STEELING

[KnifeGrinders]

Ceramic rod vs traditional grooved (ribbed) steels

I have re-visited Todd's SEM study on steeling https://scienceofsharp.wordpress.com/201...do-part-1/

The following 2 SEM images taken by Todd are of the same carbon blade steeled with a grooved (ribbed) steel as compared to "steeled" with ceramic rod


Grooved steeling


Ceramic rod steeling

Though they look quite similar, showing an improved apex and micro-bevel, the traditional steel does it cleaner, while the ceramic rod creates scuffing on both sides of the edge - and where the presentation cut is important, traditional steel is preferred.

But this discussion should not diminish benefits of gentle smooth steeling - smooth steeling has shown especially good sharpness recovery on knives of HRC 58+ (of common meat professional knives it is SWIBO).
E.g meat plant operators smooth-steel after every 10 cuts about 10 times before they use a grooved steel.
There is the best ratio of smooth-to-grooved steeling for a given hardness, e.g. for HRC 55-56 knives (like Victorinox) it is 10:1, while for HRC 58 (like SWIBO) it may be 20:1.