KING KW65 1000/6000 Grit Combination Whetstone with Plastic Base

Knife sharpening on any whetstone requires more skills than basic marketing will lead you to believe. It requires patience and diligence. If you give it time and effort, it will bear fruit. In this case, a nicely sharpened blade. Whetstones have a very high skill ceiling and will not be rewarding to those who are unwilling to put in the time. It works well if you know how to use whetstones, however, it will not be the easiest to use. I am a beginner and after a couple hours of practice, I was able to place a nice edge on some kitchen knives. It is quite messy when it comes to the red, 1000 grit, side(don't wipe off the stone). It leaves a watery clay like substance that can get everywhere. I would not recommend working on a surface you don't want stains on because the 6000 grit side will shave tiny particles of the metal off and possibly stain your working station and hands(also don't wipe the metal particles off the stone. It's a beginner's mistake). Clean up is pretty easy. All I do is use enough water to rub off the particles off the stone. I just use my fingers to slightly brush off the particles off the stones. I don't want to break up the stones by using coarse sponges or paper towels (do not use paper towels to clean the stones at all. It will leave tiny pieces of paper towel that will hinder your ability to make smooth strokes across the stones. It makes the stone bumpy). Then I just leave em out to air dry. Pretty simple. Using whetstones are an artform and not just something you can dive into with ease. There are a lot of things to understand and implement into sharpening knives using whetstones. The angle of the blade as you sharpen, the path of the blade as it rides the surface of the stone, the pressure you apply to the blade, and the amount of strokes back and forth to get the edge that you want. Also, it's a whetstone, so it's important that the stones are kept wet. Soaking the stone in water is an essential part of the process as well as keeping the surface constantly watered and not doing so will result in suboptimal edges. I would not recommend this for someone who wants an general sharpener for daily kitchen use. This will take too much of your time. However, I think it's a great product for people who are getting into whetstones and what it has to offer. The price is great and the stones are nice.

Very sturdy and effective sanding stone

Super nice whetstone for sharpening tools and knives. I bought this because it was made in Japan...which is great cuz all my leather tools are the same. I use this to sharpen my skiving knife and some kitchen knives. As instructed, soak in water first then use. Once it's wet, it won't move around when you put it on the stand. Mine came from Amazon and no damage at all...and I have been using this for about 1 and 1/2 years.....before writing this review. I spend about 2-3 mins sharpening my skiving knife and can use it for weeks, daily use.....because I am lazy and do wait until it's pretty dull to sharpen again. After a few mins, knife is crazy sharp and cuts through thick leather like butter.

This is one of two whetstones I bought to learn freehand knife sharpening. With this, another coarser stone, and a couple of weeks of practice, I've been able to take about 15 knives that were dull enough to run a thumb across the entire blade without breaking the skin and transform them into knives that effortlessly slice tomatoes with little to no added pressure. The best way to use the stone, in my limited experience, is to sharpen on the 1000 grit side and then only use a stropping motion on the 6000 grit side to polish the edge and remove any remaining burr. Only stropping will help you avoid a couple of things. By not using an edge-leading stroke, you won't accidentally gouge a piece out of the stone if your hand slips and the angle changes drastically. You will also remove less material from the edge, meaning that fewer flecks of removed steel will get stuck on the stone. Since the 6000 grit side has a relatively hard, glassy feel to it, it tends to suck up and hold onto material easily, which will make it polish less effectively until removed. At first, running it under water and rubbing it with your hand will remove a lot of this material, but over time it will build up more material that can't be removed in this way. I've yet to find a no/low budget way of dealing with this effectively. If you don't mind spending another $10-$15, getting a cleaning stone may be a good investment. This stone is cheap enough that when you inevitably try to apply too much pressure at an awkward angle and gouge into the stone, you won't be too upset about it. This is much more likely to happen on the VERY soft 1000 grit side. The solution is to avoid sharpening near the gouge until the rest of the stone is worn down close to the level of the gouge and then lightly rubbing the stone (while wet) against a sheet of sandpaper resting on a flat surface. You can use a #2 pencil to draw a grid on the face of the stone and then sand the stone until the whole grid is gone. Once this happens, your stone is level again and ready to go. Even though this stone is a great value, there are two reasons why I can't give it 5 stars. The first is specific to this stone: it's only 2.5" wide. While this doesn't make doing large chef's or slicing knives impossible, it does force you to turn your body quite a bit if you're sharpening with sweeping strokes. If you plan to sharpen a lot of longer blades, there are some wider, similarly-priced 400/1000 grit whetstones that may suit you better as long as you're OK with not having a high-grit finishing stone. Cheaper whetstones are generally made of softer material, and this stone is no exception, especially the 1000 grit side. Even though it has decent tactile response, it feels like clay and gets very muddy very quickly if you're applying a lot of pressure. With material like this, you'll need to apply water to the surface of the stone more often to prevent your edge from getting caked in mud. Despite those issues, it's still a good stone that has served me well. Grab a whetstone and check out Youtube for plenty of video tutorials on freehand sharpening and go for it! Your knifes will thank you.

