Sharpening steel

[bocephus]

Dr_Pain I don’t think anyone took offense, just took it in the good humor it was meant to be.

[calldoctoday]

That was real “slick”!

[marzig20]

When I was going through my apprenticeship to become a journeyman meat cutter, we had an old retired German meat cutter that would come in every two weeks to sharpen everyone’s knives. It was always in the evening when there would only be one meat cutter in the market boning out all the trim from that days cutting.

He had a van outside where he took all the knives to sharpen. He would leave you a 12" steak knife and a 6" straight or curved boning knife to use while he was outside. All you had to do was pick up one of his knives and a steel at the same time while he was loading up the knives to set him off! His arms would start waving and he would yell nein!, nein! don’t ruin my knives! The rest of the yelling was in German, and I was pretty sure he was cursing and questioning my intelligence, genetics, heritage and upbringing.

My point is as processhead said a “steel” steel will only straighten a rolled edge. Just like bending a paperclip back and forth the edge will break off and eventually will need to be reground. It makes me cringe when I see a so called “chef” on the Food Channel slapping and banging an expensive knife on a steel trying to look cool. Proper honing is an art and shouldn’t be over done. I love ceramic steels, but you better not drop it…

[bocephus]

marzig20 I agree a steel only realigns the edge and should be used that way, although when deboning I use mine quite often because of hitting bone.

[marzig20]

bocephus very true! Bone contact is the hardest thing on the edge of a knife and honing cannot be avoided.

[Tex_77]

I really like this steel https://www.waltonsinc.com/11in-f-dick-multicut-flat-steel

[Dr_Pain]

Tex_77 Sheesh, never knew those steel were so 🤯‍

[Tex_77]

Ya steels are apparently pretty pricey for higher end ones.

[bocephus]

Dr_Pain If you take care of them though you will passing them down to the next generation and beyond, just like a quality knife.

[Deepwoodsbutcher]

Dr_Pain An investment for sure, but one that will out live your knives if you take care of it. Working commercially in shops, on kill floors, on farms and in the woods, I’ve put these things through it all. F. Dick steels will stand the test of time.

[Chef]

Deepwoodsbutcher If their steels are anything like their stuffer, they are indestructible. I have their 30 pound stuffer; never have to worry about it being difficult to stuff casing.

[Deepwoodsbutcher]

Chef An F. Dick stuffer would be an awesome piece of kit! They do some good work.

[processhead]

Deepwoodsbutcher said in Sharpening steel:

Chef An F. Dick stuffer would be an awesome piece of kit! They do some good work.

Occasionally they show up on the used equipment market. I can’t picture myself ponying up for a new one though.