Having worked as a line cook in a couple of commercial kitchens, most cooks don't sharpen their knives, there is generally an electric double wheel sharpener that sits on a shelf in the prep area that no one uses, an old rusty steel hangs from the service window that is used frequently when trying to plate that seared ahi almost as a sharpness placebo as there is little difference between steeling a completely apexless edge and simply wishing it was sharper. I have now become a knifemaker and I can tell you without a doubt that keeping a decent quality whetstone in the kitchen is without a doubt the best way to go
I used to work in a steak house were no one had a sharp knife, and everybody was stealing my knives, one day i asked why was there a brick next to the steam machine, at first i thoght it was to stop a door or something til i pick it up, it was a whetstone, all dirty and covered in grease, i cleaned it and started using it, everybody was like "yo, where did you get that stone", even a guy who had been working there for four years had no idea that they had a whetstone laying around
There's very little if any difference between an ABRASIVE rod and a whetstone. Its just the form factor. If you've got the muscle memory of using a traditional steel ABRASIVE rods are easier. But if you dont have the muscle memory (or you suspect you have inxorrect muscle memory) go with the flat stone form factor they're much better value and you can use angle supports while you learn
@@Gabu_Dono no they don't, they make these wonderful things called an angle guide that will keep the blade at a constant angle taking most of the hard work out of it Freehand sharpening has a high learning curve, but you dont need to use a whetstone freehand
@zoomiezoomerd8513 Its a quote from Lao Tzu. Famous Chinese philosopher. Think of it this way. While American culture often values speed and multitasking, taking the time to slow down and think can ultimately lead to better outcomes. Speed comes later.
@JordanII. ah. Well he did also say this isn't your average steel rod, but a diamond one or whatever so it's more like sand paper and does something to the scratch pattern which I guess is good since I don't know how lines on a blade make it sharper
You're thinking of non-abrasive steels, which straighten a burr even though the burr shouldn't even be there to begin with. This guy specifically said that he's using an abrasive steel.
Personally I prefer diamond sharpening plates. They may not last as long as a good wet stone but they can do the job faster depending on what you're going for.
A good quality diamond plate will outlast you and your knives, if you use it correctly. Diamond plates are to be used dry. My oldest diamond plate is an American made EZLap Diamond Stone, and I've been using it for about 25 years. It still works as well as when I got it. Well worth the approx 100 dollars I spent on it, imo.
LOL this is good advice, everyone snickers at the speedy guy. Everyone on here like they are experts, copy someone that’s done it for a while and learn the feeling. It’s not rocket science and if you didn’t get it the first time try again. They’ll give you pointers even if you don’t ask LOL
I always tell my line cooks that saying , especially when they first start out and are slow. I prefer them to start out smooth...speed will come in time. Also i prefer sharpening my own knives. We got 3 restaurants , and once a week ill go to each on and sharpen their knives
Good advice. My grandfather, who did commercial slaughtering and meat cutting, used carbon steel knives and after the initial sharpening, he used a steal. Carbon steel seems to behave differently than stainless. I'm not a professional chef. I have several knives that haven't been sharpened since the 40's. Only the steel. Also the knives are cleaned with cold water and immediately dried. Can anyone tell me why this works
You don't want to hone 10x on side and 10x on the other. You need to alternate to remove that burr. 10x a side just rolls it over and doesn't straighten it.
Very helpful info, I've wanted to use the sharpening rods better. One point: your video colour is off, it's heavy on the yellow tones. Looks to be lacking reds. I'm thinking something happened during editing, unintentionally.
I’ve always held the knife static in left hand point up. Steel in right hand starting at heel ending with steel tip to knife tip. Rock blade to give correct angle while steel alternates sides. Steel stays at same angle. Very fast to keep a well shaped edge fully sharp. I’m an engineer and shape and sharpen blades for others (including batches of blades for veterinary autopsies) I would suggest diamond for more serious sharpening or just a few strokes, ceramic for fine finishing a sharp blade. Steel for burnishing a sharp edge and leather strop with polishing compound if you really want a very sharp edge. Don’t expect any of them to sharpen a blunt edge.
As a millwright I use a strip of sandpaper laid on the table or a file to sharpen my knifes. If they get real bad a bench grinder or an angle grinder clamped in a vise.
Commercial kitchens used to have their knives ground either once a fortnight or once a month, either the grinder brought his van to you and did the knives or exchanged x number of sets and took the blunt ones away for sharpening. Steels were used in the meanwhile to keep the knives going between visits. Really this is only good for cheaper knives, you wouldn't want to give someone else good knives to sharpen. If you are cutting all day you'll have to use a steel to keep going, no matter what knives you are using, ceramic and diamond rods take too much metal off too fast.
The best way is to use a lined rod then a diamond to remove burrs and define the edge. Then us a stone corse and fine finish on a non tapered smooth steel and hone on ceramic. If you have a tapered smooth steel use between non tapeted steel an ceramic.
As a student I spent a summer job working in an abattoir. All knives were honed on a steel, after every few cuts, with the steel point upwards - none of this modern nonsense of a downward pointing steel.
Is it nonsense? Just looks like a different way to do it more stably. No reason it should be any worse or weirder than pulling your rod out and flashing it upwards to everybody.
The steel only works in bending back a burr which should already have been removed from your knife. With the abrasive rods he showed, you are absolutely refining the scratch pattern with very small abrasive particles.
The Tormek T-2 is made for commercial kitchens, the T-1 is their home version for kitchen knives. Neither of those can sharpen chisels. I'm guessing you've got something like the T-8 or T-4, both of which are super versatile and will be able to sharpen your kitchen knives too.
You certainly can. As you suggest, edge trailing strokes are great and can create a finer edge, but they also typically produce a larger burr. Edge leading sharpens a little more aggressively, but with a slightly less refined edge.
