My best friend and I agree on a lot of things. We both like to barbecue and
grille, we both like Canadian whisky, we both like to look at pretty women,
and we both like sharp knives - which is where the disagreement comes in.

I sharpen my knives on Arkansas stones, a soft stone to get the initial edge
back, and a hard stone to finish it off.

He "sharpens" his knives on a steel, like the butchers use.

I maintain that a steel does not sharpen a dull knife, in the sense that it
does not remove any of the knife blade metal. The purpose of a steel is to
correct a wire edge on a knife. A wire edge is a knife edge that has rolled
over from hitting a bone or something hard. In the sense that it corrects
the wire edge, it does make the knife sharper, but once a knife is dull, a
steel will not sharpen it.

We have a steak dinner for four riding on this, so come on people - I need
some support here. Thanks

Bob-tx