I inherited a reasonably good set of kitchen knives along with a knife "steel" (rod with file-like toothed surface). I can get a pretty good cutting edge on the blades (I'm still working on my sharpening technique), but I don't quite understand the steel. I've read up on it's use, but when I try to "touch up" an edge prior to use, I usually end up dulling it further.

My main question is: Why do the majority of these things have a rounded taper? Seems to me that the taper makes it more difficult to maintain a consistent angle. Anyone have any insight on this?

Anytime you hone a blade on a steel, many say that you do not use an angle. You simply lay the blade flat. Your aim is to smooth away burrs and such, not to actually sharpen the blade. So, if I were to want to keep a housewife happy with unscratched pristine stainless kitchen knives, I would not use it.

The taper is something I would like to learn more on myself. From experience, I have seen two advantages this gave me. First, not having an abrupt edge for the blade to fall off of and damage the knife by scarring, etc. Second, I used the tip when doing repairs on kitchen knives' damaged edges, etc. I don't claim to be a pro or nuthin, just sharin'

BTW, when looking at the instructions for my Shrade Honesteel (it came in a leather sheath) it DOES say to lay the blade FLAT.

Hmmm. It would seem to me that if one laid the blade flat against the steel, the edge would never come in contact with the steel, especially with the taper. I don't have links to the articles I've read handy, but here's a couple of references that both mention an angle: here and here

You got me on this one. I don't really fool with them that much.
No offense at all intended, but with that much damage (actually dulling) of the blade when you try to hone it, its not suitable for its intended purpose. From what I gather you are doing everything right by instruction, so its gotta be the rod itself. The file-like surface is too rough for just "touching up" blades. I've messed with rods with similar surfaces that are mass marketed cheapies. Hope I helped you out.

Any info or tales of personal experience helps, thanks Simon.

From my personal experience......I got the book The Razor's Edge Guide to Sharpening. The author is (sp) John Juranich.
Following the directions....I have NEVER failed to put a razor edge on anything.

The author holds the world record for sharpening and shaving with an AX !!!!

At knife shows, he would have his daughters (then about 8) take a knife from the crowd, sharpen it and shave their dad.

All you need to do it......a very coarse stone and a very fine stone. NO oil. NO water. ( It is explained why not in the book.)

Gah! Sounded good, so I started looking. I think you got the title slightly off, but I found it here:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/096660590X/104-0030748-1938304?v=glance&n=283155

[edit]
You know, the reviews are pretty mixed. Care to elaborate on how well this works for different steels, angles, and materials?

That's it!!!!!! Thanks for the legwork.

"Sharpening steel" is kind of a misnomer. They aren't designed to sharpen an edge by removing metal. They realign the edge after it's been bent and rolled over. The longitudinal grooves on the steel also catch and pull off burrs along the edge.

You don't use much pressure when you use a steel; one of the reasons it's held in the hand. You use it regularly, a few quick swipes, while cutting and carving. Kitchen knives will last longer when the sharpening steel is used regularly. You go longer between actual sharpenings where more metal is removed from the edge. If you've ever seen the stubs of knives left over after butchers and processing plants use them up, you know what I mean.

Most importantly, sharpening steels work best with the relatively soft steel used in kitchen knives. The softer steel edge will roll over and bend while cutting. It's that edge that gets realigned. Better knife steels with a harder heat treat will microchip instead of roll. When they're dull, it takes a stone of some type to remove metal and sharpen it.

Thanks, lukus, that's very informative. Needed somebody in the know to straighten that out for us. No pun intended. Very good explanation.