www.razoredgesystems.com/Clarification: A "Steel" is a round steel rod, perfectly smooth. NOT a ceramic rod, NOT a "diamond coated rod", NOT anything with ridges/bumps/grit. Simply a smooth steel rod! A Good investment, as this is what you will use for sharpening most ALL of the time!Most knives only need to be run across a steel to be "razor sharp" again, if they were sharpened properly the first time.
Like cleaning gun bores, what ruins knives is sharpening. 95% of people use a stone where a steel would suffice.
90% of "Dull Knives" only have the wire edge, imagine the last few molucules folded back over, making a rounded edge.
You can find the "wire edge" by lightly running your finger from the spine down across the blade edge on both sides. You will definately feel the wire edge on a "dull knife"
to make it sharp again, run across a good steel 3-4 times on each side, under the knife's own weight. The pressure and small contact area make enough friction to sharpen it perfectly.
When people get out the stones to fix a wire edge, they are wasting time, eating up metal, and potential messing up a well cut/sharpened blade.
Get the "pocket steel" from razor edge systems, and DEFINATELY the book, if you want everything you own to make razor blades seem "ok sharp"
Knife sharpness test:
Hold out your index finger at a 45° downward angle. Set your knife on your fingernail, with only the weight of the knife on the nail. It should not move at all. If it sticks, it is a sharp knife.
If you can rotate the blade so it is at a 20 degree angle to your fingernail and it still sticks (in a new spot, not where the slight nick was made in the first test), it is "scary sharp"
Just a tip! As soon as mine doesn't sit on a fingernail at an extreme angle (< 20 degrees, sharpening angle + 2 degrees), I run it across a steel and it is as good as new! I use knives daily cutting everything you shouldn't. Benchmade ATS-34 blade on one, which I have last run it across a stone over a year ago, and only the steel since (when needed). Still razor sharp!
Biggest thing about knife sharpening is to "listen to the blade". Grind one side until you feel the wire edge continually on the other side, then flip the other side until you feel the wire edge on the continual edge there. The important thing here is that you continue to make FULL strokes with the stone, and not concentrating on the area(s) that don't have the wire edge on the opposite side yet. Once this is done, the rest of the time you sharpen it will always "smooth up" quickly. Between each wired edge on both sides, switch to a finer grit, repeat, until you are touching it up with 1000+ grit.
Once sharpened properly, unless you are cutting nails/cement/other things that take a 'gouge' out of the edge, ONLY use a steel to make it sharp again.When it is sharp, drag it across denim or kahki jeans in a pinch instead of the steel to straigten out the wire edge until you get to a steel (where it is "burnt" off from the friction on the steel). Another thing to use in a pinch is the spine of another good blade for the steel (the corner of it). Very Very Little pressure, and make sure the spine has no scratches/nicks to ruin your edge. This is something that takes practice and an eye/touch to "find".
Again: DO NOT USE STONES UNLESS YOUR EDGE IS DAMAGED FROM THE VIEW OF THE NAKED EYE (this is assuming you have a constant angle cut).
The above covers the meat of what is in the book, but the book has diagrams and explains things much better, I highly recommend it. I can use any of my hatchets/axes to carve and whittle kindling with. I also use only a steel on axes/hatchets after wood chopping, unless a rock or nail was hit that dinged the edge.