Wetzstahl Sharpening Steel review

As I pointed in out in my 5 things, I used to be a trawlerman. A part of that job was gutting fish, 12 hours a day or more, with what amounted to a small (about 4 inch) penknife made in Sheffield. No razor sharp high carbon steel, ceramic blades or whatever, just a Sheffield steel penknife. Now when you use a tool for twelve hours a day or more, seven days a week, you become quite familiar with it. More importantly, you become acutely aware when it is not doing its job efficiently. The symptoms were that the single cut down the fishes belly became slightly ragged, The intestines didn't come out with a single cut, etc etc. The only remedy was to sharpen it. The tool of choice (generally the only option), was the whiffling stick, more commonly known as a sharpening-steel. For once Wikipedia let me down, so I created a page Sharpening Steel. When in need of a brief respite, or just a break, it was common to pick up the steel and sharpen your knife. If this was left for too long, the result was often an ailment called haddock wrist (sorry, this wasn't meant to be a treatise on fishing jargon) which is akin to tennis elbow. The wrist swells up with fluid and becomes really quite painful. Gutting fish with bad wrists is not pleasant, so it paid to keep the knife sharp and hold the fish properly such that the wrists took the least amount of strain commensurate with working. Now where was I? Oh yes.

With that background, when I married last century, my parents bought us a set (canteen) of cutlery. Part of this was the carving knife, fork and - you guessed it, a whiffling stick. Until the last 5 years or so this remained unused in the box of cutlery.

My father used chisels (wood chisels that is) and hence showed my how to use an oilstone (why do I always call them Indian oilstones? Is that where they are made?) to sharpen chisels. I never found this very satisfactory, though I bought one in my first year of marriage to keep an edge on my chisels. I guess my problem was I know what a sharp edge feels like. Hence I was never satisfied with the edge produced by the oilstone (course or fine side). Nor could I maintain 25 degree angles with my bare hands. A support helped (a wheel that runs on the stone, holding the chisel at the appropriate angle). This was great for the UK based chisels I bought initially, though when I found Japanese chisels, with their different cross sections, this no longer worked. Along with the chisels (fabulous tools) I came across Japanese water stones. I have three. A 1200 grit, a 4000 grit and a pear shaped hand held for carving chisels. About 15 years ago I came across a guy at a woodwork show selling (I thought) snakeoil. He showed us this stone, except it was plastic. An aluminium looking bed with (he said) diamond dust embedded into it. The price was horrendous (to me), but I was tempted and came away with the tiny 4 inch finishing block (red). They work. No, it wasn't snake oil. Next show I paid forty pounds and bought the medium grit full size block (blue). Since then I've been more than happy re-grinding an edge on my chisels (and kitchen knives) with these diamond blocks. I keep returning to the steel to finish them, though I guess I realised it wasn't very efficient. So to bring this story up to date -

I ventured out to the shops today (in search of a Latin grammar book if you can recommend one) and whilst wondering round our local department store, saw a combination of technologies which brought a smile to my face. A steel, with embedded diamond dust. Made in Germany, the Wetzstahl sharpening-steel. I can't find a web reference, but I'm sure there are other manufacturers out there. All I can say is, try it. Far less effort compared to a simple steel steel, if you see what I mean. Lets you concentrate on the honing. I honed 8 knives in not many more minutes, each now feeling sharp enough to slit the guts of a 5 foot cod without hesitation. Wonderful tool, 100% recommendation.