Quantum Produkt 1000/3000 Grit Knife Sharpening Stone

The first one I received came broken but I understand these things happen from time to time. The size was a little bigger than I expected which is good as It is for larger knives. The second one is waiting at the p.o. box and I should pick up today. If there is nothing wrong, I hold to this review. If there is, or it surpasses my expectations , I will add to this review and give more feedback where it is due.

It's amazing what the right tools can do. I never realized how "coarse" the other grey stones I had were until I used these. Obviously these finer stones don't remove metal as quickly, but I spent some time getting my wood chisels back in shape, and these stones left a razor sharp cutting edge and a near mirror smooth face. WOW.

Sharpens great for the price. I have used it on pocket knives, kitchen knives, and even a set of hair shears with great results. I would recommend it to any friend looking for a good stone at a solid price point.

Excellent and useful product.

This is one of the better waterstones I have used. I highly recommend this product.

Awesome! Just what I expected!

let me just start by saying, I had a hard time deciding whether to give this 3 or 4 stars.. It does work, and it does what it says, but, the wear rate on one side is not that great, and it has some small things that you will need to work with to have it work good.At the end, everything past ********** is information on how to use it, and corrections, or additional info about how to use the stone, that they do not put on the box. If you already know how to use the stone, you can skip that last part.. everything past ********** that is.I have used these types of stones for years, and I have used good ones, like mercer cutlery, and king brand ones, and I have used generic ones that are so cheap that they wear down so fast that there is a large indent from sharpening just one knife. A good sharpening stone should wear down slowly, slow enough that with just one knife, you really should not see barely any marks from using it, with just one knife.. On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 not wearing at all, and 1 being trash, I would give ones like mercer cutlery, and king brand about a 9.I have gotten 2 different whetstones of this brand. the 1000/3000 grit one, and the 1000/6000 grit one. First, let me say, they are not equal.This 1000/3000 one, I would actually give 2 different ratings for. You see, the 1000 grit side wears down, not at an extremely slow rate, but a decently slow rate. There was a little bit of a mark, but not a lot, from using it, per knife (I had a stack of knives I got used that needed sharpened, so I had plenty to work with). I would give the 1000 side, probably around a 7 out of 10, in how good it works, and how fast it wears down. But, the 3000 side is completely different. I noticed a bit of little bit of wear after just one knife.. I would give the 3000 side, a rating of maybe 5 out of 10.The reason I previously stated that they are not equal... The one that I got that was 1000/6000, the 1000 side was the same, but the 6000 side of that one, I would give a rating of 7 too. It is not that bad. If you want my opinion, if you need a stone, I would just get the 1000/6000 one, since it is made better. Here is a link to that one  Quantum Produkt 1000/6000 Grit Combination Corundum Whetstone Knife Sharpening Stone / Double Two-Sided As for sharpness. I would say that the sharpness rating of both sides is pretty good. The stone was pretty easy to use, and did work pretty good when flat. It comes with a rubber base too. That seemed to work good for me too, but, I have no idea how good it would work straight on a table. I always use mine, where I put a damp rag under mine, this way, any water or slurry that comes off of the stone, will not make a mess. Plus, if I need to wipe the blade off, I get the rag right there to use for that too. I will say that the rubber base was decently made.A couple of things that I did not like. First, when I put mine in the water, there was tons of air coming out from the seam where the two sides meet. While I had no problem with it coming apart, it just make me wonder just how well that they will stay connected over time if there is that much air in between the 2 different sides. Next thing that I found was the emblem on the top did not help the products ratings either. What I found was, when the stone was wearing down, the black emblem on the stone, did not wear down too. This caused the problem of it being higher then the stone, as the stone wore down, and you could feel the thump every time that you went over it. What I did to correct this was, I took the 1000 grit side of my other stone I got, and rubbed it up against the 3000 side of this one, until the emblem wore off. It is a minor inconvenience, but, this should have been taking into consideration when being made. I have never had this problem with any of my other whetstones, and I have used probably about 8 brands of them before. So, this is not a common thing.Just in case you want to know.. I have no idea where this is made. I looked on the box, the instructions, which were on the box, the stone itself.. I looked everywhere, and I could not find anything that says where this is made. I will bet I could guess though..My overall opinion. It is an OK stone. It will do the job too. But, I think that the 3000 side wears down a little too fast, but the 1000 side is much better. I would not think so badly of this if it was the 1000 side that wore down fast, since once you get a decent edge on there, you