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If we split the name up and make it whetting steel, then it could refer to a steel used for sharpening knives, etc. Then we might conclude that this was a metonymic for a person who made a living with such an implement, or was particularly skilled in its use.
However, I don't feel confident about this interpretation, and lean towards a place name origin. The nearest I can find to Whettingsteel is Whittonstall, located, unfortunately, at the other end of the country from the Whettingsteel territory. Still, you never know.
Coincidentally there is a surname Whetstone, which, as a vocabulary word means a shapening stone, but that surname comes from a place name.