Mac Knife Ceramic Honing Rod, 8-1/2-Inch, Black

I ordered it from M. V. TRADING and that was a BIG MISTAKE! When I first got it, I took my cheap and totally dull Cuisinart Santoku, took 3 (alternating) swipes on each side and the knife was as sharp as on the day I brought it! So, it works, and very well at that. I didn't get to use it on my more expensive Wusthof knives, though, because I noticed that the rod has a manufacturing defect. The rubber washer that sits between the rod and the handle was not properly seated- it was totally crushed on one side and protruding far out on the other. I contacted M.V. Trading and, at their request, sent them a series of photos. They agreed to replace it with another, and processed a Shipping Label to return the defective rod. So far so good. I received the new replacement from M.V. TRADING today and to, my great surprise, I realized that it was the same part that I had returned to them. I know this for two reasons: One, the replacement rod they sent me has the same defect, exact in every little detail. Remember, I studied the defect in great detail earlier and photographed it from all possible angles, and I know without a shadow of a doubt that it's the same part. The other telling fact was that the instructions leaflet was missing from the box that the rod is packaged in from MAC. You see, I had taken out the instructions leaflet from the first box and had forgotten to put it back in when I returned it to the seller for replacement. So, it looks like M. V. Trading simply took my return, threw it in one of those plastic mailing bags- right, not even a shipping box to keep the rod safe- and mailed it back to me. I contacted M. V. Trading. They blatantly lied and told me that they had sent me a new replacement. When I confronted then with the evidence, they gave me the e-mail equivalent of a shrug and offered to give me a refund as long as I returned the second rod back to them at my expense, a 12-15 dollar expense. That's just not right! The bottom line: do not hesitate to but this product if you want a magical sharpener for your knives, but buy it from a seller you trust. AVOID M.V. TRADING AT ALL COSTS!***Update (12/21/13)***Amazon credited my account for the shipping charges. However, despite two emails from me, M. V. Trading made no effort to refund the purchase price- telling me via email that they were too busy fulfilling new orders to worry about my refund. Finally, after two weeks, I contacted Amazon Customer Service and filed a A-Z Claim. Shortly thereafter, I received a refund for $48.00, not the purchase price of $54.95. I will file a complaint with Amazon regarding this. I can and do accept a seller charging a restocking fee, but not in this case. Not when the whole charade was the result of the seller's failure to make a good-faith effort to replace a defective part, and their blatant lies.

Let me start off by saying that I am a professional cook, not a chef so my equipment requires high durability and functionality. This honing rod is made of a very fine ceramic unlike white ceramic honing rods which I find remove to much steel and seem to sharpen rather than hone. This honing rod has worked great on all my knives, especially my japanese knives. I love the grooved sides as well as the smooth sides. Being made of ceramic, one would think that this rod would be fairly easy to break but it has held up very well to being transported to and from work and being used multiple times per shift on various knives with excellent results every time. The title says it all, best honing rod I have ever used and worth the high price tag in my opinion. May not be necesarry for the home cook who hones there knife once a week or once a year for that matter but for the guy who is dicing, julienning, and cutting rounds of onions daily it will stand your edge back up nicely especially on knives made of very hard steel.

Great honing rod! I really like the larger diameter. It also has a very professional look and feel, plus it works great. Mac Knives are a great brand and this exceeds expectation as well

Have tried many sharpening tools over the years. Top shelf stones, motor driven, drag knife thru wheels devices, you name it. Sharpening stones from 400/1000, 4K, 8K, 12K.. came the closest to preparing our very good quality knives. But never to the level I felt it should be.Until now. Holy schnikes. Was about to spend more $$ on similar top rated knives. Not now.A few passes with this honing rod and things reached a level that I had never seen before. I mean, holy cow. Exceptional sharpness and in only a few strokes. What I saw instantly was my stones techniques were correct. But I could never reach the promised land. Until now.I am SO happy with this what I feel is a very inexpensive honing rod. I do wish there was less medium quality plastic in the handle area. But that wasn't enough to ding a star. This honing rod led me to the promised land, finally.Guess what I will be doing this eve? Bringing several of our knives to this top level.

Somehow I never got the hang of using a honing rod before, but something clicked with this one, and now it's a daily thing. No more running my knives through my Trizor grinder excessively; now just a couple of passes on the ceramic rod. I was worried I'd mess up on honing at the correct angle but no problem. It takes very little force. Knives are ALWAYS razor sharp now, not for just a little while after I grind them. All of knives slice paper cleanly and all can easily slice a cherry tomato into 6 translucent slices.

