dave said:After sharpening, I always hone the knife with a steel! Never forget that step.
I got out my smoothest "steel" and used it on a few dozen "sharp" stainless steel knives, sometimes touching them up on a 550 grit bench stone first.
That did improve a FEW of the edges, maybe 20-30% of them. Only the hardest knives with the best edges actually benefited.
When the knife just wouldn't take a very good edge from the bench stone, usually because the metal seemed soft, steeling the knife made the edge worse. My guess is that the edge was so poor that only the 550 grit "micro-serrations" was giving it much bite. Steeling made the edge "more slippery", which made me think that the steeling had somehow smoothed out the "micro-teeth".
Now that I think more about it, how would that work? I don't know, only that it made bad edges worse, and good edges better.
Most carbon steel knives will take a better edge than most of my stainless ones! And any good chef has good knives, even if they are carefully heat-treated stainless.
So the rule that one should "always" steel an edge after sharpening or using it heavily is a good rule - assuming your knives are good ones.
My equivalent action with soft stainless edges is to keep a 550 grit stone handy, and give each side 2-3 very light sharpening passes if I want that knife to be at it's best sharpness for some job.
