A honing steel, sometimes referred to as sharpening steel, sharpening stick, sharpening rod, butcher's steel, and chef's steel is a rod of steel, ceramic or diamond coated steel used to hone or sharpen blade edges. They are flat, oval, or round in cross-section and up to one foot long (30 cm). The steel and ceramic honing steels may have longitudinal ridges, whereas the diamond coated steels are smooth but will be embedded with abrasive diamond particles.
The naming is often a misnomer, because the traditional "honing steel" is not a hone at all, i.e. its function is to displace rather than to remove metal along the edge. The term "hone" is associated with light maintenance performed on a blade without the effort and precision normally associated with sharpening, so the name "hone" was loaned. In the 1980s, ceramic abrasives became increasingly popular, and proved an equal, if not superior, method for accomplishing the same daily maintenance tasks; manufacturers replaced steels with ceramic (and later, manufactured diamond abrasive) sharpening "steels" that were, in fact, hones.
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Famous quotes containing the words honing and/or steel:
“His conversation glided on the brain
Like a razor honing in promise of one’s decease....”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)
“There is a kind of strength that is almost frightening in black women. It’s as if a steel rod runs right through the head down to the feet.”
—Maya Angelou (b. 1928)