Review on Shun Classic Combination Honing Steel: Enhance Blade Sharpness & Durability, Effortless Daily & Weekly Care with Micro-Ribbed Surface, Premium PakkaWood Handle & Angle Guide by Angelica Boiter

First, let me briefly outline some of the points raised by critical reviewers of this sharpening steel, which is perfect for Shun knives. The handle guard acts as an angle guide to align the knife at a 16 degree angle to the sharpening steel when standing upright on the cutting board with the knife pointing down towards the board. All sides, both curved and flat, offer a 16 degree angle for blade alignment. The flat side is to prevent the honing steel from rolling when placed on a flat surface. The shape of the handle is the letter D or a modified triangle. This shape provides a better grip on the handle as the triangle does not rotate easily in the hand. Steel has four equal quadrants. Two of these are smooth for daily sharpening and two are ribbed for more intense weekly sharpening. The different textures are offset 180 degrees from each other so they face each other making it easy to align them when running the left and right sides of the knife blade across the steel. I hope this clears up some of the confusion created by the critical reviews and explains why this sharpening steel works very well for Shun knives.