Shapton K0702 Blade, #1000, Medium, Orange

This whetstone feels very well made. It's a medium coarse stone and was recommended to me as an excellent mid-grade quality stone; an upgrade over the very popular budget King 1000/6000 stone. If you only want to buy one affordable splash and go whetstone, the Ha no Kuromaku (Shapton) 1000 is a great buy. 1000 grit is a good all purpose grit level for general sharpening, 100-200 is good for major repairs, 200-500 is good for small repairs, and 5000+ is good for polishing very hard steel knives or razors.This is a fairly dense stone and does not seem to shed much. The stone is very easy to use, no soaking required. Just splash with water and start working. Very convenient to not have to soak and wait.The case is a nice touch. The case can also act as a holder while your sharpen and has rubber feet to prevent movement. I would still put this on a towel or anti-slip mat because there will still be water involved.Tip: If you only sharpen on the blank side you can keep the wording intact and always read what stone this is, but Shapton does color code there stones and orange is the color for medium 1000 grit stone. I would also get a lapping or flattening stone for future use. All whetstones will eventually wear unevenly and dish (become sunk in the middle) after many uses, when this happens it's very hard to sharpen properly. Luckily this stone is very hard and will not dish easily. The Atoma 400 diamond plate is a good flattening plate for 500+ grit stones and can also serve as a coarse sharpening plate for knife repair.

I now own 4 of the Shapton Ceramic Whetstones: 120 grit, 320 grit, 1000 grit, and 2000 grit. Every single one of them have been as good as advertised and worth every penny spent.This specific review is for the 1000 grit:The feedback is amazing. The cutting action is 4.6/5. The wear of the stone on a knife (up to 60 Rockwell) is 4.7/5. However, it is very easy to flatten when it needs to be flattened and easy to maintain and clean. I have sharpened 6 knives on it so far: KA-BAR 5.5" fixed blade, SOG Seal PUP, Kershaw Oblivion (CPM-154), Kershaw Blur (S30-V), Kershaw Cryo Tanto (8cr13MoV), and an old cheap EDC. I have lost MAYBE 0.5 mmr of stone.I have attached photos of the stone on top of the case (which doubles as a base for the stone) with a ruler over it so you can see the dimensions. Also, I included a photo of the edge of my SOG Seal PUP after using this (1000 grit) stone under a 45X magnification. In my experience, this stone is EXTREMELY close to 1000 grit.Unless something completely unexpected presents itself concerning a flaw with this stone, I will be purchasing another one soon so I have another for years to come in case they discontinue this line. This is, by FAR, the best 1000 grit stone I have used (I have used KING (3 different versions of their 1000), SHAPTON GLASS, Suehrio CERAX, NANIWA, GOKUMYO DEDABO, and a few others).In case it matters to anyone, I used the Suehrio CERAX 700 prior to using this one.

Excellent, marvelous, great, great stone.

Works great, my knives are nice and sharp now.

Was a gift for my husband and he lives it.Said it was just what he was looking for.

This is the best "Japanese water stone" I've ever used.I have some cheap "Japanese-style water stones" but the Shaptons are much better.The price is great too, for 'real' "Japanese water stones".The "1000" is closer to a medium grit in my opinion.But it was good enough I bought a 1,500 & a 220 grit stones.The 1,500 is about as fine as my 1,000 grit diamond plate & works great for sharpening a plane iron.They are very good sharpening stones & amazon's prices (1,000 & 1,500) are good, too.(I got the 220 from sharpening supplies d0t c0m, $43.)I recommend the Shaptons & would buy again.

This is my favorite 1000-grit stone so far.Waterstones work quickly because they constantly expose a fresh layer of abrasive, by allowing the top layer to be rubbed off. This tends to make them fairly soft, and they don't stay flat. Most waterstones need to be soaked in water for a while before they work properly. Traditional American oilstones and Arkansas stones don't need to be soaked, and they don't expose a fresh layer of abrasive -- the abrasive stays on the surface and eventually becomes duller and is easily clogged, and the stone works slowly, but it remains flat.These Shapton stones are the best of both worlds. They never seem to get dull, so the top surface must be coming off and exposing a fresh new layer. But, they stay flat. I'm not how that works, but it really does. The Shapton stones are ready to use right away -- all you need to do is splash a little bit of water on top of them. There is no soaking, and no waiting (in fact, soaking is bad for these stones). They come in a great plastic case that is ventilated so the stones will not get moldy, and has a little border on top to hold the stone while you are sharpening.These stones are the Japanese-market version, called "Ha no Kuromaku." The same stones are sold as the Shapton Professional line by most US retailers, with a higher price. As far as I can tell, both versions are the same. They are good value for money, and I expect that one of these stones will last an average chef or woodworker several years of frequent use. You can get a much larger King waterstone for the same amount of money, but it will wear down faster, so I think the Shaptons are similar in terms of the amount of use you can get per dollar.