14-in. Diamond Steel, Fine Grit Sharpener (DS4F)

I bought this with the Fine grit steel for my kitchen knives, as much because I didn't know for sure what the actual grit was. As it turns out, they go really well together; the Fine is good for a knife that has started to feel a little dull or catch, and the extra fine is perfect for when you're getting ready to start cooking and the knife is sharp, but needs that extra polish before you get busy. In use, say, I'd pick the fine for when I'd been chopping a lot of vegetables and gotten a couple of places where the edge was getting flat; the extra fine would be for when I had cut a lot of meat and the edge was just off a bit. The tools themselves are hefty and large enough that you can easily maintain a consistent edge angle if you hold it freehand. On the other hand, they come with safety caps on the ends, but under the cap is a point for those who ground the steel vertically on the block and stroke down. I don't know yet about how well they'll wear, but since they're diamond steel I hope they won't have the wear that people have reported with ceramics. At this point I'd buy again. The only caveat I'd place is the obvious one-- these don't replace stones. If you have lower quality or heavily worn knives, you still need stones to put an edge on. You probably could do it with these if you had lots of time on your hands, but this isn't the right tool for that. It also may be worth noting I'm using these with Henckels knives-- they might give different results with different alloys from another maker. [One month later] With some time passed, I am satisfied still with these steels. My habit is to give ten or twenty strokes to each side with the extra fine when I'm getting ready to use a knife. This steel brings the edge up perfectly, including the tip that drags on the block when slicing, and the knives stay sharp enough that I can slice a six inch thick roast in one or two strokes or cut a sandwich by just pressing down the blade without crushing the food. Very pleased with my knives as they are maintained by this tool. [Still using them] These have turned out a good purchase. I give a knife I'm going to use a good stroking each side with the ultra fine each time I use it, and my knives stay perfectly sharp. I haven't had to use the other one since the original conditioning of the blades as a result. If anyone's interested, SharpeningSupplies.com has a good, easy to understand explanation of how to use a steel. They make the comment that steels don't actually sharpen the knife, though; while that's true of a traditional steel, it's not true of the diamond coated ones we're looking at here.

I had been using an electric sharpener (Chef'sChoice 310) for the past 10 or 15 years and decide to make a change because it took a great deal of time to sharpen my knife set and I was never fully satisfied with the sharpness or longevity of the resulting edge. I chose to buy the DMT 12" fine and extra-fine sharpening steels as well as the DMT 12" ceramic steel sharpening rod. Overall I am very happy with the purchase and am fully satisfied with the results of using this set of sharpening steels. The amount of time I am spending to keep my knives sharp has been reduced, the knives are now sharper than they ever were with my electric sharpener and the knives hold their edge longer than they ever did as well. The first time I used the set, I used all three sharpening steels and spent about four or five minutes per knife to clean up the edges of small nicks and put a great edge on all my knives. Given the quality and longevity of the knives edges, I now only need to hone them with the ceramic steel once every week or two and am done in less than one minute per knife. I would highly recommend this set to anyone who’s interested in keeping their knives very sharp and are willing to spend a few minutes doing so. One word of caution that needs to be said, the coating on the ceramic steel is somewhat fragile and a great deal of care should be taken when using it. The first time I used it, I put a long nick (about 1” long) where the ceramic coating was removed and the aluminum rod in the core was exposed. I knew about this susceptibility based upon others comments here and used caution when first using however clearly not enough. I was very upset with myself for damaging it and now use even more care when using it. I also now take care to avoid the damaged area of the ceramic steel rod. All that said, it still works great and it’s helped me to keep my knives sharper for a great length of time with less work and effort.

