Kota Japan 12 in. Diamond Carbon Steel Professional Knife Sharpener Rod | Kitchen, Home or Hunting | Master Chef, Hunter or Home Gourmet Blade Sharpening Rod or Stick

I keep this in a kitchen drawer to go "beyond" what a honing steel will do. Besides realigning the blade, this takes off material, so it actually "sharpens" your knives. I don't use it all the time, but if an edge is starting to wear a little, I'll give this a twirl for a quick fix. Eventually, knives have to be properly sharpened if you want them to last and be sharp, so I will eventually move them to a series of diamond plates in various grits and then to a whet stone and a strop. But as I said, if you're knife is slightly dull and needs a quick touch up, this is a wonderful magic wand. After using it a few times on the same knife, a proper sharpening will be in order. But I love this for fast and convenient. I find it sturdy, durable, well made, comfortable to hold and the grit size works great for me. I am on my second one, though I now use my "old" one AFTER the new one as it has lost some abrasives and offers a reduced grit (in theory anyway).

I’m an experienced knife sharpener having done it for 50 years. Over the years there has been many designs for knife sharpeners, most not very good. Fortunately the Kota Diamond “stick” sharpener is quite good, but you should understand what it is and what it is not. The Kota sharpener is appropriate for when you want to do a major reconditioning of a knife blade. A knife that has been abused and has no sharp edge at all. The Kota is impregnated with diamond chips that remove lots of metal fast. It is not a “touch up” sharpener that you use on an already sharp knife where you want to keep that sharp edge at its best. For that purpose you want a fine grain ceramic sharpening stick. Green Elephant is excellent for that purpose. C.S.

Our bread knife left a lot to be desired so I bought a new bread knife, thinking it would solve the problem - the new bread knife was just as frustrating - more so actually as it was a larger knife, and still wasn't up to task. Since I've gotten pretty good at sharpening non-serrated knives after practicing and watching a lot of sharpening videos, I wondered if I could do the same for our bread knives. I picked this one because all the diamond rods seemed to be about the same, and found that the diamond coating is not as uniform as, for example, my Sharpal diamond whetstone, and it seems to be less durable, but what I cared about was the result. I used the rod on the small, cheap bread knife first, and ohmygosh what a diference; after a few passes on the rod I got the hang of aligning the serrations with sections of the curve of the rod, and made only 1-2 passes, and since stropping isn't much of an option, I used vegetables to try to remove the burr, and then did a test cut on some soft bread. It was a game changer. The cheap faberware bread knife worked. Now, for the larger, "good" bread knife: I sharpened it in the same manner, only with this knife I made a few passes for each serration, did what I could to remove the burr by slicing up some harder veggies, and did a cherry tomato drop test; it sliced most of the way through a cherry tomato held a few inches above the blade. I then sliced some soft bread and a bagel. Delightful; it cut right through with little resistance, and made few crumbs. Bottom line: The rod was well with the purchase. Will it be durable? Well, I already see wear on the rod after sharpening just two knives, so I'd have to say no, it is not durable, and the reviews mentioning chipping and peeling plating does tend to confirm my findings, but this rod is cheap, and it solved the problem with our bread knives, and serrated knives need sharpening so rarely that even as cheaply as these are made, the rod is likely to last us at least a few years. Docking 1 star due to the un-uniform diamond coating, but otherwise the rod is fantastic for the price.

Perfect to keep in the boat kit.

I've bought several of these over the years (I just ordered another, my fourth or fifth). I have Sha Ra Ku Mono knives and a few passes over a good diamond steel like this and they're super sharp. It's a good length for pretty much any knife you might have for home use and works easily enough. It's light-weight and the handle fits nicely in the hand, making short work of sharpening the blade.

Works great but be very wary, this is a sharpening rod nit a honing rod. This exact steel rod will remove part or your knife with its diamond surface grit. If you just looking for a diamond honing steel, this is not it.

Initially I loved this, gave a nice edge quickly. Sharpened about 4 knives a week using this and thought wow, better than the stone for a quick edge. 3 months later. Need a new one.

Extremely satisfied Lightweight, great angle for a razor sharp knife. Nice design, perfect size tool, texture is soft but reliable.