There’s your mistake. A steel is not for sharpening. It is for honing - i.e. straightening out a slightly rolled edge. You should do this periodically while or just after each use.
If your knife is dull, a steel is useless. You need to sharpen it on a stone first.
Yes. The movement and blade placement is beyond me. I grew up in a tackle store and would watch my mom and dad sharpen filet knives super fast and i cannot replicate it
The average kitchen knife is sharpened at a 15-20 degree angle. So, hold your knife perpendicular to the steel. You’re at 90 degrees. Go halfway down, you’re at 45. Go halfway down again, you’re roughly at 22.5 degrees.
This is close enough in my opinion, but you can always angle down a tad more for those last few degrees if you want. You want to be a little bigger than the actual angle it is sharpened at though, since you’re focusing on the edge, not the whole bevel.
Sharpening a knife with one of those long sharpening things
That’s because they are not for sharpening, they are for honing the blade.
There’s your mistake. A steel is not for sharpening. It is for honing - i.e. straightening out a slightly rolled edge. You should do this periodically while or just after each use.
If your knife is dull, a steel is useless. You need to sharpen it on a stone first.
Or just buy new knives
A sharpening steel? https://cdn.cutleryandmore.com/products/large/36.jpg
Yes. The movement and blade placement is beyond me. I grew up in a tackle store and would watch my mom and dad sharpen filet knives super fast and i cannot replicate it
The average kitchen knife is sharpened at a 15-20 degree angle. So, hold your knife perpendicular to the steel. You’re at 90 degrees. Go halfway down, you’re at 45. Go halfway down again, you’re roughly at 22.5 degrees.
This is close enough in my opinion, but you can always angle down a tad more for those last few degrees if you want. You want to be a little bigger than the actual angle it is sharpened at though, since you’re focusing on the edge, not the whole bevel.