If you are just chopping wood you are going to see blunting by deformation as the wood is not abrasive enough to cause wear. In this case a simple alignment can cause a tremendous improvement (easily above 100%) which is what a ceramic rod will do.
However a ceramic rod will also actually remove some metal. I would actually recommend you first try a smooth steel and/or a canvas strop loaded with chauk paste or plain leather. All they will do is align the edge, they don't remove any metal and thus you will get the maximum lifetime of the blade.
If you do a lot of cutting on very abrasive materials, then an alignment will not be enough as you need to reshape the edge to restore the cutting performance. So it is time to break out an abrasive that can cut the bevels.
-Cliff
[This message has been edited by Cliff Stamp (edited 06-04-2001).]
