The alternative for a sharpening steel?

[Ken S]

I may be wrong, however, using the spine of a knife as a steel seems barbaric to me. It reminds me of the woodworkers who use a screwdriver to roll a burr on hand or cabinet scrapers.

I agree with you about steels with grooves. My Henckel set came with a grooved steel rod. After I learned a little more about sharpening, I was given a nice ceramic rod. The ceramic rod is in my knife block now. I only kept the Henckel grooved steel rod in the back of a drawer incase some future owner prefers a matching set over one with a ceramic rod which works well. Why do we value matching sets over assembled sets which work better?

Ken