Yes, any real cook, or butcher will tell you the value of steeling the blade.
Can we agree that it does restore sharpness to the edge compared to not doing it?
We can if we understand the difference between steeling and sharpening. Strictly speaking though, steeling is not restoring the sharpness to the edge; it's restoring the edge. Sharpening is removing material to create a new edge. Yes, a subtle difference, but meaningful.
I wonder how many people actually use a steel. Not many -- I'd bet the percentage is in the single digits. But then, lot of people don't even sharpen. I've probably talked to hundreds of well-intentioned people who leave that task to the evening before the deer season opens, and never get around to it. Some don't really even know how to sharpen a knife. Thus the market for a sharp, replaceable blade.
Steve.
Though I understand how they work I have never used a steel. Probably should pick one up and give it a try just to learn something new. In place of one, I currently use an ultra fine stone (hard translucent Arkansas). I have found that if I don't destroy an edge, I can maintain it, or more technically correct, resharpen it indefinitely with little effort before I have to go to a coarse stone. The stone does remove a little metal compared to a steel, but very little. A steel would be better for a guy cutting all day...that is why butchers and cooks use them.
The disposable knives have a lot going for them, especially for people who do not have an emotional attachment to knives and just want to cut stuff. Getting back to edge retention, if anyone thinks a Buck or comparable price point knife is trash, compare one to a disposable blade when it comes to heat treat and quality of steel. The disposable is likely made from the cheapest possible steel in a Chinese factory with basic heat treating, probably very "soft", but people are saying that they retain their edge a long time. Why is this, how can it be? IMO the reason is that they start out with a perfectly apexed and burr free edge created by a machine....probably some kind of laser. No wires or weak spots to snap off. Unless you roll the edge by hitting something hard or abrade it by cutting something dirty, it will last a long time, especially for what it is. In other words the steel probably ain't much but the edge is perfection.
Few people if any can duplicate that, even those that know what they are doing, much less the typical guy that leaves the wire edge on his knife after sharpening. When you consider the fact that good sharpening stones are far from cheap plus you have to know how to use them, it is easy to see why hunters are liking these knives. I probably won't ever use them because I like knives and fooling with them almost as much as I like rifles, but I can't knock them.
"Men must be governed by God or they will be ruled by tyrants". --- William Penn