People should remember that it's actually more dangerous to move the knife away from yourself, rather than toward yourself, while using the honing steel.
The rods do not sharpen the knife, at least not like a stone. They're called "honing rods," and they mainly just straiten up the edge. Get a set of stones, and you won't look back.
"Abrasive" rods for starters do not have any abrasiveness to them at all and they do NOT sharpens knives, they are used to remove burs and incorrectly used to straighten rolled apexes.
I used to be a pro chef. I used to bring cheapest ok knife if restaurant don't have any, it was about 10 dolars. You don't have time to worry about your knives in kitchen, not at all. I used to use fine sharpening rod every couple of hours or when I needed it. Every month or so when it gets too dull for the rod I used to use cheapo knife sharpener on it to reshape the edge and use the rod again. Knife is a tool, only home cooks treat them like it's their kids.
Honing steel or butcher steels are not for sharpening. It's basically for straighten/removing the burr.. But if you've already have a burr after sharpening, you're doing something wrong 😊And it's a misconception that it straighten rolled over edges wich is also a lie.. I recommend watching Outdoor55's videos about this subject. Very informative 😊 ruclips.net/video/65JzsDU_0mI/видео.htmlsi=3rEaf8oMqDN4ituX
I would say that this guys opinion on ceramic or diamond honing rods is valid, and he doesn’t actually advocate for the use of honing steels like a lot of other people. It’s pretty clear he doesn’t fully understand stuff but it seems that somewhere along the line he got some good information about sharpening and doesn’t use honing steels.
Your edge will be rolled in one direction doing it like this, you're supposed to make a single pass on each side, unless you are trying to make a new edge, but you still end with a single passes alternating sides of the blade with each pass
Why would it be rolled in one direction? If the apex is properly formed, it won't be rolled at all. Many people sharpen one side at a time on bench stones with no problems. Same concept.
@@UserNameAnonymous every pass you make on a stone rolls the edge one way or the other a little bit, if you make multiple passes on one side it will roll the edge more to that side diminishing the sharpness of the edge, it works in the beginning to shape the edge, but finish with single passes alternating sides for the best results and straightest edge, I'm someone who doesn't consider a knife sharp unless it will shave clean with 1 pass, I have more than a dozen different whet stones and even diamond hones, I don't even use the pass thru sharpeners
@@Dsmwarrior1996 - I sharpen plane blades, which also have to shave all hair on the first pass. You basically only sharpen the bevel, which is on one side. I've never seen a rolled edge from sharpening on one side.
@@UserNameAnonymous I think you're exaggerating what I mean by a rolled edge, it rolls the burr of the edge to one side, the more passes you make, the bigger the burr and the more the burr on the edge of the knife rolls over to the other side, I know you don't just make passes on the bevel side and leave the flat side alone, because it rolls material on the edge over, remember, we are talking about minor imperfections on a blade, not major imperfections that take a reshaping
I'm sure somebody's already said it but the chefs that are doing that very fast are just using a honing rod not in abrasive rod.. which really does nothing
It's easy to get confused with steels. The one I used was a ceramic honing rod, which definitely removes metal from the edge of knives, even those with modern steels. Same for diamond honing rods. Which is something Alex actually recommends in his video.
Nice! I need to do some proper testing of our own. I really enjoyed Alex's video, but he didn't cover using a steel on just a blunt or no longer sharp knife. Which is fine, it wasn't the focus of the video. I suspect ridged steels will get it cutting again, especially if the knife is low hrc, but some actual science would be fun. We don't have the super magnification he has, but if I ask the boss nicely....
@@SharpeningSupplies it does work on softer hrc it’ll whip a cheap kitchen knife right in to shape and to an extent will straighten your burr out on harder steels if your using the burr as a saw but you have to go back to it every 15 minutes. I did a ton of testing with them because I spent years getting that speed down and stuff and when I went to better steel blades they just basically cut away the steel honing rod. I have a crown burnisher made with tool steel and it seems to do very well if your just woodworking. It’s only good for maintenance though. Sorry that’s so long winded I never get to talk shop 😂
@@autumn5592 You must be unfamiliar with the parts of a knife. An edge is a part of the blade. Google parts of a knife and you'll understand my comment better.
@@CristianoFénix-z4b I would say "reshapes the edge" rather than re-edges, because that sounds like removing material. But there was nothing wrong with your comment, that guy is just one of those internet smart guys who just HAS to correct everything they see, and is usually incorrect in doing so.
I’m not sure why all the hate on this video. It seems that people are confused about the differences between honing steels and abrasive honing rods, the definition of honing, and why you would hone in the first place. I’m glad you don’t advocate the use of honing steels, those only do anything if you do not understand sharpening and still have a burr on your knife when you use it. It is absolutely beneficial to use something like a diamond honing rod regularly when you use your knife, as the refining of the scratch pattern with its very small abrasive particles both keeps the edge apexed and helps with the integrity of the edge, preventing it from chipping as easily. Source: watching too many OUTDOORS55 videos and being a hand tool only woodworker. My chisels and plane irons shave easily and I’ve sharpened to hair whittling before, I just don’t see much of a use for it.
