Matsunaga Stone Co. King Hyper Standard Sharpening stone For Medium Finish # 1000 (Japan Import)

This is a fantastic stone and this stone by itself will handle all of your sharpening needs short of a polish if you don't desire to polish your edges. The 1000 grit has a nice feel and feedback to it and produces great results. The 250 grit side is great as well it has a nice feel to it and really soaks up water and it cuts quickly. It is great for re-profiling edges or sharpening extremely dull edges. Also if you are in a major hurry and don't have time to do a full sharpening session, the 250 grit side can quickly put a good "working edge" on your knife to get you by. The 1000 grit will get your edges hair shaving sharp no problem. For 20 bucks you cant go wrong. I pair this stone with a Suehiro Rika 5000 grit polishing stone for a nice satin polish finish and wicked sharp edges. It's a great low budget set up that still brings very high quality feel and results.

Bought this to fix a badly damaged knife that had a blade chipped in several places. I've been doing this sort of thing for about fifteen years, so I can't speak for how someone new to this might see it, but the stone was exactly what I needed to grind the blade down and then put a new edge on it. The knife is razor sharp and back in the kitchen after being out of commission for longer than I care to admit.

I received this waterstone a few days ago. Since then, I've spent probably 3 cumulative hours using it with various knives, some kitchen knives, some commercial folders, and some that I've made myself. It took me the first 2 hours to really get the hang of it, and thus it wasn't very effective for those first two hours. Really, I only made my sharp knives slightly sharper and my dull knives were left unchanged. But once I watched a few more tutorials and really focused on each stroke, then results started to manifest. I took a homemade knife with a blade made from a broken mill file from not being able to cut paper to arm hair shaving sharp in just under half an hour. Really, this is an excellent stone. The wear from my poor initial technique is minimal, and I suspect that this product will last quite a while with proper care. Soak for 15-20 minutes prior to use, and wet periodically so that you get a thin slurry on the surface of the stone. This is my first whetstone, and I can say that if you're willing to put in the effort and exercise some patience, the results will be substantial. And for the price, I wouldn't hesitate to buy this King stone again once it wears out.

The 1000 builds up a really nice slurry and is really nice to sharpen with however it's too thin of a stone to really get a good even bur.

It's a two-fer, like, you get a super rough #250 for fixing up your beat-up blades, and then a #1000 for cleaning up the scratches. Basically, one side's for when your knife's straight-up wrecked, the other's for getting it ready for the fancy sharpening. It's a decent size, not too big, not too small. King's supposed to be alright, gets the job done without breaking the bank. Gotta soak it in water, typical whetstone stuff. Haven't actually put it to the test yet, but seems like it'll do the trick for getting those edges back in shape.This review represents my personal opinion and experience with this product. I am not affiliated with the manufacturer or seller, and this review should not be interpreted as an endorsement or professional advice. Any reliance on the information provided is at your own risk.

Despite a horrible experience with AmazonI really like this product.This multi grit stone though targeted toward novice blade sharpeners will be useful as you progress.It is a waste of money to buy coarser grit (below 400) that are expensive. By their very nature as a coarser grit they will wear quicker and not stay flat as long. Buy cheaper stones to fix a blade and save your money for nicer higher grit (500 to 3000) to sharpen your blade. Anything above merely polishes your work with very small rewards. Back to this combo. Nice coarser grit side to repair your edge and decent enough higher grit side to do the job as you learn. When you progress this stone will still have a use and you won't be wasting your money. Make no mistake, do your part and you will have an edge you can shave with with this combo. Good luck and have fun.

Very versatile stone for chef's knives. I liked it enough after doing pretty extensive thinning on an AUS-10 gyuto that I bought a second to put back. The 250 grit was also fast cutting a new edge on Masahiro's zcd-u high-carbon. The 1000 grit side will be a bonus when Im between staple stones. Solid value at around $20!

New to the wet-stone sharpening concept, but I picked up a bucket full of old garage sale chisels and a little patience and help from Robert Larson 800-1800 Honing Guide had me up and running in no time.I give it a 20 minute soak in room-temp water and continue to wet by squeezing a rag every half-dozen passes. It seems to work best with a bit of standing water allowing it to generate a slurry that is most effective. The honing guide allows me to put solid pressure which works effectively. I'm not overly concerned with sheen or presentation, so the 250/1000 combo fits my needs great to sharpen back to perfect functionality. It's easy to bring them back sharper than they are new.One other thing I'll note: I found this to be incredibly relaxing. Turned on some music and tuned up 4 or 5 chisels in an hour. A bit of a meditative experience that I really enjoyed, of course that's why I hang out in my tiny basement shop anyway. King products are great and I would purchase again and likely will buy other varieties! (And eventually one of those re-grading blocks to re-flatten the stones themselves).