Surtak — Knife Sharpening Angles and Grits | surtak.com
What each stage does to the metal, and why the word honing covers two of them.
The three stages are grinding or whetting on a whetstone, steeling with a honing steel, and stropping on a razor strop or buffing wheel. They differ by what each does to the metal, not by the label attached to them.
Grinding removes metal to form a new edge. This is the only stage where the geometry of the bevel is actually changed: rough sharpening on water stones, oil stones, or medium grits of sandpaper establishes the angle, and fine sharpening in finer grits refines it.
Steeling with a honing steel straightens the edge. It does not remove meaningful metal; it realigns an apex that grinding or use left slightly rolled. This is the stage most often confused with sharpening because the word honing is ambiguous — it may refer either to fine sharpening or to straightening the edge.
On narrow screens, swipe or scroll the plate sideways.
Stropping on a razor strop or buffing wheel polishes the apex. Metal removal is negligible; the effect is a cleaner, more even tip of the bevel. Stropping is what finishes an edge after steeling.
The practical consequence: if an instruction says "hone the edge," check whether it means a stone or a steel. The stage table on the main page separates the three by action — remove, straighten, polish — so the ambiguity does not propagate.
Testing stays the same at every stage: nicks in an edge can be felt as obstacles when the blade is tested carefully on a soft surface.
Further reading