Put simply, a honing steel is a rod of material that is considerably harder than the blade it is designed to sharpen. Often they are made with very high carbon steel which can be heat treated to obtain the hardness required, but the Sabatier Professional Diamond steel is bonded with synthetic diamond for a smooth, consistent action.
A good quality honing steel acts to realign microscopic kinks, curls and folds that appear on a blade edge during normal use. They aren’t designed to remove material from the blade, but act to restructure the grind profile for better cutting performance and longer lasting sharpness.
