this tool to just straighten it out over and over again until our edge is gone and then start the whole process over again."

And then somebody raised their hand and said "what's a burr?", and the inventor replies "I have no understanding of what a burr is."
 
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