Knife steels actually damage the blade really badly Ceramic and Diamond rods are ACTUALLY useful, but because of the small contact point, it’s difficult to get a clean and straight edge without warping and very stubborn burrs
Exactly. Most people have this idea that they are great but it's complete crap. They are old technology in an area where people didn't have the ability to see what was actually going on up close
@@acid6urns the thing is they don't straightened a rolled edge at all. Instead they actually ruin the edge. They a complete waste of time. The only way they might work is if the steel is hard enough steel and you push hard onto a shitty soft metal knife. But good knives won't benefit from them at all. Better to use an abrasive steel. But that's pointless too when you can get a much better edge by spending the same amount of time to pull out a fine stone
@@mrmeaty5619its depends on the knifes heat treatment, specifically how hard it has been tempered. 58 hrc or softer (iirc most german style knives are around 58 hrc) a steel will work fine assuming you can maintain even light pressure along to whole edge. 58 to 60 hrc the steel may still "work" but will be doing more harm than good if you need to hone more than once between sharpenings. Above 60 hrc a steel will destroy your edge. Tldr, a steel is fine for softer knives but you're right about harder knives
@@brentonjohnson4424 yea exactly my friend. Steels may be helping in some way to straighten the edge sort of if you use it on some standard kitchen knives. But the problem is that the more you use it the more you will have to keep sharpening your blade. If you remove the burr all together your edge will stay good for much longer thus only having to refine your edge every now on then on a stone and strop
Honing rods DO NOT SHARPEN knives; they realign an existing bur. If a knife has been properly sharpened and stropped and HAS NO burr, those rods will do absolutely nothing. It's a placebo effect.
🟦…Regardless of what is be'n shown here, you should Always sharpen your blade with strokes leading AWAY from the Spine,.. Not TOWARD it!. Also; "Butcher-Steels" come in three different grades from 'Coarse' to 'Fine',.. One of the most important aspects of sharpening with them is choosing which to use.
I mean this advice is just wrong. If your goal is to use a honing steel to bend your burr back into line then sure, that’s how you do it. With the abrasive qualities of the diamond and ceramic honing rods, it doesn’t matter which direction you do it. Thats like saying you have to only go backwards on a whetstone, it’s just incorrect.
Steels don't sharpen the knife. They straighten the rebarb on the edge. The edge gets bent to the side, the steel just bends it back to be straight. But you are not sharpening, as that requires removing significant amounts of material... Which you dont want while handling food...
If you are using "sharpening" steel and it works then you are doing bad job at sharpening because these things do not sharpen or realign your edge, they only straighten the burr and if there is burr it means you did bad job at sharpening.
What you’re showing is “honing” the knife. It’s only 1 very small step in actually sharpening a knife, and it’s the very last step (as long as you’re not using a strop) Using a honing steel on a totally dull knife won’t do anything but waste your time. Also any self respecting cook will never throw a knife in any sort of automatic sharpener. Those literally eat knives.
Using a honing steel on a knife that isn’t being used with the burr as the cutting edge will do absolutely nothing. The ceramic and diamond honing rods absolutely help with sharpness and knife upkeep. Since the abrasive particles are very small, it’s hard to remove lots of material with them, but they also refine the scratch pattern which aids in keeping the edge apexed after light wear and prevents the edge from chipping. If you regularly used the abrasive rods he shows, that will absolutely keep your knife sharp for much longer. It’s like stropping after every use of the knife, without the possibility of grit contamination on your leather.
@@jamesmaybury7452 in my experience with card scrapers at least, you have to use a good deal of pressure and the burnishing is on a thicker burr of sorts and not a thick, structured apex. I barely use my card scraper though so I’m not super knowledgeable on burnishing, I just know I’ve always seen it done with a great deal more pressure than is used when chefs using a honing steel.
if it's not a crazy expensive knife, then using an automatic sharpener correctly isn't the worst thing in the world. despite it making a subset of uptight people make very shocked faces, it's perfectly legitimate to have somewhat cheaper knives and just replace them when the blade is worn through. it can save you time and hassle if you're not trying to make it your hobby, and if you don't want to send it off to sharpen it all the time. yeah it's a tad wasteful, but it's significantly less wasteful than eating cow and almonds all the time.
While they are still sold colloquially as “honing rods” the ceramic ones are textured to a fine grit and are actually removing material and sharpening the edge. What you are thinking of is a steel nonabrasive honing rod which theoretically doesn’t remove material and only has the effect of straightening burrs on the edge.
These rods are needed only to those who don't know how to remove a burr while sharpening a knife. Actually that's insane a huge variety of products and skills just to make not properly sharpened knife to cut with burr that should be removed for long lasting apex. Just Why not to get a skill to remove it properly?
@@dunngunkadoideither flat on the counter ..handle hanging off the edge .. or vertically .. your brain does not have to deal with compensating for the angle the rod is at .. and your hand is out of the way .. and rod is firmly planted
My man got everything wrong. Chefs have on site bench stones with oil to sharpen their expensive knives.... They have expensive knives. Nobody better dare touch them. The electrical grinding wheel he showed is used on cheap knives... Never saw one in a restaurant. He showed a "stee", which is actually a sharpening tool. For sharpening. Steel rods don't sharpen. They straighten knive edges. And then he showed a ceramic rod.... As a sharpening tool.... They are foe straightening knive edges. And chefs don't use them because they are made od ceramic... It falls it breaks.
My dad taught me how to maintain a kitchen knife when I was very young I'm able to hone it extremely fast but it's really just to show off there's no actual point to it 😂
You don’t really know enough about the topic to correct this guy, here’s why. A: he’s one of the only people I’ve seen that advocates non-steel honing rods (because they don’t do anything) B: Honing is just a word we give to the action of moving up in grit, or down in particle size. You can hone a 60 grit edge with 120 grit, you’re just refining the scratch pattern and leaving a more even surface. The reason we make a distinction with these extremely fine abrasive particles is simply because at the point where they would be used, the only thing the further refining of the scratch pattern does is keep the edge from chipping and keep the apex straight and as thin as possible. If you made a knife out of something like copper, the honing step might be defined by a different range of grits.
Honing rods are complete BS. They don't do anything except ruin your edge. Abrasive honing rods work ok but not worth it. You rather just have a fine grit stone or diamond plate to pull out quick and refine your edge
@@agent5995 my bad I accidently replied to the wrong video. Forgot that this was to this video. If you look up OUTDOORS55 he explains in 2 videos why steels don't work like you think they do.
