Kotobuki King 250+1000/K-80 Combo

What can I say, I prefer water to oil. This stone is large enough for nice long strokes, sturdy enough to not be fragile and the price is right. This is a nice stone and all that I need for my pocket and hunting knives. I have already used it to sharpen my EDC pocket knife and my 14" bush knife. Worked great! The 1000 grit side gives a really sharp edge. I can't see the need for anything finer. Heck, I even used it yesterday to sharpen the blade in my box cutter because I am out of blades. Shipping was quick, I'm happy.

I haven't used the 250 grit side, just the 1000 grit side. My kitchen knives are extremely sharp. This thing puts a great edge on a blade, as long as the blade steel is strong enough to hold it.

I used this on my neighbors knives, but she bought crappy Walmart knives, with cheap Chinese steel. They simply will not hold the edge. If you have good to great knives, this will be a perfect sharpener.

As a whetstone, it must remain wet or you will wreck it. Try turning your faucet on with a slight trickle. Sharpen under trickle for best wear. Just the weight of my knives cut clean through a tomato.

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I have never tried Japanese style wet stones before. I have always used hard stones with oil. I am sold on wet stones for sharpening knives. The 250 and 1000 grit is great for quickly sharpening very dull knives. I also bought a 1000 / 6000 grit stone as well for fine tuning. There is a learning curve in sharpening with Japanese wet stones but I found a lot of good videos on the web to learn how. I would recommend starting with a knife that you are only partially attached too. I started with a 20 year old buck knife and was able to get it razor sharp. I started with the 250 then went the 1000 and finally used the 6000. As you sharpen the knife the stone will wear away so it would last for ever. But so far I have sharpened about 10 knifes and still looks brand new. This was the best deal I could find for a 250 and 1000 grit, I plan on buying this one again in the future.

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These King Stones are legitimate Japanese Water Stones made in, you guessed it, Japan. They are extremely versitile and are the highest quality stones I have used. However, there are a few more good companies out there. Water stones are true to the craft of knife honing and sharpening and is a useful skill to teach yourself. I highly recommend watching virtuovice (YouTube Name) on YouTube for excellent tutorials on how to sharpen with stones.

The lower grit stones like the 250 and 400 are great for taking out chips in the blades or reprofiling the edge to fit your needs or preferences. As a camper who beats on knifes and axes, I really need this benefit to take out those chips and these stones do so beautifully.

A good stone grit to breach the gab between the lower grits and the finishing stone is the 1000 grit. This will help smooth out the edge and give it some great sharpness. It also makes finishing the edge with a 3000 or 4000 grit stone an easier and less time-consuming step in the process. Finally, you should use a leather strop with a green and black compound to really get a good edge.

Bottom Line and Reccommending Sharpening System:

1.) 250/1000 grit King Water Stone

2.) 3000 or 4000 grit King Stone

3.) Leather strop with compound

You only really need the 250, 1000, and 3000 (or 4000) grit stones with the strop. I have seen the strop put a better edge than 8000 grit stones. Keep in mind a strop is only 30 bucks or so, and you could almost spend $100 on an 8000 grit stone. This reccommended sytem will make a butter knife scary sharp if you wanted it too. However, the stones are expensive and will loose shape over time depending on how much you use them. But the time you use them will definitely yield better results than a spyderco Sharpmaker (I have one). I also reccommend some sort of a stone holder like the Steelex Sharpening Stone Holder (If needed). This works well and makes it easier to work with.

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I have used a lot of sharpening tools in the past mainly the commercial ones that are "idiot proof" but I could never really get the kind of edge I wanted on my knives. Seeing that I spent a fair bit of money on my kitchen knives, I wanted to spend the extra time and effort it takes to really care for them. That being said, this stone is not a beginner's tool. It will help you sharpen your knives extremely well, but only if you take great care to do it properly. There are a ton of Youtube videos and instructions out there to learn from though, so it's not difficult to figure out. The 250 grit side is about the most coarse I would go, and it removes a lot of material. This is where you can really mess up your knife if you're not careful. The 1000 grit side is a great next step, but it isn't a finishing grit. You'll either need to step up to a finer grit stone or move over to a strop with the appropriate compounds. I use a 6 step sharpening technique: 250 -> 1000 -> strop with black compound -> green compound -> white compound -> smooth side. That gets my knives razor sharp, and the edge holds for a while.

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