Which honing steel?

M

Matt Tarlach

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Sep 24, 2017
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I have a a bunch of different knives but the ones I care most about are old carbon Sabatiers. I have a 10" chef's with the old-style nogent handle, an 11" that has the black plastic handle but I think is still not very recent, and an 8" Yatagan carver again with the plastic handle. All carbon - I don't practice enough to be very good with the stones but when I get it right they all take a good edge.

What honing steel is best to straighten and tune up the edge on these in between sharpenings? A traditional steel-steel, eg F Dick? Smooth, Fine Cut, or Sapphire cut? Or what about a ceramic rod like the black ceramic unit at Chef Knives 2 Go - the seller says it's about equal to 2000 grit? Something else I haven't found yet?

Or should I forget the traditional steel, and practice honing on a balsa or leather strop?

My old knives thank you!
 
Honing Steels are an Heresy and an Abomination against Nature.

Use leather, and/or a few "light" trailing edge strokes on a fine grit stone
like a 8K Naniwa or a Kitayama
 
None of them? :D the "cheap" way is to buy something like a 1000/8000 King two sided water stone from some place like Woodcraft.
 
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In looking for the best balance of time, $, function, ease of use and accessibility, I have found that the Messermeister ceramic rod knife sharpener works best. I bought the white one for ~$30. It fits in my knife block and tunes up my kitchen knives is seconds. The grit is difficult to determine because ceramics are "classified" differently. The scratch pattern looks to be around 1000 grit when looking at it under my ~250x USB scope (another $30 well spent). I switch from classic ribbed steel rods after seeing (at 250x) how much the edge was getting ripped up. There are a few keys though:

1. The correct angle is important (I use the WickedEdge system [WEPS] for full sharpening) and this takes practice. Using a 250x scope for visual feedback you will start to see, feel and hear the sweet spot. IMO you are straightening the microbevel. If you don't have a microbevel then you are effectively putting one on while using the ceramic hone.

2. Very light pressure for 1-2 strokes per side is all that is needed. If the edge doesn't pass the "thumb nail face scratch test" then either your angle is wrong or your knife needs full sharpening. You do not want to do full sharpening with the ceramic rod (although you could with more pressure) because you will be removing a lot of steel inconsistently along the blade due to the inability to hold an angle accurately. This is why you sometimes see knives that are heavily worn inconsistently along the edge. Expensive $200-300 knives are a pleasure to use and with the right techniques they will last a lifetime.

Work your technique and get a USB scope (it even attaches to your phone)
 
I use a ceramic rod, roughly 1200 ansi, and LOVE it. It does everything I need in a touch up for kitchen knives, and does it extremely fast. Unlike traditional smooth steels, the ceramic will cut the steel. And unlike the grooved steels, it doesn't remove too much. It's perfect. There may be some finer ceramic steels out there (probably so...Im not familiar with them tho), but 1200 is plenty fine enough for me.

Stay away from "steel" steels! They work OK on softer stainless like what many have in their kitchen. For blades with a higher HRC (60+), whether they be carbon or stainless, use the ceramic. The harder the blade is, the more a traditional steel will just mess up the edge. The ceramic rod is like using a 1200 grit ceramic stone....it's just....round.

BTW, "hone" is usually a term for edge leading. Don't do that on leather! "strop" is edge trailing, done on stone and/or leather.
 
Ceramic rods work much better than steel. Ceramic DMT rod has metal core and doesn't break when dropped. Lately I like toothier edge that DMT diamond rods produce, Fine or Extra Fine. The key is to use EXTREMELY LIGHT pressure and consistent angle. Orange angle guides can help with angle consistency.

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Honing on rod is very much underappreciated. I'd say that 99 out of 100 people cannot use honing at all and badmouth it. After I found correct angle and started to use butterfly weight pressure, my knives are extremely sharp at any minute. Whenever I feel that edge is not extremely sharp, I hone 2-3 times and it cuts like a laser again and again.
 
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I only use ceramic hones no steels .. the Messermeister is good ... Green Elephant is decent ... I personally prefer the Idahone fine grit ... I believe the fine is 1200 ... and they have a coarser hone if you wanted that.
 
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tim37a said:
Where do you find the Orange Angle Guides?
Tim
Click to expand...
Used to be you could order them directly from the maker, angleguide.com. Web site isn't responding for me. They are sold through other web sites, including that really big online retailer that sell everything else.
 
I've gotten a bunch of pyrex stirring rods from an auction site, and use one of them I mounted in a walnut handle as my steel. It seems to work good, but I tend to use a hard backed strop more than this.
 
Low alloy carbon steel, I prefer to strop on newspaper or clay coated color cardstock ads first. When that doesn't work any more, then I gently strop dry on a high grit waterstone. I use a King 1000/6000 grit combo stone's 6000 side for this. If that doesn't work, then I drop down to stropping on the 1000 but wet and clean that up on the 6000. Basically, I prefer to do the least amount of work removing the least amount of metal until the performance results aren't satisfactory any more. That's when I will actually sharpen again.

I am a home cook only, but for a professional in a hurry, when the knife steel is HRc 60+, I say use a ceramic honing rod. From what I've been able to find, many of the metal rods are only in the neighborhood of HRc 60-62, so it's not a good choice to steel a knife that is as hard if not harder than the chef's steel/honing rod! A ceramic honing rod is similar to a stone in rod form. Just gotta be careful and consistent with your angle.
 
I've been using a 10-inch EZE-LAP diamond surfaced rod for years with total satisfaction. The longer you use them the smoother they get making them ideal for quick touch ups.
 
Thanks for your replies. I have a big white ceramic rod I got from chefknivestogo a few years ago, but it feels a little coarse for this purpose. The Sabatiers are pretty soft - especially the big 11" - and I felt like I was taking off more steel than necessary when I just wanted to hone the edge. I believe there are finer ceramic rods but I decided to try a balsa strop, loaded with 0.5 micron diamond paste. Just set it up today and initial results seem positive.
 
Steels aren't really for honing but for realigning the edge. I use an very smooth oval burnisher rod @ about RC62, designed to re-form the edge of woodworking scrapers, but a used valve stem (you might find one free at a machine shop that overhauls engines) would do as well.
 
I use the sides of a large ceramic blade (edge leading). They are very hard and very smooth. When I use a rod, the point gets dulled as it wraps over the rod. It is hard to finish the stroke with the point on the surface of a skinny cylinder. With stones or a flat ceramic blade, it is easy to finish the stroke with point touching the surface.
 
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