Use of the 'Sharpening' Steel

I believe that there is a lot of confusion and misunderstanding regarding knives and knife sharpening, especially in the use of the steel that usually comes in a knife block set.

Today I want to discuss the steel.

Knife Steel

The picture above is a steel. A steel does not sharpen the edge of the knife — it aligns or 'adjusts' the edge.

Knife Edge

A simple description of a knife edge would be a V-shaped wedge. The sharp point of the V would be the cutting edge of the knife. Now, steel is quite hard and quite strong — but when we are talking about the fine edge of the knife — we are talking about steel that is as thin as one thousand of an inch. With steel as thin as this (which is necessary for a knife to be sharp) it can wear or bend rather easily. When the edge of the knife is worn it should be sharpened, when it is bent (called rolling or rolled) it should be aligned.

I like to thing of a knife being made of soft clay, as it make it easy to understand what can happen to the edge of the knife. As a clay knife is 'used' the point of the V would wear off and would require sharpening. When the knife is pushed down hard on a surface the edge would distort. This distortion is what the steel is used to correct.

The knife should be held to the steel at the same angle of the bevel (the ground edge) of the knife, usually 20 degrees. You then push the knife along the steel, starting from the edge closest to the handle, on towards the point of the knife using light pressure, alternate both sides, a couple of times each side.

Pretend like you are trying to slice a thin strip off the surface of the steel. This action will push back any of the edge of the knife that has been bent to the side during use, making the line of the V straight and true the entire length of the knife. With normal use once or twice a week should be fine.

Once the edge of the V is no longer a sharp edge then the knife needs sharpening, no amount of traditional steeling will make a dull edge sharp.