[jyl]

I think traditionally a steel is a smooth round bar of hard steel, that is used solely to re-align the edge.

But nowadays most consumer steels have file-like grooves so that they actually remove metal, if you apply enough pressure. So you can actually sharpen an edge with a steel, but (as I mentioned in the first post) it doesn't do a very good job of sharpening. At least, not in my hands.

I bought a diamond-coated steel once. What a waste of money, the coating wore off after a few months and I threw the thing away.