Arkansas SharpenersAC46 Ceramic 11.5" Sharpening Stick w/ 7" Rod & Wood Handle

Love this thing.I'd ordered a few of the steels and diamond hones from Amazon before, and have been really disappointed with all of them. Hollow aluminum spray coated with high grit abrasives that slough off the edge of your knives and then wear (themselves) off from the honing tool extremely fast - is an infuriating thing to run into more than once as a consumer.That is NOT the case with this item. It arrived packaged well to avoid any breaking during transit. The size and weight are easy to use and handle. The build is solid. And the performance is reliable time after time.It does not wear heaps of edge off your knives, but dresses them nicely between sharpenings. The burr is kept upright, and if it starts to deteriorate, I just run it through a sharpener for 2 passes and it's done.Overall, this purchase has helped me keep the standard of my knives nicely up-to-snuff. It does not "make" your knife sharp. But it certainly does a fine job of "keeping" it that way for longer.That's what I was looking for, and that's what this delivers on. 5/5

They are very good and do what they’re supposed to do. I have used them for years if you want to have a razor sharpknife. I am a commercial fisherman and we have to have our knives razor sharp.

Worked great until dropping it on the floor. Broke into 3 pieces

It's not very course so don't expect material remove, think of it as a hone and not as a abrasive. Even tho it is an abrasive and does remove steel, it's so fine grain that the steel removal is extremely low. This is a perfect ceramic rod for touch ups of carbon steels and simple stainless steels. I've looked at the scratch pattern under Magnification and it leaves around 1000-1200 grit scratch pattern in the steel. This will not replace sharpening stones but what it will be is greatly extend the time needed in between sharpenings for more simple steels like used in kitchen knives and lower end pocket knives. The rod is long enough that larger kitchen knives are easily touched up on it. It's a decent quality ceramic as the steel load up will clean right off of it with some water and dawn dish soap or bar keepers friend if you really want to get all the steel particles off it. I really wish they also made this rod in a course model as well, something around 400 grit. Then for 15 bucks or so you could have two rods that one would be abrasive enough to actually remove some steel to clean up minor chips and other minor edge damage. I personally use IDAhone ceramic rods mainly but most people don't want to spend 40 bucks on a ceramic rod... they are however far and away the best and come in multiple grits. All in all this is a fantastic 6 dollar ceramic rod that will do you a good job on softer low alloy stainless and carbon steels just to keep edges touched up, don't expect to be able to get even the littlest chips out of knife edges as it just doesn't remove enough material to be able to do that. It is a good and low cost way to be able to touch up edges and keep them sharp for as long as possible in between sharpenings. This rod and a strop with some diamond emulsion will keep the average decent quality kitchen knives sharp without the need for stones for a good year or two... eventually you will reach a point to where steel has to be removed to get to fresh unfatigued steel and will require you to take the knife to sharpening stones but this can help you to extend that as long as possible and for very little money.If this company is listening, make another version of this in a dark ceramic (dark ceramic rods are normally of larger aluminum oxide abrasive size) that is around 300-400 grit. Charge like 15-18 bucks for both the course rod and this rod as a set of two and include a simple 17 degree angle guide that slides on over the shaft. For the 2 rods and the angle guide and under 20 bucks this would be a must buy for every home cook. The courser rod is key, just this rod alone severely limits what can be done with those ceramic rod hones, with a courser 300-400 grit rod as well people could then actually use it to maintain small chips and rolls in the knife edges and then use the fine rod for quick touch ups. I guarantee if you made a set like that it would sell like crazy.It would be hugely beneficial to your customer base.

i keep a few around the house. you will need a little fine grit sand paper to smooth ceramic rod.

Great product.

Very effective, affordable sharpener to MAINTAIN and touch up a good edge on various types of knives.The rod style configuration of the sharpener handles curved blades very nicely, also Tanto style or reverse curved blades which are (at least for me) a bit challenging to sharpen on a flat stone.Note:1. This is not an appropriate tool to sharpen a very dull edge (in my opinion), and,2. You do need to understand the basics of how to use a sharpener to match the knife's edge angle, (that is why I gave it 4 stars for ease of use) but if you do then it's very sweet. Just a few passes of the blade over the rod, with light pressure, and the edge is very noticeably sharper.If you have very dull blades, then you will most likely need another tool to get them into at least passable condition first. Think of this sharpener as the "fine" stage of a two-stage sharpening system.If, on the other hand, you like to keep your knives pretty well sharpened all/most of the time then this is probably all you need to get the job done quickly and easily. Yes, I know that it's not the equivalent of a sharpening system that goes up to 8000 grit, etc., but for everyday sharp knives this rod is pretty darn good.A nice bonus is that due to the light color of the rod It's easy to see that a tiny bit of steel residue from the knife edge remains on the rod (a dark line, or streak), showing that each pass is indeed having an effect on the blade.Allowing excessive buildup of this steel residue could, over a long time, lead to clogging of the pores on the surface of the rod, reducing sharpening effectiveness.I was very pleased to see that the steel residue washes off very easily with soap and water, or even with just water and a gentle wipe, leaving the rod in great shape, looking brand new, ready to continue sharpening the next blade, and the next...Two possible concerns:1. I don't know how fragile this rod is, and whether it would survive dropping. Some of the reviews that mention a broken rod on arrival leave me concerned about that, but so far it has not been a problem, though I've handled it with care.2. I would also not feel comfortable taking this outside or hiking/camping. It's too big and I would be concerned about breakage.Summary:This is my new favorite sharpener for use in the kitchen, not only for various kitchen knives but also for outdoors type knives. Very effective, quick, easy and pleasant to use.

Very good and high quality sharpener.