I recently got a few very nice Global knives for my birthday. LOVE them. As a budding home chef I never realized what a difference good knives made.

The pamphlet that came with them says that I should use their special sharpening steel. It is both hard to find and expensive.

Does anyone know a REAL reason that I should find one of theirs or is my Henkel steel good enough?

If you already have a Henkel steel I would use it a few times and see if it does a good job of smoothing out the burrs.

Remember when your knives are sharpe it only takes a couple of strokes.

I use one of those long sharpening stones that look like elongated wands about 12" long. Mine is from the 1950's though so I don't know if they still sell that kind or not any longer. I much prefer the sharpening stones to sharpening steel any day. I seem to get a better edge using the sharpening stone.

Don't use that. Sharpening steel is a misconception. It's a honing steel. As you use your knives they develop a J shape in the blade where the edge has bent the honing steel fixes the J but removes a ton of metal. Unless you're an expert you can ruin great knives with a honing steel. It requires an almost perfect 22.5 degree angle stroke over the length of the blade and unless you think you can do that take it some where and get it professionaly sharpened once every 6 months or so. Never use that steel to sharpen.

I use a ceramic tool for my knives, I guess you could call it a (steel)

Is your ceramic tool a v-shaped sharpener?

I have a v shaped ceramic sharpening tool. I guess what I was asking about was a honing steel.

Yh the v-shaped thing is safe for you knives and perfect for ameture knife sharpeners but the honing steel is only for very adept users.

yh the v-shaped thing is safe for you knives and perfect for ameture knife sharpeners but the honing steel is only for very adept users.

So what is that stick thing that comes with most middle tier knife sets called?

That's the honing steel. Don't use it unless you really know what your doing I have ruined good knives on them.