I bought the Spyderco Ultra-Fine stone because I was not happy at all with the DMT Extra Extra Fine Continuous Diamond Stone.

WOW! The Spyderco Ultra-Fine bench stone is absolutely superb in putting the that(or next to last) honing touch on a plane blade or chisel. Once you use the Spyderco, the edge on whatever bad boy you used it on will be so sharp, you can split atoms -- so sharp, in fact, that a mere picture of the blade will draw blood.

If you are looking to get into sharpening without the hassle of waterstones, this is the one to get.

This stone is worth every penny.

(Official company reply) Thank you for taking the time to contact us. Our 3x8 Ultra fine sharpening stone is equivalent to about 2,000 grit. Since the stones are high Lumina bonded in ceramic, they cannot be grit rated like other stones. High Lumina is graded as a man-made sapphire. The stone is used dry, so no oil or water needed. To clean the stone, we recommend using Comet or Ajax and a green nylon scrub pad with water. Then let the stone dry and put away in the leather storage pouch.

This product looks great and feels great. Awesomeness is a stone due to the high polish it gives the edge; mirror-finish.

It's great and gives an amazing edge however it comes with a big curve. High on the middle and low on the sides. Took me about 20 minutes with fairly coarse atoma 120 grit. I expected I would need to flatten it somewhat but that's a bit excessive.

I really, really, really like the diamond and ceramic plate sharpening stones versus the old oil stones. I guess maybe I never got the hang of using the oil stones; friends of mine can get extremely sharp edges using the oil stones while I can't seem to. Anyway...I went with the DMT diamond stone kit...and found the Ultra fine diamond stone to be not as fine as I would have liked it to have been. I already owned a small pocket sized Spyderco sharpening ceramic and used it with my diamond plates to get the sharp mirror finish I was looking for. Finally decided to get this 3" x 8" stone.

The reason for the 4 stars instead of 5??? The ceramic stone is not as flat as I thought it would/should be. There are "high" ridges on both side of the stone. I would have expected these ridges to be on one side but not both. The "grinding" marks made by the manufacturing process really "stick out" with use making it easy to see the high and low spots.

With all that said...I still get a sharp polished edge on my knifes and such. Overall I am pleased with my purchase. Maybe its just my OCD kicking it but...the product rates a 4 star from me!

This is a useful ultra fine stone, probably comparable to or finer than a Black Arkansas, but capable of cutting pretty much anything (and faster). The downsides are that it is quite a bit slower than a similar grit water stone (which may not be an issue if you frequently touch up your edges) and by all accounts few of them are flat, which is not really an issue for knives, but might be for woodworking tools, such as plane irons. I flattened mine using a piece of glass and SiC grit and then an old diamond hone.

By all accounts, these stones pretty much don't wear. Some say they slow down with use and that refreshing the surface from time to time can restore some cutting ability; this hasn't been an issue for me in a couple of years of occasional use.

I like the Norton Ascent ultrafine better; it's a little thicker and it comes dead flat from the factory. But the Norton is also twice as expensive, and doesn't come in a case.

All of these ceramic hones are sintered ceramic and will load. I like to use them dry or with a little soapy water (say a drop of Palmolive or Dawn in a glass of water) and clean up with a green scrubby and some Barkeeper's Friend.

(The curious thing is that St. Gobain, the parent company of Norton Abrasives, sold Norton's ceramics division to CoorsTek, which is widely believed to be the manufacturer of the Spyderco stones. I suspect they may also manufacture the Idahone rods and stones, which are substantially less expensive than either, but I haven't tried them).

The leather sleeve is useless and frankly stupid - I don't know why they couldn't sell this in plastic case similar to the ones the 2" wide stones come in or just a plastic sleeve- the leather sheds all over the stone and means you have to clean the stone before and after you use it (I cut the leather up and used it as padding on clamps on bench holdfasts).

I actually find the Spyderco medium (the gray/brown stone) to be more useful, but it does not come in a wide format...which you really don't need unless you are using a honing guide.

If you don't mind dealing with waterstones, the Sigma Power Select 6000 (the pink speckled brick) and 13,000 are probably a better option. The 6000 is fabulous and all you need for woodworking tools.