Why does Wusthof call Honing Steel 'Sharpening steel'?
I know that honing differs from sharpening. See this also. My grandparents must buy a Honing Steel for their WÜSTHOF 4596-7/20 Classic Ikon 8-Inch Cook's Knife.
On Wusthof Canada's website, they selected 'Honing steels (18)' on the left as you can see below. But why are all the results listed as 'Sharpening steels'. Is this correct?
If wrong, why'd Wusthof muff this distinction? Don't they know better?
Best Answer
I know Wusthof know better, but I suspect that they suspect that consumers don't know better. Honing does make a blade "sharper", after all... if someone just knows that their knife is dull, they won't necessarily know that the thing they need is called a "honing steel", just that they want to make their knife sharper. Looking at Amazon search results, the same decision has been made pretty widely.
If you want to make very precise distinctions, "sharpening" is not a good word, because both honing and grinding make a blade sharper. ("Grinding" is not often used to describe what you do to a chef's knife with a finely-grained stone, but that's the most precise description.)
Oh, and just to make things even more confusing: The term "honing" is actually a little inaccurate too. "Honing" in the context of machining actually refers to a form of grinding. A honing/sharpening/whatever steel mostly works by burnishing and bending the edge back into shape.
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Why is it called a honing steel?
In normal use, the rod is applied to the blade at a slightly higher angle than that of the bevel, resulting in the formation of a micro-bevel. 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 borrowed.What is the difference between a honing steel and a sharpening steel?
So what's the difference between honing and sharpening? Sharpening removes material from the blade to produce a new, sharp edge, while honing keeps the blade sharp by pushing the edge of the knife back to the center.What is the difference between honing and sharpening?
Honing is a knife maintenance method that realigns the sharp edge of a knife. Sharpening is the process of removing material on a knife to create a brand new edge.Is honing the same as stropping?
The main difference between honing and stropping is that honing is the process of smoothing out the blade surface after it has been polished and sharpened while stropping is the process of removing residual microscopic nicks and irregularities.Honing vs Sharpening
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