Kermit Perlmutter wrote: "I have never seen a truly smooth knife steel. Anyone
have a photo? I love older steels for their fine teeth."

I don't have any dead-smooth steels, but learned about them from books, a long
time ago. One was that very strange book by a very strange man, John Juranitch's
"The Razor Edge Book of Sharpening." I find, though, on re-reading a few pages
of Juranich that he isn't outspoken that the smooth steels he talks about are
really dead smooth and polished. The clearest statement I have to hand is from a
slightly less strange book by a slightly less strange man: Merle Ellis'
"Cutting-up in the Kitchen: a butcher's guide to saving money on meat and
poultry" Ellis began training for a career as a butcher at 13, then somehow
sidestepped into television as a producer for NBC and with his own production
company. Somehow he ended up back in a butcher's shop, his own, in Tiburon up in
Marin, at the end of a ferry line from San Francisco. In 1975, "Now, in a time
of high-flying meat prices, he has undertaken a consumer-oriented syndicated
newspaper column and this timely
 book."  Timely? Just as the yuppieocracy was switching to mung beans, tofu, and
quiche as tenets of faith? I like red meat, myself, though I can't often afford
it; I hope the Sprout-Eaters didn't martyr him with his own cleavers. Maybe
Ellis' sense of timing is why he didn't stay in TV production.


OK, seriously, this is a good and knowledgeable book, written for the layman. I
wish I had more need for it. On steels, Ellis says: "There are several different
types of steel and almost certainly the one you have, the one that came with the
carving set, is the wrong type. Most 'home-type' steels are much too rough and
give the knife a saw-toothed edge.
    "The steel that hangs off a hook on the belt of a guy who makes his living
boning necks in a packing house is as smooth as a mirror and the knife he uses
is as sharp as a razor.
    "Between the rough steel that came with the carving set and the mirror
smooth finish of a packing house steel, there is just the right steel for your
purpose. It has a medium surface, not smooth but nearer to that than coarse. It
is 10 or 12 inches in length and may be either round, flat or oval in shape....
    [long clip]...."For my money there is but one steel: F. DICK. Ask any
butcher you know who made his steel."

Tom Conroy
Berkeley