Do I need to wipe/clean my knife after sharpening/honing?
Depending on the type of honing rod and the technique you use for honing, you will remove more or less metal from the blade. You can confirm whether your rod removes metal by wiping the blade on a white tea cloth after honing. If you see a grey residue on the cloth then metal has been removed and you can decide yourself whether you want that in your food.

Types of Honing Rod


Steel rods, of the type that are perfectly smooth will not remove noticeable amounts of steel from a blade. Polished honing rods are used for straightening a curled blade edge. Other types have shallow grooves cut down the length of the rod that bite into the blade and shave off metal particles.
Ceramic rods are slightly abrasive and will remove small amounts of metal.
Diamond coated rods are used for sharpening in place of a whetstone and will remove relatively large amounts of metal.


What technique you use for honing depends on what you are trying to achieve. If you only need to realign the edge of a well maintained knife, then two or three swipes on both sides of the blade, maintaining light pressure should be sufficient.

If you do this with a polished steel, then I would be surprised if you need to wipe the blade afterwards. If you use one of the other types of rod, then you are also removing metal from your knife and you may want to strop the knife and give it a quick wipe after.