Silverline CB14 Silicon Carbide Combination Sharpening Stone Fine / Medium Grade

Quality item. Boxed. Sharpens well. Great price.

This whetstone is a nice introduction into sharpening, I chose to wet mine whilst sharpening and after getting the angle just right (depending on what kind of knife it is and how the bevel is set) I was getting some decent edges which could cut paper and desecrate oranges with ease. For such a cheap price at under £4 it's a good introduction to try your hand at sharpening, mine worked just fine, it can maintain your kitchen and pocket knives no problem, maybe you'll scratch them up a bit at first but atleast they're sharp now right? Four stars for the cheap but usable product, nice little dinky plastic case (Mine was yellow!) for storage, had a couple of chips and imperfections where the grain on the stone wasn't at all that good. If you're looking to get your blades really really, and I mean really sharp and you have the steel to hold it you should definitely get a better stone at atleast 1000+3000 or higher with perhaps a strop of sorts (or a quality 400+1000 to proceed such a high q stone) because this blocks grit is rough as a badgers backside on both ends in comparison and on about 15% of my surface, not consistent for my likes. Also the blue side is the roughest grit (or the darker one atleast, correct me if I'm wrong)

Absolutely brilliant for knifes in the kitchen

At first I thought this product was absolutely rubbish, but that was because I had never sharpened a knife using a whetstone before. ANYONE who is new to knife sharpening I would urge to begin with a cheap knife you don't mind scratching up, because until you get your angle hand right - you'll scratch up the finish of your blades. Before use, soak the stone in water for 5 minutes, and then use whilst wet to stop it clogging with steel. The reason I've not given it 5 stars is because the fine side isn't very fine at all - and you'll still need to use a ceramic rod or something finer to get a polished edge. But what can you expect for this price? BUT like some of the other reviewers the corners of the stone were chipped, and not only that - the stone was quite uneven all over. So the chipped sides can't be used to sharpen a curved blade, and even the main sharpening sides have annoying little bumps which can ruin a good sharpen.

...but my knives are a lot sharper after using this little baby to grind them once in a while. In between I use the steel (rod) in my knife set to unroll the edges (I'm sure my wife planes doors with them when I'm not looking). One thing that I have found to make a difference in the length of time an edge is retained, is the use of a good leather strop in conjunction with the sharpening stone. You can get them on Amazon too - but I was given mine. Also - if you're unsure about how to go about sharpening a knife - youtube has a wealth of material that you can check out. The case is cheap plastic - but mine is still working and it has holes that you can use to screw it to a surface if you desire. I don't bother. For the price, I've got massive value out of this stone; it was worth it just so I can slice my tomatoes nice and thin again! I'd recommend it.

Good product, good service.

Silverline CB14 200 mm Sharpening Stone Having lost my old one which, how I do not know, I needed a replacement but as usual wanted to pay as little as possible so chose this, the cheapest I could find. It does not sharpen as well nor will it last as long as my old one, which was pre 1950 and passed down 3 generations but this is cheap and will do for general sharpening, not to my usual standard but good enough for most purposes. Silverline products have always proved good value for me and this is no exception.

This is the second one of these we have bought as this one was a gift. It does exactly what it needs to with one side for sharpening and one side for refining. We’ve had our one for over 6 months and we’ve used it to sharpen everything from knives, scissors and an axe. Can be a bit difficult to use at first but if you just keep it wet (water spray bottle works in our experience) then you get the hang of it easily enough. I say we, as this was mostly for my 15 year old son, who is slowly turning into bear grylls. Great value