The Feel of Steel is a 2001 collection of short non-fiction works by Australian writer Helen Garner.

[1][2] The 31 works in the collection include long narratives and very short pieces were described by reviewer Evelyn Juers as "delicate haiku-like sketches with a faint stitch of narrative".

[3] It has been described as "a collection of pieces reflecting on her life and that of her loved ones.

"[4] In an interview in 2000 in The Guardian, Garner identified Leslie Fadgyas as the fencing teacher who had taught her both as a schoolgirl and as an adult.

[5]