is this honing rod made in Japan?

The seller says it's made in China; the ad says it's made in the USA; and the name of it is Kota Japan!!!

Is the steel rod smooth or groved?

Think of two operations - in one, any stone and almost all diamond products, you are removing more or less material. This will leave a "scratch pattern". As the abrasive gets finer and finer, you remove the deeper scratches and leave finer ones, getting finer until the edge is 'sublime.' The grain of the edge's metal will eventually dictate how sharp it can get, and you can verify this with a microscope. What a 'steel' does ideally, when used correctly, is to compact the edge's material, and removes the finest wire edge or swarf left by a stone. Stones and diamonds remove materia, steels refine a sharpened edge - for most knives. Chisels, plane or planer and jointer blades would be hard to accurize with most rod type steels. For such wider, very straight edges, either use a special purpose fixture and machine, or at least a jig and probably a diamond-on-machined-steel-plate untile straight, even, and the same size as the other blades on the cutterhead, then use finer diamond plates, machines steps, or work into polishing in a way that doesn't roll the edge. Some HSS can be made quite sharp.

it's this for honing or sharpening? people are using the words like they are interchangeable.

A regular steel, steel is for honing. When it's a diamond "steel" it takes a bit of metal off the knife, so it also sharpens. it does NOT replace a proper stone for sharpening, either, oil, water, or diamond. But, it could lesson the number of times you'll need to use a stone. I was really quite impressed with the one I got, especially for the money. Touches up the edge beautifully. NOTE: My knives never get really dull. If you have a dull knife you need to use a stone.

does the knife need to be honed after using this sharpener?

Technically yes. This is for extra fine sharpening and should be honed with a 'groved' honing steel and/or strop after and between uses, however the knife is ready to use without honing. A properly sharpened and honed knife edge is like a fine strip of foil that will curve over with use. A honing steel or strop will straighten the foil edge until it wears away. It than needs to be sharpened again. Using this as a sharpener without a honing, than using the knife will leave the blade with an extremely fine 'saturated like' edge, but it is still really sharp. While this will make a low quality steel knife sharp the edge wont last as long as a better, higher quality steel knife. Nothing will help a poor quality steel knife no matter the brand name.

ASIN	B06W9J9RTN
Batteries required	No
Best Sellers Rank	#78,255 in Kitchen ( See Top 100 in Kitchen ) #163 in Manual Knife Sharpeners
Customer Reviews	4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars (3)
Date First Available	4 June 2017
Item Weight	191 Grams
Item model number	NG-XOK2-A3GA
Product Dimensions	45.72 x 3.81 x 5.08 cm; 191 g

Kota Japan 12 In Diamond Carbon Steel Professional Knife Sharpener Rod Kitchen Home Or Hunting Master Chef Hunter Or Home Gourmet Blade Sharpening Rod Or Stick Silver

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