Kota Japan 3000-8000 Grit Whetstone Knife Sharpening Stone

I bought this to help polish some small metal parts, and it worked very well for that. Then I sharpened all my knives, and for my purposes it worked very well. Every knife I own is much sharper. I had a chef's knife that has never been sharp enough, and now it is.

High quality, able to sharpen well, base is nice but there is still some slip if you’re on certain surfaces. Soak it, sharpen, clean and put away, it works great.

It sharpens. It's a good price. What's there to complain about. The base is fantastic it keeps my cleaver sharp no complaints here.

For anyone who is looking to experiment with waterstones at a higher grit than most home sharpeners this is a great value. If you decide that waterstone sharpening is not your thing then you've only spent a few dollars. Stone came well packaged in perfect condition, but don't let the name fool you at this price you're getting a made in China stone (as labeled on the box). I found that both sides are pretty true to stated grit and worked as expected to bring marginally sharp kitchen knives up to a very keen edge. Keep in mind that the 6000 grit side is quite soft and if you don't carefully lift your knife off the the stone the tip will gouge the the surface. That softness also means that you can rapidly hollow the stone so you'll need to occasionally flatten the stone, I'll use a old diamond sharpening hone when I get to that point.

I love my wet stone. It works great and came packaged with instructions and a lovely thank you card.

When I bought this stone I really thought it's made in Japan, but this company name "Koto Japan" is actually run by Chinese and this product is "Made in China". When I first open the package and soak the stone in the water. I see all that bubble coming out I was like "This is not fine grit at all" If you soak any Japan made #1000 grit stone and up you won't see any bubble coming out. I know this because I been using all different stones during the last 20+ years. This bubble thing ever happened to me before is when I bought this #200 grit stone at some Chinese supermarket for $2.99. It's cheap and it's for the kitchen knife that my wife use at home and the same thing happened to this stone. After I tried this stone. the #1000 grit side feels exactly like the one I bought in the Chinese supermarket. The so-called #6000 grit side is not even close to comparing to my #1000 grit King stone. Good thing I tried to sharpen my cheap kitchen knife first. I have been working as a sushi chef for over 20 years. Since I retired and I can't buy anything from Mutual trading anymore. I am trying to find a replacement stone for the Masamoto #5000 grit white stone. That's the stone I been using for 20 years. The closest stone I found is the King #6000 grit stone. All my sushi knives are over $1000. I wouldn't want to use this cheap stone to sharpen it. So I have to return this product. Hope this review helps.

I have used this stone for a while now and I am very impressed. The stone comes in a well made cardboard box for storage if you choose, otherwise it will store well on your work bench using the just top and bottom rubber edge covers. These covers work great for keeping the stone in place while you use two hands on your knife or tool you are sharpening. I have tried this out on some chefs knives that were badly in need of a new edge and this stone brought them back to a fantastic edge using the coarse side first to bring the ragged edge into shape and the soft side to hone it razor sharp. I don't believe you can go wrong for the money and I haven't seen anything to compare to a stone this size. I don't believe they provide the dimensions in the description so the dimensions are 2 5/16" X 7" which is enough width for all of my chisels and hand planes. I am very happy with this purchase.

Soaked it for 20 minutes before using.I use a Spyderco ultra fine stick for my normal sharpenig. I've been very happy with the results. Until now. The incredibly fine edge was something I hadn't experienced before. Getting the angle and stroke consistency takes time, but once I got it down on this blade geometry the process was simple. The 3000 grit side took a few minutes on each side to get straightened out and consistent. Soaking it again for a few minutes on the 8000 side it took a bit of patience to really get that fine, polished edge.I am so far very pleased with the stone. The base is made from silicone, it would be nice if it were rubber so it would be less likely to slide. Maybe I will make a wood holder for the edgenof my counter top.The only thing I'd like to see different is the length of the stone. For me, I'd like an extra inch or two. But changing the angle to something more accute will work. I prefer perpendicular, but that's just me.I love it, I think you will too.