Polishing steel
A buffing steel is a tool used to smooth the edge of tools and knives . Polishing steels are mostly made of high-strength and very hard steel , have a high-gloss surface and are often additionally provided with a coating of chrome , which is rubbed / painted over the material to be polished. This smooths it so that it takes on a shine itself. The ridge of a blade edge is straightened up and the material experiences a higher hardness due to solidification .
Polishing steels are often attached to a handle or handle for easier handling. The cross section can be round, triangular and oval.
In contrast to polishing with polishing pastes and powders, which polish by abrasion, almost no material is lost through rubbing with the polishing steel.
Since no material is removed, the cutting edge of a knife cannot become finer, but only smoother, shinier and more even.
A related tool is the polishing stone .
literature
- Georg Buchner: Auxiliary book for metal technicians . Third edition, published by Julius Springer, Berlin 1923.
- Johannes Hoops: Real Lexicon of Germanic antiquity . Volume 32, Walter De Gruyter, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-11-018387-0 .