ShaptonHa No Kuromaku Ceramic Whetstone Medium Grit #1000

As others have observed, the grading of 1000 is probably a little high, it might be more like 800, it's definitely a medium stone rather than a fine one. Whilst you can use it to reprofile an edge, it will take a while, this stone excels at repairing and maintaing an already profiled knife.It's a very high quality stone, its consitency is uniform, there are no grit lumps (giving rise to pimples) and the wear in consistent over the whole surface. It is of one grade throughout, both sides cut the same.It's easy to use, do fully read the enclosed instructions though since some online videos are incorrect, it's not just a "splash and go" stone, it's porous throughout and requires an initial soaking period especially if it has been left to dry out. You also need to regularly splash as you sharpen to both lubricate and remove slurry. It's not as convenient as a dry diamond stone but it's a fraction of the price. In practice using it with a small towel around it is fine, once it has been soaked you only need a teaspoon of water every so often to keep the surface lubricated and clean.The case is nicely designed as well, it is sturdy and clicks closed positively so that even if you do the unspeakable and drop the stone in the closed box it should still be protected from fracture. There are four non-slip rubber button feet on the underside and a four-sided fence on the lid which retains the stone perfectly whilst allowing water and slurry to drain from the gaps in each corner. This means you don't need to buy or make a custom stone holder, the case does a perfectly adequate job for most people.The whetstone has a very nice smooth grind feel when sharpening, you can easily gauge from the drag how much metal you are removing, the tactile feedback from the stone is excellent.Unlike diamond stones this stone will wear and depending on your usage and technique/proficiency you will need to periodically flatten it which requires investing in a separate flattening stone, but it's well worth it and if you use and maintain this whetstone properly it will give you many years of faultless service and hundreds of sharp knives.Whilst you can buy a finer grade stone to finish on, you don't have to. The orange Kuromaku is a good enough compromise that you can use it to both shapen and finish needing only one or two leather strops with diamond paste to raise a knife to a razor edge (dependent on the knife of course).Overall this is an excellent quality stone, I'm very pleased with it and I also believe that it represents excellent value for money since you can just about get away with just the one expensive whetstone plus one flattening stone and a few rawhide strops. (You can do major reprofiling using those cheap diamond stones first.)As a novice I watched many online tutorials before purchase and I went with the consensus of opinion that this was an excellent value one-stone sharpening solution and after using it successfully (I sharpen all my friend's knives for practice) I concur with them all. If I buy an additional whetstone it will be probably be another Shapton.

Much better than the cheap £30 crap for sale. Do yourself a favour and spend the bit extra for one of these. Much better feedback when sharpening and you don’t have to flatten it as much since the blade doesn’t dig in as much. Splash and go as well, no need to soak it for 20min like the other double sided ones.

Wow. Took a blunt kitchen knife to very sharp in about 4 mins, certainly sharp enough for daily kitchen use. I've got 3 other knives that need doing, but will wait until the 2000, 5000, 8000 grit shapton stones I've ordered arrive. If this is the quality of the 1000 grit stone, looking forward to getting a razors edge on all my knives with the other stones.

Really good, come with a nice storage box

This is a good whetstone, and has meant that I've been able to get a much sharper edge on my kitchen knives than with a "pull-through" sharpener. It's also a much more satisfying activity than with the pull-through type.A couple of quibbles:1. It doesn't come with instructions, and there aren't any on the company's website. Not too bit of a deal because there are innumberable ones on on YouTube etc. However, would have been nice to have an "official" because any mug can post a video on YouTube.2. I had to pay £19.13 customs duty, which increased the cost by almost 50%. So the cost of this stone is really £66.46. There's an "answer" from the seller on this page that says the stock is in the UK. Apparently this is not always the case.

Watch a few tutorial videos and buy this sharpener over pull through gadgets, especially if you have knives which you love. It's fairly easy to get started (maybe practice on less precious knives to begin with) and the results are consistently great.

Good quality 1000 grit stone, far superior to the cheap stones available. Ceramic so only needs a splash of water before use so much more convenient than soaking traditional stones. Also comes in a box that doubles as a base stand when in use. Excellent.

This is best sharpening ceramic stone