Worksharp M3 Honing Rod Review – Diamond and Ceramic Honing Rod – Microforge

With the Worksharp M3 Honing Rod, you get a diamond and a two-sided ceramic rod. The handle has a feature called—Microforge, which puts tiny non-pointed teeth on your knife edge. It will increase the edge retention on knives with softer steel.

Diamond honing rod

The diamond honing rod has a grit size of 320; this immediately tells you that the diamond honing rod is intended to resharpen your knife and not intended as a honing rod to maintain your knife. The diamond honing rod also comes with a plastic holder with holes and spacing to dry the honing rod completely to avoid rusting. They also rubberized the tip to add extra grip. 

Ceramic honing rod

The ceramic rod has a 6000 grit size, but the density and the hard ceramic bond will cut faster and feel rougher than a 6000 grit Waterstone. The grooved side has the same grit size as the smooth side, but it removes more material than the smooth side due to the ribbed structure and less surface area. The ceramic rod also includes a rubberized tip. 

Work Sharp M3 Handle

The handle has texturized rubber grips, which are very sturdy and comfortable to hold. It even has a thumb rest, which is ideal for the included Microforge. The included angle guide of 17 degrees helps you maintain the correct angle during your strokes. 

How to use the honing M3 rod

It is important to determine the state of your knife edge. In this example, I will dull the knife with a stone until it can’t cut through anything. When the blade is very dull, you use the diamond honing rod. I will use ten strokes on each side without alternating. Once that is done, I will refine the edge with the ribbed ceramic-sided rod using ten alternating strokes. After that, I did ten alternating strokes on the smooth side to smooth out the knife edge. And the results speak for themselves. It can sharpen a completely dull knife without problems. If the knife condition is still good, you can use the ceramic rod to maintain the knife edge. 

The Microforge

The design of the Microforge is to increase the lifespan of a knife with softer steel. It protects the knife from impact and rolling damage. It is safe to use the MicroForge on knives with a Rockwell below 63. However, the benefits are minimal for knives above a Rockwell of 58. I recommend the Microforge to those that don’t know how to maintain and sharpen their knives. If you know how to maintain your knife and sharpen it, you can skip the Microforge or use it on knives with a 56 or lower Rockwell, where the Microforge shines the best. I don’t recommend the Microforge on knives above 58.  

Suitable for home cooks?

The M3 honing rod is suitable for domestic cooks. It removes the guesswork and assists you in maintaining a correct angle. The added Diamond rod is a great extra option to resharpen your very dull kitchen knives. It makes this M3 honing rod ideal for most domestic cooks that don’t know how to sharpen or maintain a knife. The honing rod guides you in every step, so chances of the wrong usage are minimized. And combined with the MicroForge, you will get a knife with significantly longer edge retention. 

Knife enthusiast and professional cooks

For knife enthusiasts and professional cooks who already know how to maintain and sharpen their knives, the M3 honing rod limits usage. The added angle guide is not what we always want. If your blade is sharpened at a 15-degree angle, you will add a micro-bevel on your knife with the 17-degree angle guide. For professional cooks, the honing rod’s length is limited to knives with a length of around 20cm. There is also no finger guard, so your honing strokes are also limited. 

Final Conclusion

The quality is very good, and the M3 Honing rod is suitable for most domestic cooks without any knowledge of honing or sharpening. The added Microforge is a nice extra feature that you can experiment with, and it is easy to remove the serration with the included diamond rod. The M3 honing rod is beginners friendly, and it will guide you through the honing process. You can also use the Ceramic rod in wet conditions. It will give even more refined results, and it is easier to clean the honing rod after.

Improvements or suggestions

I’m very pleased with the quality of the handle and diamond rod but especially the ceramic rod. I only wish that Work Sharp had an alternative option with a more extended version of 10 to 12 inches and instead of the angle guide a finger guard. Since the rods are detachable, I wish to have an upgrade option to change the angle-guided handle with a finger guard’s handle. With this simple change, you have a honing rod that is suitable for more experienced users and professional cooks. It would be my go-to honing rod if Work Sharp included this alternative option. The ceramic rod alone is the best I have used so far. 

🛒S H O P:

NA: M3 KNIFE SHARPENER
EU: M3 KNIFE SHARPENER

NA: WORK SHARP

N O T E S:

The MicroForge is a good feature but hard to explain. It is best to test it on a cheap lower Rockwell knife of 56 or lower and see the effect for yourself. The amount of force applied will also affect cutting performance and edge retention. Due to the Micro-serrations, it is not good to do a paper cutting test that does not represent the actual usage of the MicroForge. The MicroForge is great for root vegetables and increases edge retention and prevents rolling on softer steel.