That’s mostly because steel rods only do something if you leave the burr on your knife (which you would only do if you’re not educated on sharpening and how knife apexes work)
Intern and commis who knows how to sharpen knives and swords: 🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡 This video here not even sharpening the knife, just straightening the bent dull edges
You are just plain wrong. The honing steel was invented as a way of “straightening a rolled edge.” This was before we understood what was going on at the apex when we sharpened, and we were leaving the thin wire that formed from sharpening on the apex of the blade. It’s called the burr and it’s very fragile, so it would bend over easily, making chefs think their knives were dull. The honing steel was able to bend the burr back in line, making them think they were realigning the apex. In reality, you should be removing the burr in a process called stopping. Once you do that, a steel honing rod does nothing but damage your apex. Diamond and ceramic rods can be used as a step in honing where the scratch pattern is refined by smaller and smaller abrasive particles, which helps to keep your edge from chipping.
@@monke8427 This man doesn't know how to sharpen a knife. Using a steel is really only to "straighten" the burr at the edge of the blade in between sharpenings. You actually want to draw the blade backwards across the steel away from you. And while most people do it wrong, his method is extra. You'd get equivalent results from one of those god awful cringe inducing V-notch sharpening devices.
It's a common misconception that a steel just realigns a burr: scienceofsharp.com/2018/08/22/what-does-steeling-do-part-1/ Ceramic and diamond honing rods are abrasive and will remove material from the edge, sharpening it. Edge leading or edge trailing, there's very little empirical evidence to suggest one is vastly superior to the other.
@@SharpeningSupplies While that headline appears to contradict, the article does not. And I wasn't going to write all that or do a tutorial. Also, there is nothing "common" about that concept. What is common is people doing it like they have seen in movies. aka wrong.
@@SharpeningSupplieseven if your honing diamond rod has the same abrasive properties as a diamond sharpening stone, you are still wasting time and effort on that rod simply because the contact area with the bevel is like 20 time smaller. and keeping a consistent angle on a stone is much easier too. advising anyone to use a rod instead of a stone is just stupid.
"How to Sharpen Knifes Like Chef" *proceeds to grind a blade oppsite from self* 💀💀💀 *vine_agghh_death_noise.wav* "i prefer abbrasive rods" 💀💀💀💀💀 What a bozo
Having worked as a line cook in a couple of commercial kitchens, most cooks don't sharpen their knives, there is generally an electric double wheel sharpener that sits on a shelf in the prep area that no one uses, an old rusty steel hangs from the service window that is used frequently when trying to plate that seared ahi almost as a sharpness placebo as there is little difference between steeling a completely apexless edge and simply wishing it was sharper. I have now become a knifemaker and I can tell you without a doubt that keeping a decent quality whetstone in the kitchen is without a doubt the best way to go
I used to work in a steak house were no one had a sharp knife, and everybody was stealing my knives, one day i asked why was there a brick next to the steam machine, at first i thoght it was to stop a door or something til i pick it up, it was a whetstone, all dirty and covered in grease, i cleaned it and started using it, everybody was like "yo, where did you get that stone", even a guy who had been working there for four years had no idea that they had a whetstone laying around
There's very little if any difference between an ABRASIVE rod and a whetstone. Its just the form factor. If you've got the muscle memory of using a traditional steel ABRASIVE rods are easier.
But if you dont have the muscle memory (or you suspect you have inxorrect muscle memory) go with the flat stone form factor they're much better value and you can use angle supports while you learn
Such long sentence.
Whetstones and rods have quite the learning curve though in getting the right angle and so on.
@@Gabu_Dono no they don't, they make these wonderful things called an angle guide that will keep the blade at a constant angle taking most of the hard work out of it
Freehand sharpening has a high learning curve, but you dont need to use a whetstone freehand
Slow is smooth, smooth, is fast. That is a true statement on so many things in life.
I remember my first time hearing that as well.
That’s one of those quotes that hurt brain🧠
@zoomiezoomerd8513 Its a quote from Lao Tzu. Famous Chinese philosopher. Think of it this way. While American culture often values speed and multitasking, taking the time to slow down and think can ultimately lead to better outcomes.
Speed comes later.
I miss working with whetstones. They were so satisfying to use and maintain
Aren't honing rods for straighting / aligning the edge not sharpening it?
yes but i think hes using the ones that actually sharp
He didnt say that this was to sharpen it, just that its done after sharpening i think
@@dominicballinger6536 at 0:33 he straight up says "hold the angle that you want to sharpen your knife at"
@JordanII. ah. Well he did also say this isn't your average steel rod, but a diamond one or whatever so it's more like sand paper and does something to the scratch pattern which I guess is good since I don't know how lines on a blade make it sharper
Diamond coated steels can be used for sharpening too
Steels don't sharpen the blade, they correct the burr, that gives the appearance of sharpening.
They keep a sharp knife sharp but can’t sharp a blunt knife
You're thinking of non-abrasive steels, which straighten a burr even though the burr shouldn't even be there to begin with. This guy specifically said that he's using an abrasive steel.
Diamant and ceramaic are the best. I like the Worksharp system to. But the most pleasant is the Japonese Stones ..! ^^
Love the slow is smooth smooth is fast ad on. So beyond true that so many people don't listen to.
Personally I prefer diamond sharpening plates. They may not last as long as a good wet stone but they can do the job faster depending on what you're going for.
A good quality diamond plate will outlast you and your knives, if you use it correctly. Diamond plates are to be used dry. My oldest diamond plate is an American made EZLap Diamond Stone, and I've been using it for about 25 years. It still works as well as when I got it. Well worth the approx 100 dollars I spent on it, imo.
They are so much more efficient to use then wet stones
I tuck it in between drawer door and countertop. Works great and is well supported
LOL this is good advice, everyone snickers at the speedy guy.
Everyone on here like they are experts, copy someone that’s done it for a while and learn the feeling.
It’s not rocket science and if you didn’t get it the first time try again.
