HXT Ceramic Thick Sharpening Rod and Angle Guides, 11-Inch Shatter Resistant, White 1500 Grit

These ceramic sharpening rods work great, and the wedges give an almost unlimited number of sharpening angles. Of course, most people will only use two, a 20 degree angle for European kitchen knives and a 15 degree angle for Asian knives. What if you get tired of switching the wedges? Get two rods! Or use the wedges as training wheels till you learn the corrrect angles. A cooking teacher said they made a huge difference for her students in learning how to use a sharpening rod -- about 5 minutes as opposed to hours. And they won't damage your knives the way pulling them through a slotted knife sharpener would. If you use the sharpening rod regularly (daily or weekly depending on how much you use your knives), with a few gentle strokes you will always have sharp knives and will greatly extend the time between full sharpenings. To account for the thickness of the knife, for a 15 degree edge on a thin Japanese knife, use the 14 degree wedge angle. If this sounds too complicated, don't worry about it. Most people can't tell the difference between a 15 and a 16 degree knife edge, but they can easily tell a dull knife from a sharp one. Which rod to get, the white one or the black one? The white rod has a fine 1500 grit and sharpens a little faster than the extra fine 2000 grit black rod. The white one is recommended for most people. You can easily see the metal streaks on the white rod so you know when to wash it, which restores the grit. They wash easily with ordinary dish soap. You can also rotate the wedge slightly to provide a clean sharpening surface. Many ceramic rods are rather delicate and will break if dropped. These are made of sterner stuff, with steel rods inside the ceramic and shock absorbing features that make them much more sturdy. I highly recommend them. I got several of these during Black Friday for much-appreciated Christmas gifts.

I bought this in 2020 and now can write a review about it. I was looking to buy a ceramic hone and got this instead. I like the sharpening angle guides as they help you keep the sharpening angle. I have used it quite a bit and it works great. It has worked on all the knives I have used it on, some take a little longer if the steel is harder. It's durable, even after I dropped it, it didn't break. It didn't cost much and is worth every penny! Good product!

Works magnificently on my knives.

One of the coil springs, for one of the blue plastic angle guides, had a dis-formed end so it couldn't stay hooked to the other end. I fixed it with some needle-nosed pliers. It's a good ceramic rod with no voids (like another one I have). A nice improvement would be a soft rubber cap on the end of the rod to help keep it from scooting around on the counter top. As it is, the end of the rod is a hard plastic that is hard to keep from sliding around. I'm looking for a rubber cap that will work. It takes some time to develop the skill to keep the same knife edge-to-rod angle as you slide the knife down the rod. I'm pretty good at maintaining the same angle with my right hand, but I have trouble holding a consistent angle with my left hand. It's a good tool for a quick sharpening, like a traditonal steel sharpening rod. It doesn't help you keep a consistent edge angle as well as the Lanksy type sharpening tools.

Nice ceramic rod that with different sharpening angles. This will keep your knive blades paper cutting sharp. Not ment for dull blades since the ceramic is very fine. This will take a slighty dull blade back to original sharpness with many common angles to match sharpening angle of the blade that slip over the rod as a guide. Get your blade sharp and this rod set will keep it there if used once a week or less if the blade is used often. Easy and very effective I very rarely have to go to a wet stone any more. I absolutley love it. Only negative is don't drop it on a hard surface it's brittle ceramic and will break. Be careful with it.

The best! Ceramic is the best material for knife sharpening, the guides keep the knife edge perfect.

keeping a consistent angle when sharpening a knife is key. The slide on guides cover a large array of angles and is easy to use. This is a very good tool to touch up the edge after use.

Just to be clear, this is a great sharpening rod and NOT a honing tool. It can replace a sharpening steel and will do a better job. It's a tad aggressive, so don't go overboard and check your edge as you use it to ensure you don't remove any more steel than needed. The included guides are very useful in establishing good muscle memory, and are easily added or removed. Ceramic rods can break if dropped on hard surfaces, so treat the tool with reasonable care. Great product!