Review on Efficient 12-Inch Magnetized Honing Steel For Kitchen Knives - Super Hardness Sharpening Rod With High Durability And Gift Box - Round Honing Rod For Improved Knife Sharpness - KOPALA Brand by Jim Polacek

This is one of those essential tools that if you use knives at all in a kitchen, you want to get a good and use it daily on your knives. Sharpening a knife using a stone is great, but it does not set the edge properly. Only a honing tool can do that and a steel is one of the fastest ones I know of to use.Almost all knives arrive with the edge not straight, but Ben over a bit to one side or another. Using a steel will straighten that out and provide you with a razor sharp edge.This steel has an excellent length, hardness, and fineness to get and keep your knives sharp. What it lacks is what I would consider to be an adequate guard for your hand. What it has is minimalistic and limited. However, with the added length, you can easily make up for that.The other thing that I find limited in this steel is the magnetism. Magnetism is what captures all of the metal filings as you use the steel. You want a strong magnetic force here so that metal does not wind up in your food, etc. This one is magnetic, but it is limited.The limited magnetism and the limited hand guard are the reasons for dropping one star from the rating. I took a half star for each.This is still a nice steel, but it will be a backup one for me and not my primary one.