# Honing steel recommendation for AUS-8 and VG-10 knives



## DeWynter (Jan 25, 2021)

Hi everyone,
While I'm cooking for more than 40 years I'm still a total noob in knife sharpening. I've got a bunch of very good Japanese VG-10 knifes (Nakiri, Santoku, Gyuto etc) with HRC 61, and every time I need to sharpen them (twice a year) I almost have a heart attack. I've got #1000, #4000 and #8000 whet stones for that. I recently acquired a couple of AUS-8 knifes (Fujiwara Kanefusa FKM) with HRC 57-58 (partially because I'm obsessed with Japanese chef's knifes, partially because I need to travel and cook outside of my home). FKM is much softer and require more often sharpening so I'm thinking if a good quality honing steel can be used between real sharpening to keep the blade sharp. I know that honing is not sharpening the blade but just keep "molecules aligned". I know that you cannot use soft honing steel for HRC 61. Honing steel should be harder than the blade. But what about FKM with HRC 57-58? Is it a good idea to use honing steel for FKM between real sharpening? What is the good honing steel for that? Ceramic? Read lots of info that diamond steel is taking off steel and not recommended. What about HRC 61 - is there any honing steel that can be used for VG-10 knifes?


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## phatch (Mar 29, 2002)

I use an idahone ceramic on vg10.


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## brianshaw (Dec 18, 2010)

Me too. No metal steel, though.


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## benuser (Nov 18, 2010)

With VG-10 using a rod isn't easy at all, as the deburring is the most difficult part of its sharpening. The burr should be patiently abraded throughout an entire progression. You shouldn't expect it to fall off as with finer grained steels. It remains strongly attached to the edge and is likely to form a wire edge, a special case of a burr exactly on top of the edge with is crazy sharp but will rapidly foil and make an edge unusable.
For the FKH, an excellent honing steel were the Dickoron Micro. As it hardly abrades anything, expect good stone sharpening to take a bit longer after multiple use of it, as there's a accumulation of fatigued steel.
A good abrasive rod is the ceramic Sieger LongLife, grit 2.5k to my guess. It takes some exercise to have it deburr properly. Think a few sur place strokes. 
Both the Dickoron and the LongLife will work very well. You may consider a coarser stone for thinning behind edge once in a while the blade's geometry is in need of it.


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## eiron (Nov 29, 2012)

DeWynter said:


> I recently acquired a couple of AUS-8 knifes (Fujiwara Kanefusa FKM) with HRC 57-58 (partially because I'm obsessed with Japanese chef's knifes, partially because I need to travel and cook outside of my home).


If you're looking for something to use on these softer knives while traveling, I'd suggest the Spyderco medium ceramic bench stone. I like/use this when traveling because it's compact/easy to pack (has its own case), and you can use it dry or with a splash-&-go wetting (I use water with mine). I find that it works well with softer steels, and that it's quick/easy to use. It might also make you more comfortable using your progression of water stones? I've never tried honing a VG-10 knife because if the steel's brittle nature.


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