It really depends on what you are doing with it. My go to is the 8-inch breaking knife. I can trim fat, slice steaks, denude. If you are skilled, debone.
No, you're steeling the knife. Honing means sharpening. In fact a fine sharpening stone is called a hone. Apart from polished steels, like packing house steels, steels do, in fact remove metal. Wipe one with a paper towel; you will see metal filings. They are fine linear files