They’ll give you pointers even if you don’t ask LOL
I always tell my line cooks that saying , especially when they first start out and are slow.
I prefer them to start out smooth...speed will come in time.
Also i prefer sharpening my own knives. We got 3 restaurants , and once a week ill go to each on and sharpen their knives
Good to hear from an actual chef.
Good advice. My grandfather, who did commercial slaughtering and meat cutting, used carbon steel knives and after the initial sharpening, he used a steal. Carbon steel seems to behave differently than stainless. I'm not a professional chef. I have several knives that haven't been sharpened since the 40's. Only the steel. Also the knives are cleaned with cold water and immediately dried. Can anyone tell me why this works
You don't want to hone 10x on side and 10x on the other. You need to alternate to remove that burr. 10x a side just rolls it over and doesn't straighten it.
Very helpful info, I've wanted to use the sharpening rods better.
One point: your video colour is off, it's heavy on the yellow tones. Looks to be lacking reds. I'm thinking something happened during editing, unintentionally.
Freehand sharpening can be just as quick as machines as long as your not doing any edge reprofiling
I’ve always held the knife static in left hand point up. Steel in right hand starting at heel ending with steel tip to knife tip.
Rock blade to give correct angle while steel alternates sides. Steel stays at same angle. Very fast to keep a well shaped edge fully sharp.
I’m an engineer and shape and sharpen blades for others (including batches of blades for veterinary autopsies)
I would suggest diamond for more serious sharpening or just a few strokes, ceramic for fine finishing a sharp blade. Steel for burnishing a sharp edge and leather strop with polishing compound if you really want a very sharp edge. Don’t expect any of them to sharpen a blunt edge.
Most of us butchers hold the steel upright and hone towards us very fast.
I've got an abrasive sharpening rod. I don't cut up anything in the kitchen, just plants and trees
A steel is not for sharpening, it is meant for straightening the edge of the knife that has rolled over.
As a millwright I use a strip of sandpaper laid on the table or a file to sharpen my knifes. If they get real bad a bench grinder or an angle grinder clamped in a vise.
What brand is the knife at the top? The one with the wooden handle. Thanks!
A steel only hones the knife back to a keen edge
Commercial kitchens used to have their knives ground either once a fortnight or once a month, either the grinder brought his van to you and did the knives or exchanged x number of sets and took the blunt ones away for sharpening. Steels were used in the meanwhile to keep the knives going between visits. Really this is only good for cheaper knives, you wouldn't want to give someone else good knives to sharpen. If you are cutting all day you'll have to use a steel to keep going, no matter what knives you are using, ceramic and diamond rods take too much metal off too fast.
The best way is to use a lined rod then a diamond to remove burrs and define the edge. Then us a stone corse and fine finish on a non tapered smooth steel and hone on ceramic. If you have a tapered smooth steel use between non tapeted steel an ceramic.
You Should try compressed wool Block .. for Deburing .. it is amazing what 2 passes through it can do
As a student I spent a summer job working in an abattoir. All knives were honed on a steel, after every few cuts, with the steel point upwards - none of this modern nonsense of a downward pointing steel.
Is it nonsense? Just looks like a different way to do it more stably. No reason it should be any worse or weirder than pulling your rod out and flashing it upwards to everybody.
As a person live in SEA I have yet to met a restaurant chef that can`t sharpen his own knife using a whet stone.
Three strokes on one side, one down the other. Not ten. You are correcting the edge, not sharpening it with a steel.
The steel only works in bending back a burr which should already have been removed from your knife. With the abrasive rods he showed, you are absolutely refining the scratch pattern with very small abrasive particles.
@cracktact7676 You know, liking your own comment just shows you lack faith in your post...
@@Facetiously.Esoteric I lack faith that you can sharpen a knife enough to cut butter
7 was my sweet spot number but i did it the otherway daily
Technically, he wasn't using a steel.
He had a Diamond plated sharpening rod.
I have an antique steel, and it's used to rearrange the burr.
Did not realize Tormeks couls be used for sharpening kitchen knives. We use a Tormek fir charpening our chissels
The Tormek T-2 is made for commercial kitchens, the T-1 is their home version for kitchen knives. Neither of those can sharpen chisels. I'm guessing you've got something like the T-8 or T-4, both of which are super versatile and will be able to sharpen your kitchen knives too.
@@SharpeningSupplies yeah the T-8 is what we use at our school for sharpening chissels for woodcarving.
1x30 linisher works great 👍
Shouldn’t one push in the opposite direction of the edge?
You certainly can. As you suggest, edge trailing strokes are great and can create a finer edge, but they also typically produce a larger burr. Edge leading sharpens a little more aggressively, but with a slightly less refined edge.
People should remember that it's actually more dangerous to move the knife away from yourself, rather than toward yourself, while using the honing steel.
The rods do not sharpen the knife, at least not like a stone.
They're called "honing rods," and they mainly just straiten up the edge.
Get a set of stones, and you won't look back.
"Abrasive" rods for starters do not have any abrasiveness to them at all and they do NOT sharpens knives, they are used to remove burs and incorrectly used to straighten rolled apexes.
I used to be a pro chef. I used to bring cheapest ok knife if restaurant don't have any, it was about 10 dolars. You don't have time to worry about your knives in kitchen, not at all. I used to use fine sharpening rod every couple of hours or when I needed it. Every month or so when it gets too dull for the rod I used to use cheapo knife sharpener on it to reshape the edge and use the rod again. Knife is a tool, only home cooks treat them like it's their kids.
