There’s your mistake. A steel is not for sharpening. It is for honing - i.e. straightening out a slightly rolled edge. You should do this periodically while or just after each use.
If your knife is dull, a steel is useless. You need to sharpen it on a stone first.
Ha! He doesn’t know what honing means! It’s so obvious, you should know what it means. Can anyone bother to explain it to him? I would, but honestly I don’t have time for that. Too busy right now.
Haha no worries. Think of the edge of a knife as slowly folding on itself when you’re using it, honing is used to straitened the edge and make it “sharp” again. Sharpening is when you remove material to create a new edge on the knife, usually with something abrasive.
After a while a knife is just dull and has no edge to be straitened anymore, at that point honing is useless.
Thank you, I always assumed those honing steels were actually removing material like a whetstone would, but that makes more sense with it being for just straightening the edge back out
My understanding is that It is really similar to honing with the additional purpose of polishing the blade by using a material that is just so slightly abrasive.
I’m open to correction and addition on this as I’m no stropper.
Yes. The movement and blade placement is beyond me. I grew up in a tackle store and would watch my mom and dad sharpen filet knives super fast and i cannot replicate it
When I bought my first fancy knife from a local kitchen supply store, they taped a folded post-it note to the box and showed me how to make one. Fold a piece of paper diagonally, one corner to the opposite corner, to make a 45 degree angle. Then fold it in half again by folding one long side of the triangle to the opposite long side. You’ll now have a 22.5° angle to use as a visual guide to get you close enough.
Sharpening a knife with one of those long sharpening things
the trick with sharpening knives is to do it wrong and wait for a flock of knive enthousiasts to swarm you and sharpen it for you
How dare you be so correct?
There’s your mistake. A steel is not for sharpening. It is for honing - i.e. straightening out a slightly rolled edge. You should do this periodically while or just after each use.
If your knife is dull, a steel is useless. You need to sharpen it on a stone first.
Or just buy new knives
That’s because they are not for sharpening, they are for honing the blade.
Right, you get it. I know what honing is, but could you explain for like, all the other losers? Not me, though, I’m down with the kids.
Ha! He doesn’t know what honing means! It’s so obvious, you should know what it means. Can anyone bother to explain it to him? I would, but honestly I don’t have time for that. Too busy right now.
Haha no worries. Think of the edge of a knife as slowly folding on itself when you’re using it, honing is used to straitened the edge and make it “sharp” again. Sharpening is when you remove material to create a new edge on the knife, usually with something abrasive.
After a while a knife is just dull and has no edge to be straitened anymore, at that point honing is useless.
Thank you, I always assumed those honing steels were actually removing material like a whetstone would, but that makes more sense with it being for just straightening the edge back out
This is exactly how I would have explained it, too. Glad you jumped in there first though.
Now do stropping.
My understanding is that It is really similar to honing with the additional purpose of polishing the blade by using a material that is just so slightly abrasive.
I’m open to correction and addition on this as I’m no stropper.
No, that’s about it. Though you do move the knife spine to edge, opposite of sharpening or honing.
A sharpening steel? https://cdn.cutleryandmore.com/products/large/36.jpg
Yes. The movement and blade placement is beyond me. I grew up in a tackle store and would watch my mom and dad sharpen filet knives super fast and i cannot replicate it
When I bought my first fancy knife from a local kitchen supply store, they taped a folded post-it note to the box and showed me how to make one. Fold a piece of paper diagonally, one corner to the opposite corner, to make a 45 degree angle. Then fold it in half again by folding one long side of the triangle to the opposite long side. You’ll now have a 22.5° angle to use as a visual guide to get you close enough.
Damn gonna try this