ZWILLING Professional 12-inch Sharpening Steel

Works great!

I have a set of J.A. Henckels "Pro S" knives and have struggled to keep them sharp. Without fully understanding what goes into keeping a knife sharp, I bought a sharpening kit containing different diamond and sandstone surfaces. This kit removes actual metal from your knife every time you use it. It did make my knives sharp, but the benefit never lasted more than one or two uses. This lead me to do more research and learn about the important practice of honing your knife to keep the edge straight. I bought this honing steel and it made a dramatic improvement in the cutting ability of my knives. I now understand that I should sharpen my knives once or twice a year but I should hone them every time I use them. Honing doesn't remove any metal, so it won't wear out the blade. In my testing, 5 passes along each side of the blade (10 total swipes) is enough to make my Pro S Chef's knife cut like it is brand new every time. This particular steel has a very high quality feel and it also is very long so my long chef's knife doesn't run out of runway. I wish I had learned about this a long time ago!

I spent quite a bit of money on Zwilling pro knives in hopes I would finally have a set of knives that cut like the knives I saw on all the cooking shows. I bought the 8" chefs knife, the 6" utility knife, and the paring knife. I was totally impressed with all of these knives when I first received them. They were scary sharp. I used these knives daily and they slowly dulled over time (as all knives do). I used my left over sharpening rod from a previous set of knives to sharpen my Zwilling knives. I was disappointed that I could never get them as sharp as they were when I first bought them. I mistakenly believed it was a flaw of the knives. My last ditch effort to avoid buying a whole set of new knives was to buy an actual Zwilling JA Henckels sharpening rod and see if it made a difference. I was truly stunned at the difference a quality sharpening rod made. I feel like I have a new set of knives. They may even be sharper now than when I first bought them. My fingers feel fear when I bust out my knives. I still have all of them....as of the date of this review.

It is made in Germany. It will work well.

Excellent product: Well-made and durable. That's why so many professional Chef's use this Zwilling Professional S 12" Honing Sharpening steel! Extremely Durable and long lasting! Can't go wrong with this purchase. If you're serious amateur Chef or a gourmet or even a would-be Professional Chef: This is the honing steel, you need to buy. You will never regret this purchase! Happy Honing.

This is probably as good as you can get these days: Zwilling doesn't make my 14" steel anymore. t least this is a REAL 12" steel--that is, the rod is 12" + 5" for the handle (total 17"). Some vendors, especially in China, include the handle in the length, so you get only 7" of steel. Also the texture of this steel could and should be finer. But as I say, I think it will be hard to find a better steel than this one without spending a lot more money. N.B.: this is made of real steel--not ceramic, not diamond-coated. It doesn't sharpen--it resets or refreshes or realigns the edge of a sharp knife that has begun getting a little dull. If used often and correctly (see YouTube for demos) it will greatly reduce the need for sharpening (on a whet stone or other abrasive item) your knives.

Seller packaged the product well and shipped quickly.

This sharpener works great probably the best one I’ve ever gotten I have the same brand in a finer grain. They both work amazing.