I LOVE my knives -- they can change the enjoyment and ease of cooking by an incredible margin. To do that, though, edge sharpness needs to be retained. Steels are designed for that purpose -- "resetting" the blade edge to get it back in line, keeping the edge sharp and true, and just generally allowing for better maintenance and performance. At first, I didn't think I'd like the 12" length, but it was the best deal for a diamond steel. I obviously bought it anyway and I'm glad I did. It definitely is a bit long for my knife block but that's fairly easy to overlook. The 12" length comes in handy when sharpening longer knives like the 8"+ chef variety, making sure you don't run out of room. While I keep my knives sharp, I can actually tell that they are getting a bit sharper with time as well. This is unusual, but I often steel my knives twice as much as normal people. That said, I wouldn't be surprised if you hardly ever need to bring your knife in for a true resharpening. The construction is top-notch. The plastic handle feels robust and -- even though there are only three parts -- it feels like it was built to last. DMT also stands behind their steel with a lifetime warranty if you manage to figure out a way to wear it out. This is a great steel at a great price. Every kitchen needs a steel and you won't find a commercial-grade diamond one that competes with this anywhere until you start looking at ones that are 2-3X the price. It definitely delivers the most bang for the buck.

I take great pride in the sharpness of my knives. I have used multi grit stones and an Arkansas stone to get great sharpness on my knives and these stages of preparing a knife are essential to a good long lasting sharp edge. HOWEVER, This Diamond Steel Rod is an amazing addition to my sharpening tools. A few very gentle strokes with a well prepared sharpened knife along the diamond steel and you have a razor sharp edge. I showed the results to some friends that were in my kitchen and their jaws dropped when they saw how sharp my slicer was when stroked with the diamond steel. They were just as impressed as I was the first time I used it. The test subject was a sheet of dry kitchen towel rolled up like a cigar into a tight roll. Before - the slicer made a respectable cut through many layer to about half way through the roll with a reasonable amount of applied force. After stroking with the diamond steel - the slicer went right through the rolled up paper towel with a lot less force than in the previous example. Note: I don't recommend cutting wads of paper normally because the titanium dioxide whitener can dull the edge quickly - but this was an easy way to demonstrate the incredible sharpness the you can easily obtain with the diamond steel. The microscopic industrial diamonds are embedded in a coating around the length of the steel rod so it probably has a limit to how many times you can use it. I suspect if you apply too much force when stroking your blade - you could cut or wear through the layer of binder holding the microscopic diamonds in place. I have been using my Diamond Steel regularly for about a year and I see no degradation in its performance. I use a very light "kiss" while stroking the knife along the rod, so very little material is being removed by the diamond steel to reach the razor sharp edge. I recommend that you add one of these to your sharpening tools. Put it in the "steel" hole in a wooden knife block to protect the diamond surface. Don't put it in a knife drawer loose with all the other utensils - It deserves better treatment than that. If you know someone that is meticulous about how they keep their knives sharp you should get one of these for them.

I hope my odd title has piqued your curiosity as intended. First let me say that I've found the DMT extra fine grit diamond steel sharpening rod to be a fine tool. But it hasn't changed my life, nor should it. It does well what it's intended to do, but -- unsurprisingly -- it can't perform miracles. Let me offer a story to illustrate: In my arsenal of cutlery I have two chefs' knives from the same product series by the same highly regarded manufacturer. They are by the Ed. Wusthof Dreizackwerk Company of Solingen, Germany -- the well known "Trident" brand -- style "Grand Prix." One knife has a 6-1/4" blade, and the other 10". Over the years, I've found myself preferring the 10" knife, even in situations when the shorter blade would be more appropriate. As you'd guess, this is because the 10" knife takes and keeps a better edge. I have no idea why this should be, except that it's due to some slight difference in alloy, manufacturing process or factory honing. Recently there arrived in my kitchen a device that I expected to cure this difference between the knives, making them equally sharp, thereby matching my tool selection to the task at hand, rather than to the sharpness of the knife as before. But this transformation was not to be. After extensive and identical application of the Diamond Steel Sharpening Rod to both knives, the 10" blade is still sharper, and I still turn to it first, irrespective of the job. Is the shorter knife sharper than before? Yes. Is it now as sharp as the longer knife? Alas, no. Expect good results with this sharpening tool. The better the knife, the better the edge. But don't expect miracles.

