Many of you have one of the above in your knive collection. Most people get them for free when they purchase even a cheap set of knives and most people never use them or even know what they really do. One thing they don't do, sharpen your knives. Now, when you're done using it, your knive will effectively be able to more efficiently cut through items. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that kind of means the knive is sharper but you're still wrong. What a steel does is "hone" a knive's edge.
While using a knive the blade begins to lose its edge. What that means is that the microscopic tip of the blade edge begins to fold and wave in varying directions. It can't be stopped and it happens no matter what you are cutting. Cutting on certain surfaces, like glass, marble, and normal dinnerware will cause it to happen almost instantly and will dull the knive almost beyond the ability of a hone to fix it.
You want to hone a knive at a minimum each time you use it. Ideally you can hone before and after each use. This will help keep your edge in between sharpenings, but don't forget, even the best high-carbon blades need regular sharpening so don't rely on a hone/steel to do your bidding.
For details on how to properly use a hone, check out:
http://www.videojug.com/film/sharpening-a-knife-with-a-steel
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