Every time you use your knife, the edge naturally bends over a tiny bit. To ensure that the sharpest part of the blade is making contact with your food, honing is the answer. This combination honing steel with gently realign the blade edge. There are two honing surfaces: a smooth one for weekly honing, and a micro-ribbed one for monthly honing. Honing your edge regularly means you can go longer between sharpenings. A built-in angle guid means you can hone your knives at the correct 16" Shun angle. The PakkaWood handle matches the rest of the Premier line.