Matsunaga Stone Co. King Sharpening stone for Sickle Medium finishing K-36 #800 (Japan Import)

Awesome hone! I use this to set bevels on my straight razors and to freshen up my kitchen knives. I let mine soak in water for a few hours or until the bubbles stop coming off the stone. The stone can slide around as you hone so i suggest a damp rag on wood to help keep the stone still, you could also use wax,rubber, or a specialized holder but a rag and wood is usually cheapest and most available.I drizzle a few drops of water onto the stone as i sharpen the blade (if the stone soaks up the water it needs more time in the water soaking) as you hone you will get a slurry from the metal you are removing from the blade as well as from the stone. Let this slurry build for a few strokes and then slowly dilute it with a couple drops of water every ten strokes or so. This will act like going through finer progressions of sandpaper and leave a very nice finish on the edge. If you want an even finer edge repeat the process on a higher number stoneThese stones take some time to set up having to dunk them in water and they are not the fastest cutters but for the price or for someone just looking to sharpen their own knives or tools you cant beat these Japanese products ^_^

Genuine Japanese stone as far as I can tell. Grit rating accurate and cuts all the steels I’ve tried it with.

I needed an inexpensive, quality stone to teach Scouts proper sharpening techniques without removing large amounts of metal from their edge before they gained a rhythm for sharpening. Still able to produce a great cutting edge and have plenty of stone surface to work with for pocket knives to fixed blades. Quality stone without breaking my budget.Soaked it for 24 hours before use and frequently had the boys pour a little water on it to keep the stone wet but not remove all of the slurry which helps with the edge. Definitely recommend for a worthy edge for blades used in the outdoors.

It’s a decent stone, especially at this price point. I like generally like King stones. Works fast and wears fairly well. The slurry isn’t as lush and thick as I’m accustomed to but no biggie, and the upside is that I can see my work and am less likely to scratch my blade surface. It’s still aggressive and a little less slurry and pressure seems to make a finer edge on this 1k. I’m no expert but it could be that technique is just improving. Makes a nice bevel. Also, it flattens quickly and isn’t too soft. The unfortunate thing is that it is glued to a cheap hard plastic base and you can’t access both sides of stone. Nonsensical design, but would be tolerable if the base itself were slip resistant. It’s annoying when working on larger and/or heavy blades, thus the lower rating. I had no problems when honing a straight razor or pocket knife. Again, I do like the stone, and it’s inexpensive.

This whetstone outperforms those expensive heavily marketed Blue / white colored sets amazon keeps promoting. Bought this cheap stone and a nice looking $60 set from Kyre. Ive used cheap lanksy budget stones , lanksy sharpening system, super fine dental tool stone and this stone. Im no expert , but this stone feels so much better in quality than the appealing colored 1000/6000 grit combos. This stone is more forgiving and gives me a mirror polish in combo with a strop. I ran my Delica 4 fresh from the factory 10 times on both sides and surprisingly increased the sharpness. Ive used this for expensive custom kitchen knives , cheap ozark trail knives and expensive benchmades / spyderco knives. This is a great buy.

For the price it seems to be working just fine. I would put up the extra cash and get a two sided 1000/6000 grit. But it lets me sharpen my hand tools and I can woodwork in my spare time. Seems to be wearing really fast though, hence the 3 stars

I recently went to a knife skills class taught by Bob Kramer and of course had to go out and purchase whetstones and a 12 in ceramic hone like he had. I purchased this whetstone and a King 6000 Grit whetstone because I didn't think my knives were dull enough to require a 250 grit stone. Now that I have sharpened all of my knives, I think a 250 grit stone would be in order also.Because I am very new to sharpening my own knives it is hard to review this whetstone too critically. However, I think it is a good stone for a good price which is why I purchased it and it has met my expectations. I am glad I purchased one with a base because it raises the stone off of the counter to more easily sharpen the knives. I didn' know when I bought it but the the stone is securely attached to the base.I have used this stone exclusively on my kitchen knives which are mostly Shun and a few Henckels.

A very decent stone mounted to a plastic base elevating the stone high enough to hone with out dragging your knuckles. I was practising honing a Gold Dollar 66 and it removed the metal nicely from the blade. It did however make a decent amount of slurry that I had to clean off from time to time. My only concern and not a complaint per say, is that is is narrow at about 2 inches wide. However making X-Passes and ”Windshield Wiper” passes were easy enough to do. I will practice this until I “hone” my skills enough to move up to a 3 inch wide stone.