Chef's Choice 10-Inch Oval Diamond Sharpening Steel

Chef's Choice 10-Inch Oval Diamond Sharpening Steel Review

Chef's Choice 10-Inch Oval Diamond Sharpening Steel Feature

• Partially sharpens knives
• Oval rod embedded with diamond dust
• Black plastic handle, textured for sure grip
• Wipe with damp or dry cloth, if necessary
• Can be used right or left handed

Knife steels often are touted as sharpening tools. Few actually sharpen but do perform the vital task of realigning, or "resetting," a knife's edge, which bends this way and that when contacting a cutting surface or other hard object. Because this tool's surface contains diamond dust, it's hard enough to somewhat sharpen a blade. Somewhat is key. This won't replace a professional sharpening job, which proceeds from coarse grinding to ever-finer grinding at tightly controlled angles. This steel performs only the final grinding, during which an edge is polished. Thus, properly used it can lengthen intervals between sharpenings better than a steel without diamond dust. The rule of thumb being that a steel should be at least as long as the knife blade being drawn across it, this steel's length is fine for most household knives. Its oval shape exposes more surface to a knife's blade. --Fred Brack The oval shape of this steel allows for greater contact area between the diamond sharpening area and the blade. Comfortable to hold, whether you're a rightie or a leftie, the secure grip is non-slip.