Sharpening or honing?

The steel rods that come with many knife sets are often called sharpening steels, but they don’t sharpen knives at all! Instead, they really ought to be called honing steels, because using them readjusts the angel of the cutting edge, which tends to get slightly curled under as it’s used. This makes it seem that the edge is dull, when really the edge is just fine, but you’re not actually using it! Clear?

Anyway, here’s a really nice honing steel by Wustof, available through Cooking.com. This is what you’ll use most of the time to “sharpen” your knives.

Wusthof honing steel

Occasionally though, when you’ve honed the edge and the knife still seems dull, then you’ll need a true sharpener, which removes metal from both sides of the blade, creating a new surface for slicing. One of the top rated models is the Chef’s Choice:

Chef's Choice Sharpener

Much less expensive, and manually powered is the Smith’s Edge Counter Safe Deluxe Knife and Scissors Sharpener.  This is the one I use, and I’m very satisfied with it.  It brought my scissors back to better than new condition, and for the home cook, this is probably all the sharpening you will really need.

Smith's Edge Deluxe Knife & Scissors Sharpener

Images: Cooking.com and SmithsEdge