When sharpening a knife, what exactly does honing do?
In: Engineering
There are a lot of well meaning answers on here, but our understanding of sharpening has changed over time. The whole “it aligns the blade” thing is outdated and incorrect.
A honing rod DOES remove material, and creates a very small micro-bevel near the apex. Honing is similar to sharpening, in that you are creating an apex. The two steps to sharpening a blade are 1) Apex the blade and then 2) Remove the burr. With honing you’re generally not creating enough of a burr to worry about, so you’re just creating a small apex.
https://scienceofsharp.com/2018/08/22/what-does-steeling-do-part-1/
Here is a proper breakdown of what a rod actually does, with ultra-detailed scanning electron microscope images so you can see the results.
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