Shapton K0702 Blade, #1000, Medium, Orange

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.

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.

This stone is very nice for the price! A very good all around stone, that you definitely should have in your line up. If I could have only one stone this one would be it. I am very surprised how it feels when using it to sharpen knives. I like that feedback that I get and also it doesn't have too harsh of a grit that it takes so much material off. Super happy with my purchase of this amazing stone for an affordable price! I would highly recommend this stone!

Great feedback on this stone. Gets a good burr going quickly and you can even change the angle on a knife fairly fast. Shapton is awesome anyways.

Stone is very uniform and sharpens well. Size is perfect for larger knives. The case doubles as a stand to place the stone in during use so it doesn’t slip. Great stone

I spent quite a bit a few $$$ on much more expensive stones (e.g. Kingston) and had only mediocre to bad sharpening results, in spite of years of practice:(- . I simply could not get certain older (but then high end) German kitchen knives sharp again and was ready to throw them out. Then came the point when my newer Japanese V10 steel knives needed sharpening. An AI research (I believe Google Gemini) recommended that stone, and I decided to give it a last try. The results were excellent, the stone easily “attacks” German steel as well as higher quality kitchen knife steels like V10. It does not need soaking and is always ready to use with a splash of water. And I finally feel that I mastered the art of knife sharpening and can use my old knives again !

Great for ridelines for heavily used grooming shears.

Every knive, dull or sharp amounts to improvement while using the stone (keeping in mind The Angle of the blade). 1000 grit measurement is the perfect medium. Have gotten knives come back to live meanwhile inferior effeminately seem ready for re-cycle. KEEP SHARP

Avevo letto online che tagliasse davvero velocemente , ma ho l'impressione che tagli addirittura piú della mia 1000 al diamante ( che ho usato nel lato 400 per spianare la pietra ed era già quasi perfetta di fabbrica) Promossa a pieni voti , però taglia talmente tanto che forse una 2000 sarebbe piú adatta per un uso come " manutenzione " , questa a parte acciai HSS al vanadio ecc... mangia davvero tutto. Taglia piú della mia King 300 . Lascia il filo equivalente ad una 700 , con una passata per sbavare diventa un filo strepitoso.

Delivery arrived earlier than expected. Awesome product.

Good quality, though bit of a steep learning curve

As others have observed, the grading of 1000 is probably a little high, it might be more like 800, it's definitely a medium stone rather than a fine one. Whilst you can use it to reprofile an edge, it will take a while, this stone excels at repairing and maintaing an already profiled knife. It's a very high quality stone, its consitency is uniform, there are no grit lumps (giving rise to pimples) and the wear in consistent over the whole surface. It is of one grade throughout, both sides cut the same. It's easy to use, do fully read the enclosed instructions though since some online videos are incorrect, it's not just a "splash and go" stone, it's porous throughout and requires an initial soaking period especially if it has been left to dry out. You also need to regularly splash as you sharpen to both lubricate and remove slurry. It's not as convenient as a dry diamond stone but it's a fraction of the price. In practice using it with a small towel around it is fine, once it has been soaked you only need a teaspoon of water every so often to keep the surface lubricated and clean. The case is nicely designed as well, it is sturdy and clicks closed positively so that even if you do the unspeakable and drop the stone in the closed box it should still be protected from fracture. There are four non-slip rubber button feet on the underside and a four-sided fence on the lid which retains the stone perfectly whilst allowing water and slurry to drain from the gaps in each corner. This means you don't need to buy or make a custom stone holder, the case does a perfectly adequate job for most people. The whetstone has a very nice smooth grind feel when sharpening, you can easily gauge from the drag how much metal you are removing, the tactile feedback from the stone is excellent. Unlike diamond stones this stone will wear and depending on your usage and technique/proficiency you will need to periodically flatten it which requires investing in a separate flattening stone, but it's well worth it and if you use and maintain this whetstone properly it will give you many years of faultless service and hundreds of sharp knives. Whilst you can buy a finer grade stone to finish on, you don't have to. The orange Kuromaku is a good enough compromise that you can use it to both shapen and finish needing only one or two leather strops with diamond paste to raise a knife to a razor edge (dependent on the knife of course). Overall this is an excellent quality stone, I'm very pleased with it and I also believe that it represents excellent value for money since you can just about get away with just the one expensive whetstone plus one flattening stone and a few rawhide strops. (You can do major reprofiling using those cheap diamond stones first.) As a novice I watched many online tutorials before purchase and I went with the consensus of opinion that this was an excellent value one-stone sharpening solution and after using it successfully (I sharpen all my friend's knives for practice) I concur with them all. If I buy an additional whetstone it will be probably be another Shapton.