Incredible. I have been struggling along with my age old Henckel's steel and decided it was high time I invested in a good hone. After a bit of research I had settled on a ceramic hone over the steel as they are pretty much superior except in that they can be chipped or broken, but being careful will typically solve that problem. I have been a huge fan of Mac knives as my original set, going on about 15 years now at least were still pretty darn sharp.Being more of a traditionalist, it took me a while to buy into the Rollsharp which they recommend for sharpening their knives, but honestly it gives great results with very little effort and the edge holds very well on the Mac knives with their very shallow angle. That's kind of the beauty of the Mac knife is the ability to FLEX with a thin blade, but I digress. They stayed pretty darn sharp over the years but never had that "out of the box razor sharp, and when you talk Mac knives, they actually are razor sharp out of the box. My hone came last night and was so excited to try it. After a few passes on the smooth ceramic and voila! The blades SING. Paper, swoosh! Decorative incisions, a breeze! Cut the wings off a fly in midair? Haven't attempted that one yet, but if I do have the opportunity I will update the review with the results.The 10.5 " is fantastic for my broad Henckels' 9" classic chef's knife and did fast work of restoring the edge. I will have to take it to the stone again, now that I can actually maintain the edge. You could do much longer knives on this, but I don't have them...yet, a slicer is the next buy probably. I find having a classic French style knife important for mincing, the rocking does a much better job than training your hands to work with a Mac knife, it's quite a different approach...but I digress, again.For any knife that isn't far gone on the edge that it would need a stone, this will likely bring them back to life, and much more quickly than you'd think. This is by far, the best hone I have used.The plastic tip is nice but I don't balance it on the board, I do it freestyle and I did skip and nick it already. Still I don't think it merits taking points off because, realistically, if you use it on a board this could be considered an improvement regardless.With care, this hone will last a very long time. It is worth every penny. Mac, once again, proving quality does exist without killing you with price.UPDATE: Hadn't realized the hanger and handle don't seem to be very robust plastic. I find it really annoying and would have preferred to pay a little more if it were made of metal and a more solid feeling handle. It will likely be fine for a long time but I fear dropping it. One star off for this.

Great honing rod. The fact that it has 2 different grits on here makes it more valuable. Everyone keeps asking me in the kitchen to put and edge on their knives. Between this honing rod, my f.dick 7 steel and my strop there is almost no need for sharpening stones.

If you own knives that don't use very hard steel, then this is overkill for you. If you don't know the hardness of your knives, this likely is overkill for your needs. However, this is a great honing steel (THIS WILL NOT SHARPEN YOUR KNIVES) for certain knives made of very hard steel. It is brittle, like any ceramic honing rod, but as long as you don't drop it or otherwise abuse it, it should hold up for a long time. It's also gorgeous because of the design and the use of black ceramic. You'll still want to sharpen your knives at least once a year with whetstones (ideally) or a sharpening machine if you don't send them off for professional sharpening, but this will help you keep the blade as straight and true and sharp as possible between sharpening sessions. It also has a handy handle design that helps you identify what the ideal 15 degree angle is, though you can easily eyeball 15 degrees just to seeing what a 15 degree angle looks like and getting close to that while using it.

Does a great job with minimal effort. If your experienced with a honing rod this is the way to go. May seem a little pricey but I find its quality 100% justifiable.

I thought with this price it would sharpen well. Or maybe I don’t know how to use it. I have an old one of $10 only but it sharpens better than this one. I wonder why it is pricy! If any one tried it, please let me know if she/he experienced the same.

I already own two steel rods that work fine but nothing special. I also have a flat ceramic stone for finishing edges after major sharpening.I was looking for something to maintain a really nice edge on daily-use kitchen knives. This rod actually does a great job of quick minor sharpening (with the ribbed sides) and leaves a very nice edge with the smooth ceramic sides.I would have preferred a round profile on the handle but it's a minor complaint.I'd recommend this to anyone looking to keep already sharp knives in perfect condition.

Good product however vendor shipped product in a bag which provided no protection during shipping. The box that sharpener was in was badly crushed inside bag during shipping. Not what I expected for the cost of the item.

It has a dent in it after little use!!