Martin H. Eastburn wrote:
Pep674 wrote:
.....
AAguy at a county faair was selling a knife sharpener. Did damazing things
with a mortar hoe, rusty knives, etc. Suddenly a light flashed... Now at
garage sales if I find a rusty butcher knife, it'll soon be mine. That sort of
iron seems to take a good (not long lasting) edge (slices paper-a test). It
will also raise heck with a tomato.
Paul in AJ AZ
From my experience, - my father-in-law's dad was a butcher - the steel is
1. long for a long slicing blade
2. isn't stainless steel.
3. is cut not stamped or rolled.

If you ever had a wood scraper - and know how to square the end and then burnish
it these thin slicing edges cut the wood nicely.

On a steel, the pattern is long sharp but hard and firm - not cutting sharp.

It shears metal off the knife blade with long arcing strokes.

My late father-in-law sharpened in two ways - blade away from him and slicing
away - Typically when he had to really take some metal off - due to a nick.
But the way he did most sharpening was sharp blade coming down on either sides
toward the hand that holds the handle. Nice to have a hand guard just in case
the metal breaks or jumps off the steel.

with no guard, i have settled on edge-away, stroke-away. my steel is too
short for me to stroke toward the handle with the edge away which would be
fairly safe, otherwise. i was doing edge and stroke to handle until my
brother said either direction works fine. guess what? he's right. i still
occaisionally reverse, just to prove it to myself, again.

it is counter intuitive, tho, to this amateur since you are supposedly
only "straightening the bead" with a steel. seems like heel-away, stroke-
away would be ideal for that. --Loren

I think Steels were shaper cut - a machine like that - pulling the full length
cutting the slot. Likely a die pull. A movable gripping type to contour to the tip.

Martin