Honing steel material

[Joshmonop]

Hey everyone!
I am interested in making my own honing rod/steel. I can't for the life of me find out any information on best types of metal for such a rod. Google searches just seem to bring up how tos for usage alone. I just want a good old fashioned honing steel, much like my grandfather's pictured here that I find works better than any modern one I've used.

Is the steel heat treated or any other processing happening? Any help, any direction would be greatly appreciated!

Josh

 

[stringer]

Your honing rod should be harder than your knife.

 

[inferno]

i've seen some cheap ones made out of what appears to be sandblasted (or with lines machined in) hardened stainless.

i think the good ones use a hardchrome plating. which is close to 70hrc i think. substrate would be any hardened steel i guess.

 

[natto]

AfaIk old steels are made of carbon steel. They work good on old soft carbon knives. But the surface becomes smoother with carbides of stainless or alloyed knives.

The steel on the pic looks shiny, not the look of used carbon. It may be a recent coated steel.

Why not buy a new one?

 

[mooncake]

Honing rods just about usd 30. Is it worth to make one ?

 

[Bolek]

On one Fisher it is marked "chrome".
The best one Zwelig 1731 is made out of tungsten carbid (very havy).

 

[mooncake]

Hello , Bolek , can you share the experience of using tungsten carbide WC coating rod?

 

[btbyrd]

I can't imagine paying $300 for a honing rod. For $50 (or even $150) it's hard to beat the MAC black ceramic rod.

 

[mooncake]

The reasonable price of WC coating rod should be below USD120.
Ceramic rod is different from WC rod.The WC will not break after dropping from a higher height.