If you are talking about a ceramic sharpening rod and a butcher's steel the answer is yes, they work quite well for keeping an edge sharp. Not so great if you have a really dull edge. The trick to using the rod is to use very light pressure and make contact only with the final edge. Because of the round shape, only a very small area of contact is made with the edge, so lighter pressure is used. Some folks strop away from the edge, others slice into the rod with the edge. Both methods work and can bring back a slightly dull edge fast.

A kitchen steel, or butcher's steel, is what you're talking about for the thing that broke. It's just a very hard (thus brittle), subtly textured steel rod. The kitchen steel is an extremely fine sharpener, and is really only meant to polish and straighten an edge that's already quite sharp. Unless you run it over the edge every time you use the knife, and never cut anything very hard, the steel alone will not be suitable to keep the knife sharp.

What is the grit on your ceramic? Most ceramics are, again, very very fine (over 1000 grit) and only suited to put the final touches on an edge which is already quite sharp. You want to be looking at something more in the 600-grit range for most sharpening, like if you use your knife for outdoor tasks.

So, it depends a fair bit on how you use your knife. If you use it for mostly soft materials and don't mind running a fine ceramic over it every time you use it, that will do fine, but if you let the knife get noticeably dull it would take a LONG time with just a steel or ceramic rod to bring it back. If you're like most people and use your knife on cardboard and paper (both very abrasive), solid wood etc, and only want to sharpen it occasionally, you want a more aggressive sharpener which will work faster, and only require a couple of strokes to get back to the point where the ceramic or kitchen steel are effective.

SWEET, its a ceramic sharpening rod. I will have to start practicing on other things to "hone" my skills. thanks for the info HD.

Thanks for the tips guys.

I tried sharpening my YK and to be honst it is very scary as I'm not sure what I'm doing. Not sure how much to take...

Any good book with pictures I can get in the market? DVD would help?

any suggestion is great help

I have noticed that the bevel on my knive is not equal - is this normal?

Thanks

I find the angle to sharpen at by drawing the blade across a strip of leather. Start at a very small angle and keep raising it a little until you find the angle at which the blade starts to dig in, or cut the leather. Then I just mimic that angle on my stone.

Also, after you have sharpened a knife a few times you have to sharpen it at a smaller angle to grind the edge back a little. After you grind the edge back, you can sharpen at the original angle.

I hope some of this made sense.

WOW, this might sound like the rants of youngster, but who cares. Last night after doing some cutting with the YK, I decided to strop the blade on my leather belt. And ALACAZAM, that thing was razor sharp!! Alot sharper than if I had used the ceramic stick. I have seen the barbers doing it for years but never thought my belt would work so good.

Well, just thought I would get that out.

If you're looking for tips on how to use your Lansky system ,go to YouTube. They've got a number of videos on there about how to sharpen knives both large and small with that system and others that are similar.

Essentially, you'll want to sharpen the YK with the clamp halfway down the blade, so that you get as even a hone as possible. Use the marker method as previously suggested, so that you choose the right angle and don't remove more material than necessary. I purchased the additional diamond hones (Very fine and extra fine), and find that they do an amazing job of maintaining the edge

Hi, just puttin my 2 Cents in.. I have some nice stones, a Lansky, Chefs Choice electric sharpner, and a Spyderco Benchmark (I think thats the name).

I never have had much luck with the Lansky, especially with knives with big spines. I know it looks like an "idiot proof" system, just goes to show I can break anything or I'm more than an idiot.

I really like the Spyderco sharpner, probably the best edges I have ever had on my knives. If something is really messed up I run it thru the electric sharpner a couple of times to re-bevel, then the Spyderco.

For convex edges I do the free hand thing with mouse pads and sandpaper to keep the convex.

Like I said it's what works for me. I guess that may not be true for all. Practice and test, find out what works for you.

PS. I doubt the forum here has many knife "newbies", but make sure if you are a newbie you understand what type of Edge or Bevel your knife has before you sharpen it.

I need to learn this sandpaper mouse pad trick.

Here is a link with some good info on convex/mouse pad sharpening.

web page

Thanks for the link.

i use many diffrent systems for spyderco sharpmaker ,edge pro apex,and freehand sharpenng on norton stones the strop with bark river compound