This was my first wet stone. I chose the king stone because I wanted a good product but didn't feel like spending a small fortune to learn a new skill. I spent some time watching YouTube videos which helped me pick up the process quickly. The 1000 grit soaking side is easy to use. Just soak the dark half for 3 mins or so. This side gives feedback and seems pretty resilant to novice hands. The 6000 grit is side splash and go. Just add water every few passes. It gives a nice polished edge for sure but this side takes a bit more skill to master. Holding the angle is a bit more important or else you get some gouges in the stone so go slow and try to get the feel and dont go for speed. After using both sides for about 20-30 mins total, my vg high carbon steel knife was pretty sharp. After doing 2 knives, I found using the 1000 grit side takes too long to get my harder steel knives to develop a decent burr. While this is a good stone and I recommend it, depending on your knives' hardness level you may need a coarse stone. Mine are 59 Rockwell hardness rating. To fix this, I have ordered the whetstone cutlery 400/1000 stone to get a dull knife in shape quickly. I just finished using the other stones 400 side then this king stone's 1000, then 6000 on the same two knives and now both have a very sharp edge and the knives slice paper (horizontally, not vertically but that's good enough for me.) So after using this stone 4 times now over the last 2 days, I'm happy with the purchase and do not notice any bad wearing or bowing on the stones but I made sure to use the full stone. An added bonus of buying a 2 sided coarse stone is I am able to use it to keep this king stone in level. I use the 400 side to level the 1000 king stone and the 1000 side to level the king's 6000 side.

The sharpener arrived on time and the stone is good.

Like you, after using various knife sharpeners for years and getting suboptimal results, I've decided to forgo the usual sharpening sticks/devices for my kitchen and pocket knives and try actually sharpening them with a stone. After reading countless instructional websites, stone reviews and watching various videos, and contemplating the cost of these stones versus the others available, i bit the bullet and ordered these stones (along with some angle guides since I'm a noob). First, my stones arrived in great shape, surrounded by ridiculous layers of bubble wrap. No problems there. As others have written in their reviews, there are no instructions (or any written in english) shipped with this product. Nothing a quick internet search can't fix. A little annoying, yes, but not enough to be a big issue. As far as sharpening the knives itself, using this stone was easy and immediately gratifying. Due to my floundering first-time knife sharpening skills combined with pretty dull knives, it took a good 40+ minutes for me to get my first kitchen knife to a respectably sharp edge that could slice paper with ease. However, it was insanely rewarding to achieve that edge. It was also very zen just listening to that soothing scraping noise and moving my knife back and forth over and over. As instructed by others, soak the dark brown portion in a little plate of water for a few minutes while you get prepared. The plastic stand holds the stone well, but the whole contraption does slide around the kitchen counter, so I just put the whole thing on a damp towel and it doesn't move. The towel also helps pick up the additional water that I splash on the stone while sharpening. After sharpening, I just rinse the stone under running water and scrub with my fingers to get the metal powder bits off. Don't forget to let it dry out before putting it away. I'm sure there are much more expense and better professional stones out there, but for a beginner looking to get my knives back to a respectable edge for cooking and food preparation purposes, these stones were great. When these stones do get worn, I'll definitely buy a replacement. No regrets here.

I am a former Arkansas oil stone user (for years and years). They have come and gone. Motivated by a new set of high end German kitchen knives, I went sharpening stone shopping. After a lot of deliberation and review reading, I chose this set of King 1000/6000 whetstones. My choice was made based on a combination of the good reviews left by other Amazon reviewers as well as the price point. A value choice. My whetstones arrived intact; no chips, no cracks. However, that was in spite of the poor packaging. They were just tossed into a large envelope with no bubble wrap or other cushioning materials. Only by the grace of the logistics delivery gods did my stones arrive in perfect condition. I had just purchased an inexpensive EDC folding tactical knife. It arrived dull. Since it was low cost and therefore expendable, it was to be my initial sharpening victim. I soaked the stones in water for 15 minutes. Note: there were no English instructions included. Lots of Japanese instructions but that is a language which I have not learned! i used the 1000 grit stone for about 10 minutes. I do not count strokes or time myself as the best sharpening practioners do (according to YouTube). I alternate sides on every draw across the stone as I was taught to do years and years ago. Which is why I don't need to count strokes. I like to maintain a shallow angle of 15 degrees or less for a sharper, longer lasting knife edge. I did not use an angle guide and have never found that necessary (old school). Since the knife was dull, it was a pleasant surprise that this dull blade was able to sharpen it; articles I read during my research suggested that I might need a 400 grit stone (or something similar) for a dull blade. I tested the knife edge after the 1000 grit sharpening. Would barely cut paper. Then turned to the 6000 grit stone. I sharpened the knife blade on the brown 6000 grit side for about 5 minutes again using alternating side strokes across the stone. Brown side makes a satisfying puddle of brown grit from the sharpening process; this didn't happen with the white/tan 1000 grit side (there was no visible grit puddle). I again tested the blade on paper. This time, the blade cleanly sliced the paper. The knife edge improvement was clearly visible to the naked eye. Usage note: I added additional water drops to the stones as I used them. In my experience with oil whetstones, additional oil drops are always applied throughout the sharpening process. I think adding water drops helped the sharpening process and will extend the life of the whetstones (although that is an opinion and not the results of actual tests). Additional observations: - it was very nice not to have to deal with oil and to be able to just use plain water for these whetstones. I always had to use my oil whetstones outside or in a workshop. I used this whetstone in the kitchen on my granite countertops without fear - the included molded plastic base for the whetstones doesn't look like much but it was very effective securely holding the whetstones while I used them - I expect that sharpening a "sharp knife" (one that hasn't been allowed to get truly dull) may take much less than then the 10 minutes required on this intially dull knife edge