I may never "sharpen" a knife again (using a STeele)

On Tue, 2 Mar 2004 01:33:58 -0600, "Ivan" vaguely proposed a theory ......and in reply I say!:

You would probably be wrong. Minute industrial grit. And yes they work amazingly well. For tools as well as knives. (Well, I have a grindstone of the same stuff, and I use the little "steels" on clippers etc.)

Give a couple to your wife as earrings. "Here dear. I bought you some diamond earrings!" They _always_ know

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Spike....Spike? Hello?

The old style steels were meant to straighten a turned edge and were not for metal removal. The new diamond ones are abrasive and remove metal.

|On Tue, 2 Mar 2004 01:33:58 -0600, "Ivan" |vaguely proposed a theory |......and in reply I say!: | |>You probably bought one of those diamond coated steels. They're nice. We |>have a butcher shop on our farm. We went from having our knives ground |>often to keeping our own knives sharp with the diamond coated. (well that's |>what they call it anyway....I doubt if there's diamond on it) | |You would probably be wrong. Minute industrial grit. And yes they work |amazingly well. For tools as well as knives. (Well, I have a |grindstone of the same stuff, and I use the little "steels" on |clippers etc.)

OK, I'm convinced, and I'm tired of dull kitchen knives. Where does one buy a good steel, and how can you tell it's a good one? Rex in Fort Worth

yes, agreed. this is the old style, a Chicago 12", it may be stainless, but i don't know. it is only 8" of working surface, the fine longitudenal groves. these are sold seperately or with knife sets, made in China. WalMart carries the sets, Kohls carries the sets and the steels.

if i were doing it again, i might be tempted for a nicer, longer one, but this one is quite handy for the length of edges i have. eventaully, i should end up with both. dunno about the diamond type, as you say, a different deal altogther, a newbie could probably do some real damage to an edge.

another tip for novices, _patience_ is the key. talking to a butcher may help but you will see/get difference techniques for everyone you ask. also, the edge condition determines whether a steel can restore the edge and i advise to start looking at them under 10x or so and learn to recognize a good edge that is just dull. these two cleavers surprised me, i did look at them and they looked fairly nice, just dull. good luck, --Loren

I have 3 steels in a rack near my knives. A diamond steel for actual sharpening. A standard honing steel for regular maintenance. And a "Butcher's" Steel, a mirror finished glass hard rod of high carbon steel used to burnish the edge perfect.

Use all 3 in succession and beware the tomato that dares offend me.

AAguy at a county faair was selling a knife sharpener. Did damazing things with a mortar hoe, rusty knives, etc. Suddenly a light flashed... Now at garage sales if I find a rusty butcher knife, it'll soon be mine. That sort of iron seems to take a good (not long lasting) edge (slices paper-a test). It will also raise heck with a tomato. Paul in AJ AZ

longitudenal

How much life can we expect from a diamond steel?

After I started putting the final hone on customers knives with a little green chromium oxide on a leather belt they can slice a tomato so thin it only has one side!

On Tue, 02 Mar 2004 19:58:39 GMT, Ernie Leimkuhler vaguely proposed a theory ......and in reply I say!:

This is roughly what I was going to say

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Spike....Spike? Hello?

On Tue, 2 Mar 2004 14:28:47 -0600, "Ivan" vaguely proposed a theory ......and in reply I say!:

I hate to start a bottomposttoppost argument. But if you are going to bottom post, could do a _bit_ of snipping before your one-liner?

How often are you going to use it? Most of them are diamonds embeddded in Nickel or other metal AFAIK. They last a long time. They make the job so easy they are worth it. You can _feel_ them biting.

BTW. You don't need to get a greta long one. I use a little rectangular thing about 3cm wide and 8 cm long. I bought 3 grades for about $15.

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Spike....Spike? Hello?

I use green stuff too. When I go to check a knife by shaving my arm, the hairs jump off from fright.

Excellent observation, saving me a lengthy post!

I steel my knives each time I use them, so they need sharpening only every other year. Then too, I don't own a butcher shop. :-)

Thanks! :-)

Harry C.

On Tue, 02 Mar 2004 19:09:15 GMT, snipped-for-privacy@REMOVEtxol.net (Rex B) brought forth from the murky depths:

I use a DMT 600 grit diamond plate on both my wood/metalworking tool blades and knives. That's it for the kitchen knives, as they work better with a bit of bite. I ScarySharpen(tm) the shop blades with 1000 and 1500 grit wetordry sandpaper, then finish up with a strop.

.-. Better Living Through Denial ---

Yup. :)

I have had mine for 12 years and it still works fine

On Tue, 02 Mar 2004 19:58:39 GMT, Ernie Leimkuhler vaguely proposed a theory ......and in reply I say!:

Actually, the tomatoes have a problem. Isn't it the tomato that _pleases_ you that will see the sharp edge?

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Spike....Spike? Hello?

On Tue, 2 Mar 2004 21:03:28 -0600, "Ivan" vaguely proposed a theory ......and in reply I say!: plonk

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Spike....Spike? Hello?

Zoltan Malocsay had an excellent article on using lapidary equipment for sharpening knives in Rock&Gem a few years back. Can't find it now, but I seem to remember him likening using a steel to putting a "set" into saw teeth. Said the steel pulled the tiny teeth created by regular sharpening into alignment, which is why butchers were constantly using their steels on thei working blades. Goos stuff; maybe someone has a copy. Zoltan was generally as sharp as the knives he wrote about in the magazine.