Keep your knife edge maintained, straight, and perfectly aligned with the Honing Steel, featuring a built-in angle guide. Made In Cookware's Honing Steel features a finely textured grit and a comfortable black POM handle with a built-in angle guide to help achieve universal angles for both Eastern (15 degrees) and Western (20 degrees) knives. Honing is used to maintain, straighten, and realign the sharp edge of your knife, which can bend and warp over time and with frequent use. This differs from sharpening, which removes tiny fibers along the edge of your blade, essentially shaving it to create a new edge.