usually do not need to use the rougher, 1000 grit side again, and for this reason the more heavily used side will be the 3000 side, and that is the one that wears down the fastest. That is what really dropped the rating to 3 instead of 4 stars. But, the stone does work, It works as stated, and it does do a good job of sharpening, so technically, it does what it is supposed to do. So it does work as promised. But, I think that it just wears down a little too fast for my preference. I am going to include a photo so you can see how the lettering does not wear down, and how it was sticking up. You can see by where it scrapes clean, and where it leaves the slurry behind, as to where the high spots are. I know, it is of the 6000 grit one that I am putting a picture up of, but, the 3000 one did the same thing. I wore it off with the other whetstone, before I thought to take a picture of that one. As I stated, the stone does work, and it does do the job. It is just a mid grade stone.. That it all. For how much I use these, and keep up with my knives, and ones for other people, this one would just wear down too fast for me, so I am not a big fan. But it would be fine for someone who just uses it occasionally.**********I have to give them credit, in the fact that the instructions are pretty easy to read, and pretty well written. There is not a lot of missing words, incorrect information, or things like that, in the instructions. I am not saying that they are perfect. There are errors, but it is still much better then some others that I have seen. Here are a few things to note, vs the instructions that are written on the box.When they say to make sure the stone is leveled, they are saying, make sure it is flat. To make it simple, they say to just rub the course side of one stone, against the smooth side of the stone that is not level. I usually do this in a sink with a bit of water in it. doing this, when the particles come off the stone, they will mix in with the water, and make it much easier to make it flat, plus, it makes less of a mess too.Step 4, they say to sharpen the stone at 10 to 20 degrees per side. About that. Most knives, they recommend about 15 degrees. Only high end, or very good quality of knives, do you want to do anything as low as 10 or even 12 degrees. It is best to stay at about 15 degrees, unless you are using a knife that is a blunt type, like a cleaver. Something like that, say closer to 20 degrees.When sharpening a knife, they state to do it 10 to 20 strokes, then flip, and continue, back and forth. They also say to put pressure as you push it back and forth. What they do not tell you is, you do not have to stick with that 10 to 20 range, because that will very depending on the pressure you put on it, how fast it wears down, and how ad the edge is. If it is really bad, you may want to start with more like 30 or so swipes, then flip, to get it to a decent edge, and angle, with no nicks, instead of the constant flipping. Also, when you swipe it back and forth, you would only put pressure down as you putt it away from the cutting edge. Basically, if the blade is going to pushed where the cutting edge goes toward, or into the stone, do not put pressure. You will ruin your edge by doing that, plus, you can gouge the stone too if not careful.They also put: Note: Do not wash away the floating grey particles as those are used to sharpen the knife.. or something like that.. Wrong.. Let me put it this way.. If the stone is white.. The slurry is grey. Your knives metal is grey. The reason it is grey is because of the metal particles in the slurry that came off of the knife. Obviously, the stone is what is putting the edge on the knife, not excess knife particles that have been cut off of the knife. So, why would you think that these excess metal particles are going to do a good job of sharpening your knife, with accuracy. It is like saying, hey, I am going to push my knife into a mud pile, or through some apple sauce, and that will sharpen it. You need a solid surface to rub against to get an edge, not a slushy mess.. so basically, they won't sharpen anything. Go ahead and put a little water on the stone and wipe that slurry off if you want. Trust me, it is not going to get any sharper, any faster, with them on there. Do not use oil on this either. Only use water.They say that this has a 3 year warranty. That is a warranty against faulty manufacturing. If you wear it out, they are not going to replace it.. and if you drop it and break it in half, they will not replace it either. Manufacturing faults only. So basically, the warranty is useless. I hope this helps clarify some things for you all.

Although my sharpening stone came in with one of the corners chipped for some odd reason, packaging and the outer box was fine, I am still gonna review this item and give it maximum stars. The reason behind this is because even after the minor defect the stone does perform up to par with what it is intended to do and that is sharpen knives. I already have a stone rated at #10,000/#30,000 but needed something much less for those dull knives. This happens to fit the bill and for the price it's worth every penny.Disclaimer: I received this product at a discount for an unbiased and honest review. The fact that it cost me very little has no bearing on my rating or review of the product - this product has earned the rating I have given it. It may not reflect the opinion of other reviewers as everyone sees certain things as pros or cons based on their personal need/experience. Each review is honest and I never promise a great review in exchange for a product/discount.