# Honing rod recommendations



## rusty-pie (Apr 22, 2020)

Hi, I am after recommendations for a honing rod for my Shun Kaji 6.5” Nakiri knife (From their website: 65-layer blade features a premium SG-2 powdered steel cutting core clad in 64 layers of forged nickel/stainless steel Damascus. exceptional hardness of 64 ±1 HRC. hollow ground with indentations that keep slices from sticking.)

I have a run of the mill supermarket steel hone which I have used so far with my cheap knives but I’m wondering if my new knife deserves a new hone to match.

my local shop stocks:
Victorinox
Cambria
F Dick
Fallkniven
Frosts
Ultimate Edge

TIA


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## brianshaw (Dec 18, 2010)

If anything, a ceramic hone is useful between sharpening on stones. Steel hones not so much.


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## Seoul Food (Sep 17, 2018)

I use a ceramic as well. I also like the F. Dick multicut steel as well.


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## mike9 (Jul 13, 2012)

Mac, or Idahone - I have both and each works very well.


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## kokopuffs (Aug 4, 2000)

I use a steel when the blade needs a little roughness or toothiness. Then I'll use the ceramic hone made of boron nitride at other times just for realigning the edge and maybe, maybe, adding a touch of improved sharpness..


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## benuser (Nov 18, 2010)

As always, it depends. In this case on how you have planned the knife's maintenance. If you sharpen yourself, a few edge leading strokes on the finest stone are all you need to refresh the edge and bring it back to the highest level.
As for honing with a rod, it's no replacement of periodic sharpening. At some point the edge will show fatigue and won't hold any longer. Sharpening is than required, to fulfil two objectives: restoring a previous configuration, but first: abrading fatigued steel. 
Most steel rods do very little more than damaging an edge and creating a burr. It will cut as long as you don't touch the board, and than fail, by breaking off (or rolling, with soft steel). When breaking off they leave a kind of lunar landscape behind. It requires a full sharpening session to have it repaired.
Now, a both very hard and smooth steel rod is the Dickoron Micro. Have used it with soft carbons and can assure you, it doesn't abrade anything. It burnishes. Can't tell how it works with R2 /SG-2, though. Works fine with other stainless but is no replacement for sharpening as in the long run the edge steel gets fatigued. 
Another approach is a ceramic rod. It does abrade, and creates a new bevel, say a microbevel. 
A very good one is the Sieger LongLife. Extremely hard, no glazing. 
But again, no replacement for sharpening, or the area behind the edge will thicken little by little, leading to poor performance within one year of home use.


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## phaedrus (Dec 23, 2004)

I really love the Idahone and have four of them. IMO it's about the best ceramic hone around. Honorable mention would be the DMT ceramic hone; it has an aluminum core with ceramic deposited over the top making it much more durable than a hone that's entirely ceramic.

A glass honing rod is also great for touchups on knives of very high hardness. It might be hard to get one nowadays as I think only one company ever made them IIRC, and they no longer do.


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