Spyderco Fine Benchstone with Box, 2 X 8 -Inch

I have one of these for about one year and just bought another to give as a gift.

-Comes in a blue plastic case, with rubber feet.

-Feels like it will break if you drop it. Treat it like you would your glassware.

-Cleaning with a paper napkin provides quick good results (removes metal dust, makes sharpening faster and cleaner)

-Brushing with an eraser restores it to near new appearance.

-Does not show any wear after a year of continuous use

-Requires some skill to use. Very easy and fast once you get the hang of it and are just maintaining an edge.

-Not suitable for using on a dull knife, sharpen it on coarser stones before trying this one.

-Sharpening with water makes a mess. I only did it once. It's not practical and may stain the nice blue case and make your stone ugly so you have to hide it from the visits until you clean it.

-Slower than the diamond stones. I estimate I need about 20 passes on each side (alternating sides, beginning with more pressure and finishing barely touching the stone) to bring a sharp knife to very sharp condition.

-From my experience, does not need flattening or "breaking in" of any kind. A brand new stone produced a hair shaving edge the first time I used it granted I already knew how to use it because of my old stone.

Safety issues:

-Knives properly sharpened with this will be sharper than a regular box cutter. They will shave hair.

-DO NOT LEAVE AN OPEN BLADE IN THE DRAWER, put it in a knife block or use something like BladeSafe.

-Warn people not used to such sharp blades before they use the knife. I use the box cutter analogy. I had two people hurt themselves more than once even after I warned them about my knives and even after they had already hurt themselves once. One of them still loves my knifes, though.

-Be careful not to hurt yourself while sharpening. Read or watch a good tutorial on the internet.

These stones (I bought the set, Medium, Fine and Ultra Fine) are fantastic! If I could, I'd give them 4.5 stars, the half-point loss is because of flatness. I called Spyderco regarding the stone's flatness and they reported that the flatness tolerances were "not known" and that they had received reports from some users that this was a problem, particularly straight razor users. I don't use those, but I do sometimes need to true-up parts (gun parts, etc.) and this stone isn't quite fit for that.

For use on knives for sharpening absolutely fantastic! Spyderco says to use them dry, but I've found that I can use them with water and get excellent results; it helps keep the dross (steel cut from the blade) from clogging the pores of the stone and that keeps the stone cutting longer without needing cleaning. I've had them for probably 9 months now and have cleaned one of them once and they still cut wonderfully.

Buy Spyderco Fine Benchstone with Box, 2 X 8 -Inch Now

Another quality Spyderco product. Made from the same material found on the Sharpmaker rods, these stones allow more surface area for those the prefer to sharpen free hand.

Read Best Reviews of Spyderco Fine Benchstone with Box, 2 X 8 -Inch Here

Review is for the entire Spyderco set:

Spent a long time researching and pricing different sharpening stones, steels, ceramics, etc., the Spyderco set is the best value, and is very high quality. They won't cut as fast as the waterstones, but are a huge improvement over Arkansas stones. Unlike waterstones they won't consume you in maintenance in lapping. Many folks have reviews out there where they lapped these stones, but I disagree. They are flat enough for everything I've tried including straight razors, and lapping according to some is not beneficial for the stone. If you are pressed for the absolute flattest surface available, buy a Shapton and spend 3x as much. I am a knifemaker and I do the bulk of my sharpening with my belt grinder, however I still like to sharpen by hand, and it's nice not to have to run out to the shop to touch up my kitchen knives, pocket knife, etc. Only complaint isn't much of a complaint but the limits of the medium stone. The medium is the coarsest but is still fairly fine and is too slow at repairing a truly blunt edge. This is where I turn to the belt grinder to re-establish the bevel, however when I'm traveling or don't feel like going to the shop, a coarse DMT is a must. Use the coarse diamond to regrind the flats on the bevel, then jump to the blue medium stone to smooth out your work and progress through the UF. I finish my edges on a homemade leather bench strop with a light touch of chromium oxide. This might be overkill for most considering you will get hair shaving (arm hair w/ pressure) with the fine stone.

Bottom line is you won't find a comparable range of sharpening grits in any other form for less $$$. That excludes the sandpaper system which is the cheapest but I'd rather sharpen on a stone than paper on glass, even if my stone is synthetic.

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Great product, good price. Needs flattening with a Diamond plate before use. Grinding/cutting swirls evident with first use.

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