I was looking for a good chef knife as mine seemed to become dull more quickly then ever recently. But that said, I also found that three of my (seven) main knives were also not responding as well as they once did. I concluded that my extremely old honing steel rod was probably worn out. I found the Kimura site by chance and my eye was drawn to the Gyuto chef knives but before investing in them I noticed their honing rod and thought I might try one of those before investing further in knives. The Kimura ceramic rod arrived with me 2 days ago.I used the rod to sharpen all seven knives of my knives and was astonished at the amount of material that was taken off them as the torn and damaged edges were slowly returned to something resembling sharp and even. I always use a sheet of 80 gsm paper to slice through to test each blade. One of them (my chef knife) had a small imperfection near the tip which always snagged the test paper after sharpening. So I focused a minute or so on that area with the Kimura rod and it swiftly removed the snagging problem. The blade slices cleanly through the paper along the entire length now which is the first time in as long as I can remember. I was delighted.By the time I had finished though, the sparkling white ceramic rod was extremely dark and smothered in the dirty dark grey swarf that it had removed. A little Google research suggested that using Barkeepers Friend (Oxalic acid I think) was a good solution but, after I popped a couple of these in my Amazon bag, I found that baking soda (not baking powder) was also a good cleaner agent. So using a damp sponge and ½ teaspoon of baking soda from the cupboard, I drew the rod through the soda in my clenched fist, and it removed almost the entire amount of swarf on the first try. A few moments later, with only a tiny amount of TLC, the ceramic surface was back looking almost good as new (sheer white) and as smooth as silk to the touch. My sponge was a mess though!I have never used ceramic rod before but I am a convert. Fast and with minimal effort it is a pleasure to use. It has a 1200 level grit which is enough to reshape the edge but without being too aggressive and not require any significant effort to achieve despite the poor state of some of my blades. Yesterday as I was prepping some meat, I was extremely pleased at how well my three main knives now perform. I may still buy some of the Kimura knives simply because they look great (and because I fancy one!) but the NEED to do so has largely been usurped by the effectiveness of the ceramic rod. It is also worth mentioning that now I have an edge on the knives, the ability to maintain them with even less effort next time means the rod will not get as dirty in future. If your honing rod is old, trust me, ceramic is a very effective option to replace it.I attach a couple of images showing how the rod looks after simply wiping it clean with the cloth (almost completely unmarked)Finally, while registering the item on the Kimura website for their lifetime warranty I noticed something on their site that confused me a little. I pinged an email advising them (on a Sunday) and got an almost immediate reply. Not only that, but the reply was extremely helpful, dealt with my issue and inspired confidence. It appears they have real people, who actually care about their products, and that is great news! Thanks all.
