Customer Reviews

Klein 44150 Multi-Purpose Sharpening Steel

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When I purchased this product a few months ago, What I was expecting was a very durable portable fold out sharpening stone embedded with grit of some sort with coarse on one side and fine on the other. What this actually is, is more of a honing and steeling tool. It is a solid wedge of steel, if their is any gritty texture its very very fine (2500 grit +) basically what this tool is good for is keeping the hone on a blade that is razor sharp already and you just want to polish and steel the edge.

The good points of this tool are that it has rounded edges for steeling standard blades and a flat surface for steeling single bevel tools like chisels, or for knives with a shallow grind angle that you want to keep at a real razors edge. I really like the tough leather fold out sheath with the tough leather strap that comes with it. This allows it to be kept on a tool belt or in a back pocket without fear of it falling to the ground when working up in the air.

This would be best described as a knife steel, and I mostly use it for polishing the edge on my splicing knife which has to stay very sharp, but has a very short blade.

I wish that they made another model of this same item that was coated with about a 300-500 grit diamond abrasive
on one flat surface and a 1000-1200 grit diamond abrasive on the other surface with the same fold out sheath... that would be a good "knife sharpener" that would be useful for working a blade back to health where it could then be honed on the steel that I already own.

Its too bad, they would make a great pair for the woodsman as well as the tradesman... in the end I found myself a little remorseful about the $40 I spent on this item when compared to its utility and other items that I could have purchased for that same dollar...but not enough to try to return it.

If you are a hard knife user like me, or you strive to always keep that super keen edge on all of your carry knives at all times then then this may be a good tool for your pocket. If you don't have $40 to blow, and you don't intend to carry a heavy chunk of steel in your back pocket or tool belt then you better pass this up and sharpen your knives at home on a better tool like an oilstone or waterstone.

If you need a cheap portable sharpening solution to carry in your pocket that works well for keeping an average to fine edge on a pocket knife or fixed blade sheath knife and can afford to be misplaced I would actually recommend this : Smith's PP1 "Pocket Pal" Multi-Function Sharpener (I bought mine at Lowe's for the same money) The Klein Steel really won't do much good until you have used a tool like this to get the knife sharp first.

UPDATE: I have since found a much cheaper alternative to this item made by Schrade called the honesteel and i feel that the HS-1 does a much better job at honing than the Kline one... the HS-1 is about $20 but they are harder to find, and may be out of production. I have purchased one of those as well and it comes with a belt sheath, but is too big to fit in a pocket for easy carry. Both of these items work well for steeling a knife blade to keep it at the peak of sharpness, but i feel that the Schrade is a better value for the money.

This sharpener keeps your knives sharp and efficient. Its long lanyard is good if you want to put it in your pocket, or somewhere else. Not only is it a sharpener, it also has a chisel point that is perfect for some of the rough jobs that might hurt your knife like cutting bone or sheet metal. Sharpening with this is easy to do. A must have for anyone with knives!

I bought this intentionally to fit in a pouch on a bushcraft knife I recently purchased and it fit great. I wanted something I could take along in the field to touch up the blade after heavy use. Turns out, it has worked well on a number of things as designed. It has a chisel point at the tip to help go through whatever. I 've used it on a pelvic bone after gutting a deer. It worked perfect. Re-establishes a good edge after knife started getting dull. I'm glad to have this simple but invaluable tool along with me on my outings.