On 2 Mar 2004 17:32:21 -0800, (Harry Conover) wrote:

The old style steels were meant to straighten a turned edge and were
not for metal removal.

Zoltan Malocsay had an excellent article on using lapidary equipment
for sharpening knives in Rock&Gem a few years back. Can't find it now,
but I seem to remember him likening using a steel to putting a "set"
into saw teeth. Said the steel pulled the tiny teeth created by
regular sharpening into alignment, which is why butchers were
constantly using their steels on thei working blades. Goos stuff;
maybe someone has a copy. Zoltan was generally as sharp as the knives
he wrote about in the magazine.