Well, I dont personally prefer to use a steel for the following reasons. When I need to touch up a knife between sharpening the edge bevel I use a stone on the microbevel so it will cut off weakened steel rather than bend it back into place like a steel does but the amount of effort put into sharpening the microbevel it is about the same as using a steel. I normally use a coarse or medium stone for this as a more fine stone may only do about the same thing as a steel and just bend the edge back into place rather than grind off the weakened apex because the stone isn't coarse enough to remove enough material to get to fresh steel.Quick Steel wrote:Am curious as to what your reactions might be to the following. I make it a practice to keep a honing steel or chef's steel anywhere I have my knives. In the kitchen obviously, but also in my office and another room that holds most of my knives. Although I often use knives, normally it is for fairly light duties. Perhaps with a blade that gets a lot of challenging work this would not be applicable. But whenever I find a blade that is losing the sharpness I want I give it a few passes with the steel and the improvement is immediate. I realize this is not "sharpening" as such; just a realignment of the micro-teeth of the blade edge. When the day comes when steel has to be removed I use a Speyderco or AG Russell V sharpener.
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Now let me be clear, I am not saying that steeling isn't a viable option or that you shouldn't do it. It obviously is functional and has a purpose, but I prefer to approach touching up an edge between sharpening in a different way to maximize edge retention.