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

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.

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.

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.

Not as high quality as my Idahone rod. Ceramic seems good but handle is plastic. Build quality decent, but not leading the market. MAC knives are nicer, relative to the competition than these rods seem to be. However, to be fair, the proof is in the pudding, and like MAC knives, these have incredible function even if they don't have fancy handles. Works great, and the plastic tip is wonderful. It really is a nice rod, its beautiful. There are, however, $30 rods with nicer handles. For $50 you should get metal. Few competitors at 2000 grit. It does get knives significantly sharper than 1200.

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.

The Mac Ceramic honing rod works quite well to put a razor sharp edge on my kitchen knives. I just recently purchased the Tojiro Chef and Santoku knives and they were fairly sharp out of the box. When the Mac honing rod arrived I gave them a few passes on the honing rod and they are now razor sharp. This honing rod will be perfect for keeping the edge up on the Tojiro knives. Also used this rod on an 30 yr old set of Wusthof Trident knives that were not very sharp. The Wusthofs really should have gone to a professional knife sharpener to have the edges restored, but I have been able to put a pretty sharp edge back on them using the honing rod.

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!!