Honing steel or butcher steels are not for sharpening. It's basically for straighten/removing the burr.. But if you've already have a burr after sharpening, you're doing something wrong 😊And it's a misconception that it straighten rolled over edges wich is also a lie.. I recommend watching Outdoor55's videos about this subject. Very informative 😊
ruclips.net/video/65JzsDU_0mI/видео.htmlsi=3rEaf8oMqDN4ituX
@@PW-72648 just on shorts
I would say that this guys opinion on ceramic or diamond honing rods is valid, and he doesn’t actually advocate for the use of honing steels like a lot of other people. It’s pretty clear he doesn’t fully understand stuff but it seems that somewhere along the line he got some good information about sharpening and doesn’t use honing steels.
Your edge will be rolled in one direction doing it like this, you're supposed to make a single pass on each side, unless you are trying to make a new edge, but you still end with a single passes alternating sides of the blade with each pass
Why would it be rolled in one direction? If the apex is properly formed, it won't be rolled at all. Many people sharpen one side at a time on bench stones with no problems. Same concept.
@@UserNameAnonymous every pass you make on a stone rolls the edge one way or the other a little bit, if you make multiple passes on one side it will roll the edge more to that side diminishing the sharpness of the edge, it works in the beginning to shape the edge, but finish with single passes alternating sides for the best results and straightest edge, I'm someone who doesn't consider a knife sharp unless it will shave clean with 1 pass, I have more than a dozen different whet stones and even diamond hones, I don't even use the pass thru sharpeners
@@Dsmwarrior1996 - I sharpen plane blades, which also have to shave all hair on the first pass. You basically only sharpen the bevel, which is on one side. I've never seen a rolled edge from sharpening on one side.
@@UserNameAnonymous I think you're exaggerating what I mean by a rolled edge, it rolls the burr of the edge to one side, the more passes you make, the bigger the burr and the more the burr on the edge of the knife rolls over to the other side, I know you don't just make passes on the bevel side and leave the flat side alone, because it rolls material on the edge over, remember, we are talking about minor imperfections on a blade, not major imperfections that take a reshaping
@Dsmwarrior1996 - ah, well that's a different story. Rolling the edge and rolling the burr back and forth are different. In that case, sure.
The name of the Rod LOLOLOL
Yup
i have something to confess... i never wash my sharpen rods before. is it bad?
Not if you haven't had any issues. The easy to clean rods are generally marketed towards commercial kitchens that need to follow certain regulations.
As soon as the new knives came in from the sharpeners I’d always hide the one I liked best.
I signed for them so I always had first dibs.
I find 25 strokes on a steel helps any blade.
I'm sure somebody's already said it but the chefs that are doing that very fast are just using a honing rod not in abrasive rod.. which really does nothing
The steel does less than nothing on modern steel. @Outdoors55 has a good video on that.
It's easy to get confused with steels. The one I used was a ceramic honing rod, which definitely removes metal from the edge of knives, even those with modern steels. Same for diamond honing rods. Which is something Alex actually recommends in his video.
@@SharpeningSupplies yea ceramics are great.. I’m talking about those stainless steel sticks you see the chefs slap their knives on.
@@SharpeningSupplies I usually use Diamond but, I have an old ceramic rod from the 60s I always keep in the truck. It works great still.
Nice! I need to do some proper testing of our own. I really enjoyed Alex's video, but he didn't cover using a steel on just a blunt or no longer sharp knife. Which is fine, it wasn't the focus of the video. I suspect ridged steels will get it cutting again, especially if the knife is low hrc, but some actual science would be fun. We don't have the super magnification he has, but if I ask the boss nicely....
@@SharpeningSupplies it does work on softer hrc it’ll whip a cheap kitchen knife right in to shape and to an extent will straighten your burr out on harder steels if your using the burr as a saw but you have to go back to it every 15 minutes. I did a ton of testing with them because I spent years getting that speed down and stuff and when I went to better steel blades they just basically cut away the steel honing rod. I have a crown burnisher made with tool steel and it seems to do very well if your just woodworking. It’s only good for maintenance though. Sorry that’s so long winded I never get to talk shop 😂
Honing a knife is not sharpening it. Honing re-edges a blade that’s been sharpened. Sharpening removes the current blade and makes a new blade.
There are abrasive honing rods that remove material like the ones covered in diamond dust.
Do you even know what you're saying? Your terminology is all over the place...
@@autumn5592 You must be unfamiliar with the parts of a knife. An edge is a part of the blade. Google parts of a knife and you'll understand my comment better.
@@CristianoFénix-z4b I am a knife maker, I'm quite familiar with the anatomy of a knife.
@@CristianoFénix-z4b I would say "reshapes the edge" rather than re-edges, because that sounds like removing material. But there was nothing wrong with your comment, that guy is just one of those internet smart guys who just HAS to correct everything they see, and is usually incorrect in doing so.
no Brasil chamamos esses rod "Chaira"
You nailed it sport
I’m not sure why all the hate on this video. It seems that people are confused about the differences between honing steels and abrasive honing rods, the definition of honing, and why you would hone in the first place.
I’m glad you don’t advocate the use of honing steels, those only do anything if you do not understand sharpening and still have a burr on your knife when you use it.
It is absolutely beneficial to use something like a diamond honing rod regularly when you use your knife, as the refining of the scratch pattern with its very small abrasive particles both keeps the edge apexed and helps with the integrity of the edge, preventing it from chipping as easily.
Source: watching too many OUTDOORS55 videos and being a hand tool only woodworker. My chisels and plane irons shave easily and I’ve sharpened to hair whittling before, I just don’t see much of a use for it.
Never seen chef or butcher bothering with waterstones.
