purchased and sharpened from hockey lion the differences seem to be very small from the mako and step steel as for mako being top, top steel..i haven;t been as lucky as some people i guess. if i can get 6hrs out of them i was lucky. as for shaving them down. i was incorrect, as the mako is bigger..so shaving them down isn;t the awnser. it would only make them smaller. is the black steel suppose to be like this..or did hockey lion take off too much? here is a pic..and vid below it look how deceiving the first pic looks here is a vid of the step and mako on top of one another View My Video