Amazon has Arkansas Sharpeners AC46 Ceramic 11.5" Sharpening Stick w/ 7" Rod & Wood Handle for $6.98
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product...BILUV&th=1
Material Ceramic
Brand Arkansas Sharpeners
Color Brown
Item Dimensions LxWxH 3 x 7 x 4 inches
Item Weight 1.6 Ounces
This ceramic honing rod usually sells at $9.49-$11.99 in Amazon.
Comparing to steel honing rods, ceramic honing rods work well on knives made from both soft and hard steels. Steel honing rods are not recommended for very hard steels such as VG10 since your knife can be harder than your honing rod and you end up shaving your honing rod with you knife.
To avoid breaking the ceramic rod accidently, vertical honing method is recommended instead of free-hand method as explained in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4F7kFCNjnI
I personally own the same ceramic honing rod for the last 7 years. It works well on all my knives including expensive Japanese VG10 knives and German knives as well as inexpensive Mercer, Victorinox, and Tramontina knives.
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With this being a handy stand alone honing tool and at this price, these are great tools to have on hand to keep your knives sharp while you work. Just don't wait too long or you may need a more aggressive sharpening tool. And realize they are somewhat brittle because of their hardness and can be damaged in shipping or via abuse. Not my first choice to take camping, but great for the kitchen or home honing a knife.
For the knife fan who hasn't learned to sharpen yet, it's a fairly easy and very satisfying skill to learn. A Dollar Store sharpening stone with course/medium sides, and something like this extra-fine hone would be a great start on the cheap. You may need to level the surfaces of that $1 stone with sandpaper on something flat to get it to work well. The unfinished back side of a genuine leather belt from the thrift store glued to a scrap of flat wood can make for a cheap strop for that really fine edge polish. If you want to move past that a Work Sharp Guided Field Sharpener [youtube.com] is a good purchase at $30 from Amazon. [amazon.com] Watch a few YouTube videos and practice.
If you were to use one of these to keep your knives sharp between use, the average person could keep their knives sharp for a year or so before needing to properly sharpen them.