Knife Sharpening How To Use A Sharpening Steel

Using knives on a daily basis one of the things that needs to be done from time to time is knife sharpening. Between the times when the culinary professional or gourmet home chef will perform knife sharpening they will tune their knives up on a sharpening steel or "Honing Rod" or "Butchers Steel" or today it's just called a "Steel." Well, the fact of the matter is that when you are "Steeling" a knife you are not "Sharpening" your knife. When using a steel, you are merely "honing" or tuning up your knife edge. What you are really doing is taking a knife edge that is bending or rolling over to one side or the other and "truing" that edge by making it stand up straight again. The bad part about "Sharpening" or "Honing" your knives on a steel is that in most cases it is done incorrectly. In fact it's even done incorrectly by many of the celebrity chefs out there that are just stroking their knives on a steel at high velocity and then telling you that this is how you sharpen a knife.