A good product from my favorite sharpening company but you have to be very gentle with it because nicking it is much too easy and when nicked its useless. I am not used to handling my steels like they were made out of caramel.

I make custom carbon steel knives and of course i have one in my kitchen, and it had been maybe 6-8 months since my last sharpen, there were a few dull spots, it couldn't cut paper (paper form spam mail so standard thickness) easily, some spots would cut until it reached a duller spot and it would tear the paper, any ways when i got this i used it maybe 10-15 times on each side and restored the edge so well that i could slice news paper easily and shave arm hair. I used it on some of my other knives in the kitchen ( some 440c stainless, some crappy cheapo' china stainless and one CPM S35VN ) and it took a little while longer (granted this is very fine and a coarser grit should have been used) but it also gave them quite a nice edge, and it is a lot easier than getting out the stones (or fixed angle sharpener) I think some of the difference in sharpening is due to the easy of sharpening in each respective metal(carbon steels are know for being easy to sharpen and take a fine edge, some stainless's are known for being difficult) i would say this doesn't replace your standard honing rod but it is a great addition to the kitchen.

8/4/17 update - After some reflection on this product, 1 star is too high of a rating and if I could give zero stars, I would. This product is the Justin Bieber of knife sharpening. All flash and glam and a complete hot house flower of a product. Avoid this thing, it's high priced, low quality garbage. 6/15/17 update - I finally heard back from DMT 3 days after I emailed them. The respondent said my email had "gone to the wrong department" (yeah, right) and that is why their response was delayed. I used the email address directly on their own website for customer service. He also said that based on my photo, I used too much pressure and too steep and angle on the CS2 causing damage. Had I bought directly from DMT, I would have been screwed out of $52 (well $61.59 + freight from DMT) because my inability to use the CS2 properly would have voided their shite warranty. WHAT? If you need any more proof to #1) NEVER buy directly from DMT or #2) NEVER buy the CS2 "unbreakable" diamond steel, DMT just put their real intentions into hardened ceramic for me - avoid these clowns and this product at unless you feel like donating $61.59 + freight that is non-refundable directly to DMT! Read my full review below for the details on this misadventure and THANK YOU to Amazon for being what DMT isn't - a stand up, customer centric organization with real customer service. 6/12/17 pdate - Thankfully, I ordered this from Amazon and NOT directly from DMT and I just caught the final return day today. I described the item as defective (it's MAJORLY defective!) and Amazon gave me free freight and a full refund - THANK YOU Amazon! I did email DMT earlier today to see what they would do - more to come on that after they reply. Original review: I'm a knife freak and consider myself very savvy when it comes to knifes, sharpening and overall care. I own Shun, Tojiro and Kasumi Damascus knives and my prize - a rare and hard to obtain Haburn Banno Bunka. I'm meticulous with my sharpening and typically use japanese water stones but I wanted to try the DMT diamond ceramic for quick touch up to see how it worked. I quickly found out that it's a $50 piece of junk. I followed the usage directions to the letter. I was carefully sharpening my Tojiro Flash knife when it started to take chunks out of the ceramic on the sharpener. I changed to my Shun chef knife with super light pressure and it also took out chunks. I haven't contacted DMT yet but their Amazon data says sharpening too vigorously voids the warranty. What? I barely used this stupid thing and it's shedding like Maine Coon cat in spring. Really disappointed. It might be unbreakable but it's also unusable. I'll see what DMT says but I think this diamond ceramic is complete junk. I'll go back to a tradiional ceramic that can take normal use. Unless you can train yourself to immediately use almost NO pressure with the ceramic, I'd avoid this product. I'll continue to use my Japanese water stones, an old school traditional (and breakable) ceramic and good quality setting steel. I feel like I've been suckered by DMT and this is the last DMT diamond/ceramic I'll ever buy. I just ordered a 12" Cooks Standard NC-00381 Professional Ceramic Knife Sharpener from Amazon to replace my worn out but still capable 35 year old ceramic. I've NEVER damaged a true ceramic sharpener with a knife and I destroyed the DMT in 15 minutes.