How is it possible that steel can sharpen steel?
For example this honing rod type sharpener [https://www.walmart.com/ip/J-A-Henckels-International-Fine-Edge-Pro-9-Sharpening-Steel/49056156](https://www.walmart.com/ip/J-A-Henckels-International-Fine-Edge-Pro-9-Sharpening-Steel/49056156) is made of steel whereas the this one is made of ceramic [https://www.walmart.com/ip/J-A-Henckels-International-Handheld-Knife-Sharpener/861314185](https://www.walmart.com/ip/J-A-Henckels-International-Handheld-Knife-Sharpener/861314185)
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Honing Steels sharpen by realigning the cutting edge, not to creating a new cutting edge.
Think of the cutting edge like a fine tooth saw, as you use the the knife, the saw teeth can get bent out of shape. The Honing steel assists with straightening out those teeth
Ceramic ones are generally used for Ceramic knife, as the Ceramic is too hard to be honed with steel.
You aren’t “sharpening” the blade, you’re “honing” the blade. The edge of a good knife is very, *very* thin, and as such it’s pretty brittle. As the knife gets used that edge tend to “roll” a bit to the side, dulling the blade in the process. Honing a knife pushes that roll back in the other direction, therefore alinging the edge with the rest of the blade (which is why you hone both sides an equal amount of times, and why you do *one* pass on one side and *one* pass on the other, repeat as necessary). Steel is the quickest way to hone a knife, but ceramic works pretty good, too. You can even use leather or canvas (like a razor strop) in a pinch, depending on the type of blade and the angle of the bevel.
The knife gets “sharper” as a result, so calling them sharpening rods isn’t really all that inaccurate, but its still a bit of a misnomer. Actually sharpening a blade requires some grinding, which actually removes part of the steel to refinish the edge.
Edit: It’s worth noting that the brittleness of the edge is why you should *never* use a glass cutting board if you’re using high-quality steel knives. Stick to wood. The wood won’t roll the edge anywhere near as quickly.
If you zoom way in on the edge of a knife that’s in need of honing, you’ll find that it became dull because the edge folded over. Honing steels are designed to fold the sharp edge back out so that it can cut things effectively again.
Thanks for all the answers. Learnt something new today. I love this sub.
I haven’t seen anyone else mention it yet, so I’ll just add that there are like 1000 different formulations for steel that all have different properties, and things like heat treating and tempering can drastically alter a steel’s properties on top of those formula differences. Hell, a single piece of metal can actually be made from multiple forms of steel with different heat treats applied to different parts of it.
Imagine you have a spear and you are poking trees with it. At the end of the day you noticed that it’s not poking into trees so well anymore. You look at the tip and notice that it’s actually a little bit folded over. It’s still pointy, but the point is pointing off to the side. To fix that, you find a piece of steel and rub the spear point to unbend the tip so it’s straight again.
That’s what you are doing, but with the knife’s cutting edge. It’s still sharp, it’s just a little bit flopped to one side or the other, or both along it’s edge. You are re-aligning the sharp edge to point forward! So now it cuts well again!
The second picture you have has V shaped notches made with HARD STEEL, it will in fact straighten and actually cut away steel that to make the edge a nice point again. Those aren’t the best sharpeners to use, but they work.
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