 By contrast, knives are generally sharpened much less frequently.A traditional smooth honing steel is of no use if the edge is blunt, because it removes no material; instead it fixes deformations along the edge of a sharp blade, technically known as burnishing.There has long been speculation about the efficacy of steeling (re-aligning the edge) vs honing (removing minor deformation with abrasives); studies tend to favor abrasives for daily maintenance, especially in high-carbide-volume "stainless" steels (such as the popular CPM S30V steel, which tends to "tear out" when steeled rather than re-forming an edge.)