I use a reasonably fine F. Dick steel in the kitchen and on some of my flat and hollow ground knives. The steel is large and heavy, which is no problem in the kitchen, but I wouldn't want to carry it with me on a trip.
When it comes to scandi ground knives I use a leather strop to keep them sharp as I find it is better suited to the task. At home I use a large, wooden backed strop, but this is also too large to carry into the field. Depending on how dull the blade has got I will use a strop loaded with compound or just go straight to a plain leather strop. I have been meaning to make a pocket strop from scraps for a while now, but havn't gotten round to it.
When I'm out and about I keep my knives sharp by using the back of my belt and the leg of my jeans. A few quick passes will bring it back to hair popping.
Sharpening stones are for sharpening, rather than honing, and don't get used all that often. I carry a small DC3 just incase I damage the edge of my axe or knife in the field, but it doesn't get used often. In general, steels tend to be relatively fine and are more for quickly honing a knife than sharpening it.
I have thought about getting one of those small, retractable steels for use in the field, but what I'm doing works fine now so it would just be a waste of money.
I guess they are not that popular since they are large, they aren't well suited to honing the popular scandi grind, and decent examples tend to be expensive. Whether you use a strop, a steel, or both, you will still need a decent set of stones at some stage. I use water stones and diamond stones, depending on the steel I'm sharpening.