We only do it with our home knives we care about, work knives arent worth the effort
Knife steels actually damage the blade really badly
Ceramic and Diamond rods are ACTUALLY useful, but because of the small contact point, it’s difficult to get a clean and straight edge without warping and very stubborn burrs
Exactly. Most people have this idea that they are great but it's complete crap. They are old technology in an area where people didn't have the ability to see what was actually going on up close
@@mrmeaty5619steels CAN be useful but the only thing they do is straighten a rolled edge. if it isn’t rolled they won’t do shit
@@acid6urns the thing is they don't straightened a rolled edge at all. Instead they actually ruin the edge. They a complete waste of time. The only way they might work is if the steel is hard enough steel and you push hard onto a shitty soft metal knife. But good knives won't benefit from them at all. Better to use an abrasive steel. But that's pointless too when you can get a much better edge by spending the same amount of time to pull out a fine stone
@@mrmeaty5619its depends on the knifes heat treatment, specifically how hard it has been tempered. 58 hrc or softer (iirc most german style knives are around 58 hrc) a steel will work fine assuming you can maintain even light pressure along to whole edge. 58 to 60 hrc the steel may still "work" but will be doing more harm than good if you need to hone more than once between sharpenings. Above 60 hrc a steel will destroy your edge.
Tldr, a steel is fine for softer knives but you're right about harder knives
@@brentonjohnson4424 yea exactly my friend. Steels may be helping in some way to straighten the edge sort of if you use it on some standard kitchen knives. But the problem is that the more you use it the more you will have to keep sharpening your blade. If you remove the burr all together your edge will stay good for much longer thus only having to refine your edge every now on then on a stone and strop
Honing rods DO NOT SHARPEN knives; they realign an existing bur. If a knife has been properly sharpened and stropped and HAS NO burr, those rods will do absolutely nothing. It's a placebo effect.
🟦…Regardless of what is be'n shown here, you should Always sharpen your blade with strokes leading AWAY from the Spine,.. Not TOWARD it!.
Also; "Butcher-Steels" come in three different grades from 'Coarse' to 'Fine',.. One of the most important aspects of sharpening with them is choosing which to use.
I mean this advice is just wrong. If your goal is to use a honing steel to bend your burr back into line then sure, that’s how you do it. With the abrasive qualities of the diamond and ceramic honing rods, it doesn’t matter which direction you do it. Thats like saying you have to only go backwards on a whetstone, it’s just incorrect.
You Might Think To Actually Examine The Edge BEFORE Slapping it On The Stone.😮
Steels don't sharpen the knife. They straighten the rebarb on the edge.
The edge gets bent to the side, the steel just bends it back to be straight.
But you are not sharpening, as that requires removing significant amounts of material... Which you dont want while handling food...
If you are using "sharpening" steel and it works then you are doing bad job at sharpening because these things do not sharpen or realign your edge, they only straighten the burr and if there is burr it means you did bad job at sharpening.
What you’re showing is “honing” the knife. It’s only 1 very small step in actually sharpening a knife, and it’s the very last step (as long as you’re not using a strop)
Using a honing steel on a totally dull knife won’t do anything but waste your time.
Also any self respecting cook will never throw a knife in any sort of automatic sharpener. Those literally eat knives.
Using a honing steel on a knife that isn’t being used with the burr as the cutting edge will do absolutely nothing. The ceramic and diamond honing rods absolutely help with sharpness and knife upkeep. Since the abrasive particles are very small, it’s hard to remove lots of material with them, but they also refine the scratch pattern which aids in keeping the edge apexed after light wear and prevents the edge from chipping. If you regularly used the abrasive rods he shows, that will absolutely keep your knife sharp for much longer. It’s like stropping after every use of the knife, without the possibility of grit contamination on your leather.
@@cracktact7676steels burnish an edge but do not remove material, good on a fairly sharp edge. I’d rather strop with polishing compound though.
@@jamesmaybury7452 in my experience with card scrapers at least, you have to use a good deal of pressure and the burnishing is on a thicker burr of sorts and not a thick, structured apex.
I barely use my card scraper though so I’m not super knowledgeable on burnishing, I just know I’ve always seen it done with a great deal more pressure than is used when chefs using a honing steel.
if it's not a crazy expensive knife, then using an automatic sharpener correctly isn't the worst thing in the world. despite it making a subset of uptight people make very shocked faces, it's perfectly legitimate to have somewhat cheaper knives and just replace them when the blade is worn through. it can save you time and hassle if you're not trying to make it your hobby, and if you don't want to send it off to sharpen it all the time. yeah it's a tad wasteful, but it's significantly less wasteful than eating cow and almonds all the time.
While they are still sold colloquially as “honing rods” the ceramic ones are textured to a fine grit and are actually removing material and sharpening the edge. What you are thinking of is a steel nonabrasive honing rod which theoretically doesn’t remove material and only has the effect of straightening burrs on the edge.
These rods are needed only to those who don't know how to remove a burr while sharpening a knife.
Actually that's insane a huge variety of products and skills just to make not properly sharpened knife to cut with burr that should be removed for long lasting apex. Just Why not to get a skill to remove it properly?
You don't sharpen with a steel stick. You are HONING the edge. Setting it straight again. SHARPENING is done on stones of some kind or a bely grinder
And don't forget to clean the knife before you cut anything otherwise you're eating metal shavings 😂
Your technique the rod is laughable
How should they be doing it?
@@dunngunkadoideither flat on the counter ..handle hanging off the edge .. or vertically .. your brain does not have to deal with compensating for the angle the rod is at .. and your hand is out of the way .. and rod is firmly planted
Using a rod *at all* to sharpen a knife is laughable.
@@Hypurman1 theywork to touch up a blade during a shift .. my Masakage Kumo Gyuto will dry shave face ..
@Hypurman1 diamond rods and steel rods are 2 very different things.
❗️❗️❗️
That's a honing rod NOT a sharpening rod... use it to sharpen and it will take hundreds of passes to sharpen a dull blade.
My man got everything wrong.
Chefs have on site bench stones with oil to sharpen their expensive knives.... They have expensive knives. Nobody better dare touch them.
The electrical grinding wheel he showed is used on cheap knives... Never saw one in a restaurant.
He showed a "stee", which is actually a sharpening tool. For sharpening.
Steel rods don't sharpen. They straighten knive edges.
