aggressive, but effective
A great value, and well made. The cutting end was secured firmly in the handle. There was no perceptible wobble. It will likely last me a lifetime of occasional use unless I lose it or do something reckless and irresponsible, and it's inexpensive enough that I could conceivably use it that way.As the description says, it's 400 grit. If you are familiar with flat stones, this is VERY coarse. Think of it more like a file, not a hone. It will remove a lot of metal very quickly and it leaves deep scratches -- even with very light strokes because the force is concentrated on a very small contact area. If scratches bother you and you're not willing to spend a lot of time cleaning it up with finer grit rods, don't use this on your favorite pocket folder.In my case I needed it to repair the rolled apex on a cheap serrated kitchen knife that we've been using to cut frozen foods for 15 years. It served that role admirably. That kitchen knife is now back to cutting as well as it ever did.The tool is conveniently small and very versatile. The tapered end of the tool allowed me to get into the smaller serrations, the half-round end worked well on the larger serrations, and the flat side smoothed off the burrs on the other side of the blade. The half-round end has a long groove that could be used to sharpen the point on fish hooks.If you are planning to carry this tool using the pocket clip, be aware that the diamond rod does not retract completely. You'll need to find some kind of cap to cover the exposed nub to prevent it from scratching other gear of abrading a hole in your pack or pocket. It did come with a clear plastic "zip lock" sheath that would be an adequate cover to stow the sharpener in something like a tackle box.
✔ Verified Purchase
G
Glenda Wyatt
September 04, 2025
Great for on the go
It's a great little tool!
✔ Verified Purchase
J
Johannes Pfaff
February 10, 2024
great tool
works great, sharpens my knife in the office
✔ Verified Purchase
✔ Verified Purchase
R
ReviewBeast
April 21, 2024
Decent for touch ups, not for serious sharpening but it has its purpose
I used this on 2 kitchen knives and a pocket knife. My pocket knife was in good shape and 5 minutes of using this tool made it sharp enough to slice paper, but it could have been sharper. The kitchen knives I used this on hadn't been sharpened in a few years and after spending 10-15 minutes on each blade, I was happy with how sharp they were but the tool has lost most of its grit. The diamond feels very smooth now compared to how it did after I sharpened the pocket knife. In my opinion, this is cheap enough that it may be worth just to leave in your go bag so you can touch up your blades on the field but I wouldn't rely on this for putting a quality edge on an already dull blade.
✔ Verified Purchase
May Dull Finely-Serrated Knives With No Warning
This is a review of the Armiika Serrated Knife Sharpener - Mini.The knife sharpener comes in 2 parts. There is the round handle with a housing to insert and hold the other part - the sharpening rod. The entire sharpener rod has what appears to be a fine, diamond-encrusted surface. (I don't know how to determine the actual surface material.) It does easily sand/hone knife blade metal down to sharpen it.The sharpener rod may be inserted into the handle housing from either end. It is designed with 2 different form factors. One half of the sharpener rod is round and tapered to a fairly small, but not tiny point. (If it were tiny, it would probably be susceptible to breakage during use.) The other end of the rod is thicker and rounded except for a longitudinal v-shaped indentation that allows the sharpener to get into smaller serration crevices. Unfortunately, the way it's designed, the fine serration sharpening section doesn't fit into really fine serrations.I got this serrated knife sharpener to sharpen my serrated bread knife. I quickly recognized when I got the knife sharpener that my bread knife's fine serration crevices were much smaller than the smallest sharpening edges I would need to get into with them. I persevered. I tried multiple ways to make the sharpener work on the bread knife's small/fine serrations. I concentrated on about a 1 inch swath of the knife's blade.After trying several differerent approaches, I compared the area I tried to sharpen with the blade's serration areas that I had not touched. In comparing the supposedly "sharpened" area with the unsharpened areas, I could see that I had actually dulled the tiny serrations with the sharpener. I was disappointed in my stupidity. I could see before I even started sharpening it that it wouldn't work, but I tried it anyway and forever ruined a serrated area on my bread knife. My mistake.I expect this sharpener may be successfully used to sharpen serrated knives with wider serrations than the fine serrations of some bread knives. I suggest you take care to ensure the the sanding edge form fits the serrations of your knife. Note that the sharpening rod is very fine and abrasive so that it's easy to take too much metal off the blade's edge when sharpening ANY serration widths. Carefully use the sharpener to avoid removing too much of your knife's edge when sharpening it. Use a very light pressure until you get a good feel for the proper technique.This sharpener did not come with any instructions or warnings at all - just the sharpener in a plastic form-fitting envelope. Because knives can be very valued items, it's my opinion that a responsible manufacturer/seller of this sharpener should at least provide a warning about attempting to use the sharpener on serrated knives with serrations smaller than the sharpener is desgned for. Additionally, a guide would be very helpful that describes how to use the sharpener's different sharpening forms to best sharpen a serrated knife.
✔ Verified Purchase
C
CO Ski Dad
November 05, 2023
Handy field/pocket sharpener for BOTH plain-edge and serrated blades
The handle serves double duty as storage and makes this tool much handier than you might expect. Despite its small size, being able to lock the sharpener into the handle means you can actually get a decent hold on it. The tiny V-edge sharpeners are my first choice for backpacking and travel but then most of my blades are plain-edge. Do be aware that this is QUITE coarse, so good for field touchups and other can't-wait-for-a-real-sharpener tasks, so don't expect a mirror-polished bevel after use.This sharpener makes it onto my "didn't know I needed that" list and would be even more attractive to someone with more combo-edge or serrated blades to work on. This one's going into my camping gear!
✔ Verified Purchase
