Sharpening steel
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I use a vintage 10 inch “Slick” F. Dick steel.
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The diamond and ceramic steels have the advantage of being able to hone a mildly dull knife edge. Diamond is the most aggressive. Ceramic less-so.
A “steel” steel will straighten a rolled edge, but won’t put a new edge on a dull knife. -
Looking to upgrade from an 8" sharpening steel rod to 12-14"
What are you guy’s preference? Steel, Ceramic, Diamond?
knifemaker3 as a taxidermist I do a lot of skinning and have to have a quality steel right there to just just keep my knives good and sharp.
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I would definitely go with a 12" F. Dick steel. I have several, but would recommend different finishes depending on usage. If you do a lot of boning work, regular or fine cut will be great. If you are mostly slicing or using it on kitchen knives, a fine or ultra fine finish is good. For skinning, I like a fine to ultra fine. If you like an all round steel, my favorite is the F. Dick Multiron steel. It is a regular cut steel combined with a fine steel in one. Light pressure will hone and moderate pressure to realign the blade. You could also look at the square steels if you want two finishes in one steel.
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I have been lucky to find some old Dexter Russells at a local flea market, clean them up and been very happy with them. But I don’t think you could go wrong with F. Dick either.
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I don’t know why but this thread just makes me laugh, and Deepwoodsbutcher calling for a 12" F.Dick steel just had me rolling. Been one of those day. Sorry for the interruption. As they say, “carry on!”
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I don’t know why but this thread just makes me laugh, and Deepwoodsbutcher calling for a 12" F.Dick steel just had me rolling. Been one of those day. Sorry for the interruption. As they say, “carry on!”
Dr_Pain We know where your mind is today!
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We all have to relive Jr. High from time to time.
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I hope I don’t offend someone with my junior highschool suggestive mindset today. It was just too easy to fall for the trap
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I hope I don’t offend someone with my junior highschool suggestive mindset today. It was just too easy to fall for the trap
Dr_Pain said in Sharpening steel:
I hope I don’t offend someone with my junior highschool suggestive mindset today. It was just too easy to fall for the trap
No worries. I was surprised it didn’t censor.
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I hope I don’t offend someone with my junior highschool suggestive mindset today. It was just too easy to fall for the trap
Dr_Pain I don’t think anyone took offense, just took it in the good humor it was meant to be.
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That was real “slick”!
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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…
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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…
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.
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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.
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I really like this steel https://www.waltonsinc.com/11in-f-dick-multicut-flat-steel
Isaiah 5:22 Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and champions at mixing drinks
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I really like this steel https://www.waltonsinc.com/11in-f-dick-multicut-flat-steel
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Ya steels are apparently pretty pricey for higher end ones.
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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.
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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.
🤯
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