And then he showed a ceramic rod.... As a sharpening tool.... They are foe straightening knive edges. And chefs don't use them because they are made od ceramic... It falls it breaks.
My dad taught me how to maintain a kitchen knife when I was very young I'm able to hone it extremely fast but it's really just to show off there's no actual point to it 😂
That's not sharpening. That's honing - a wholly different thing.
You don’t really know enough about the topic to correct this guy, here’s why.
A: he’s one of the only people I’ve seen that advocates non-steel honing rods (because they don’t do anything)
B: Honing is just a word we give to the action of moving up in grit, or down in particle size. You can hone a 60 grit edge with 120 grit, you’re just refining the scratch pattern and leaving a more even surface.
The reason we make a distinction with these extremely fine abrasive particles is simply because at the point where they would be used, the only thing the further refining of the scratch pattern does is keep the edge from chipping and keep the apex straight and as thin as possible. If you made a knife out of something like copper, the honing step might be defined by a different range of grits.
Apparently a guy made a vid on the steals, and they dont do anything
Just saying, you should look into that maybe
Guy doesn't even know what a "steel" actually does 😅
Professional chefs don't have beards.
a honing rod does not sharpen. it just straightens out the metal teeth or burs that get bent over.🍻
You are not sharpening on a honing steel, only honing!
This is honing,
Just pay us sharpeners
instructions unclear, i rested my tip on the table and moved the knife into my junk
Don't wave your knife like that near youe hands again
ur very underrated
A lot?pretty much all real chefs sens them in
Honing rods are complete BS. They don't do anything except ruin your edge. Abrasive honing rods work ok but not worth it. You rather just have a fine grit stone or diamond plate to pull out quick and refine your edge
Skill issue
Are you sure you're using one correctly? Honing rods are a quick fix.
@@mrmeaty5619Where are you bringing up a video? This is a YT short that only presents sharpening methods and honing.
No need to be so aggressive.
@@agent5995 my bad I accidently replied to the wrong video. Forgot that this was to this video. If you look up OUTDOORS55 he explains in 2 videos why steels don't work like you think they do.
Wow, somebody that actually knows how to do it right! Most chefs have no damn clue on how a steel rod works
That’s mostly because steel rods only do something if you leave the burr on your knife (which you would only do if you’re not educated on sharpening and how knife apexes work)
Sharpening away from yourself is more dangerous, toward yourself holding it vertical is the better way.
That's exactly what you want.@@cracktact7676
Blade forward for cutting the edge, blade trailing to sharpen/polish. You obviously haven't learned proper sharpening techniques.
Intern and commis who knows how to sharpen knives and swords: 🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡
This video here not even sharpening the knife, just straightening the bent dull edges
You are just plain wrong. The honing steel was invented as a way of “straightening a rolled edge.” This was before we understood what was going on at the apex when we sharpened, and we were leaving the thin wire that formed from sharpening on the apex of the blade. It’s called the burr and it’s very fragile, so it would bend over easily, making chefs think their knives were dull. The honing steel was able to bend the burr back in line, making them think they were realigning the apex.
In reality, you should be removing the burr in a process called stopping. Once you do that, a steel honing rod does nothing but damage your apex. Diamond and ceramic rods can be used as a step in honing where the scratch pattern is refined by smaller and smaller abrasive particles, which helps to keep your edge from chipping.
how to ruin the edge of a knife in 2 minutes or less... (not this guys fault just honing rods are bad for the knifes)
Steel honing rods are for sure. The other ones are more akin to stropping
Ew who uses a steel like that.
to mention and show the steel in a video titled "sharpen lika a pro" is not very trustworthy, this method has been debunked, it does not *sharpen*
This advice isn’t it.
My dad used two knives. He sharpened them with each other. 🔪
the "steel" doesn't sharpen. it just straightens the already sharp edge, that's slightly bent from use.
Something is going on with that haircut mate. There's this gap on your front right side.
That's my receding hairline. Everyday it takes a little longer to wash my face.
@@SharpeningSupplies aww. Well you're gonna look great either way my dude. Thanks so much for the videos too :)
I sharpen my knives with ma wiener✨🥲
Do yourself a favor and ignore the comment from MrGorillafingers😂
Dude, you should not be giving advice on this topic, you clearly don't know what you are doing
Please do yourself a favor & ignore what this man is telling you. Your knives will thank you.
Why, it would be cool if you could explain, not trying to be hostile BTW just asking.
@@monke8427 This man doesn't know how to sharpen a knife. Using a steel is really only to "straighten" the burr at the edge of the blade in between sharpenings. You actually want to draw the blade backwards across the steel away from you. And while most people do it wrong, his method is extra. You'd get equivalent results from one of those god awful cringe inducing V-notch sharpening devices.
It's a common misconception that a steel just realigns a burr: scienceofsharp.com/2018/08/22/what-does-steeling-do-part-1/
Ceramic and diamond honing rods are abrasive and will remove material from the edge, sharpening it. Edge leading or edge trailing, there's very little empirical evidence to suggest one is vastly superior to the other.
@@SharpeningSupplies While that headline appears to contradict, the article does not. And I wasn't going to write all that or do a tutorial.
Also, there is nothing "common" about that concept. What is common is people doing it like they have seen in movies. aka wrong.
@@SharpeningSupplieseven if your honing diamond rod has the same abrasive properties as a diamond sharpening stone, you are still wasting time and effort on that rod simply because the contact area with the bevel is like 20 time smaller. and keeping a consistent angle on a stone is much easier too. advising anyone to use a rod instead of a stone is just stupid.
Amateur
'Steels' or sharpen rods don't sharpen. They remove burs.
"How to Sharpen Knifes Like Chef"
*proceeds to grind a blade oppsite from self*
💀💀💀
*vine_agghh_death_noise.wav*
"i prefer abbrasive rods"
💀💀💀💀💀
What a bozo