I am completely thrilled with this kitchen tool (Wusthof's 10-inch Sharpening Steel). I was told that that brand was considered to be the top of the line, which Iam convinced that it is. As mentioned earlier the item arrived as stated and the price was very excellent.

After years of mistreating my knives and using a slide through style knife sharpener that only destroyed my knives, I decided to get somthing that was going to help fix my problem.
My father always used a sharpening steel, but I never took the time to understand why. Now I know. Not only does it sharpen my knife to a fine razor type edge with just a few swipes on each side, it also helped correct some of my other knife edges that had been damaged from not sharpening them properly over the years. I trust the Wusthof name, I have several of their knives and they are of superb quality, so it only made sense to purcase a Wusthoff sharpening steel. I am very pleased with my purchase and know this product will be a part of my kitchen forever.

The sharpening steel has been a great addition to our Wustof collection, and it fits perfectly in a Christmas stocking!

A lot of people assume that all sharpening steels are the same. That is not true.

I've owned this sharpening steel for about 6 years. It replaced a steel I had been using for about 20 years. I usually hone my knives between every use. With my previous steel, it typically took 4-10 swipes to restore a razor edge, with occasional resharpening using an alumina (carborundum) stone; with this steel, I can get the same razor edge in 1-2 swipes, and never need to use the stone.

This is consistent with some hardness measurements I've seen on the web, which indicated that Wusthof sharpening steels were significantly harder than those from other major manufacturers, including their closest competitor, Henckels.

There is one downside to this steel: the steel itself only extends about half an inch into the plastic handle. If you just plop it into its slot in the knife block after each use, the steel will eventually fall out of the handle. It's not terribly difficult to force the steel back into the handle, though, and I can put up with having to do that every few years in exchange for the pleasure of using this steel on my knives.

Wüsthof 10-Inch Sharpening Steel How can it be bad? It is made of a handle and has a circular piece of steel running up the center. There are no moving parts, no batteries to replace, limitless shelf life, nothing to go wrong. I am quite sure that after several centuries of use, it will need replacement. It is a quality item and unless you are wildly uncoordinated will get the job done.