Read a lot of reviews on various stones before purchasing this one. This is the first stone setup I've used. Some of the youtube videos demonstrating the KING stone where what made the final purchasing decision. Having used it for about a month now, have no regrets and kitchen full of knives that can cut better than when they were new.

Spent a lot of time reviewing videos for techniques and practiced a lot with some old kitchen knives we gave up on years ago. Have been able to resurrect those old knives to razor sharp cutting.

As my technique became better with practice, I used the KING stone on several of my older EDC knives that were hopelessly dull. To my surprise, both are now razor sharp and I have two big hairless patches on my forearm where I tested! It will grow back!

Definitely money well spent. I've also sharpened our inexpensive kitchen knives. Each knife takes about 20-30 minutes, on a dull knife. I know it's getting sharper when my upper back muscles start getting sore.

Great stone if your knives are already sharp and want to keep them that way. I'd get a companion stone at a higher grit if you have damaged knives... you won't be able to remove enough material to fix any dented, chipped, or visible imperfections on the blade edge. If you have a nice set of factory sharp knives and care about keeping them sharp this is a great stone to have in your set. The technique takes a little while to get down, but experimenting and learning are half the fun. The corner was chipped when I received it, so I'm marking down a star, otherwise this King stone is a great buy at the pricepoint

My review is probably more aimed to someone questioning using this type of "stone" rather than someone trying to find the best version of this type. I say that because I'd not used this kind of stone before and have only used this one. Previously I've sharpened with true stones, diamond-plates, grinders, and various grits of sand paper. I bought one of these after I ran into a set of Ashley Iles chisels/gouges that wouldn't keep a smooth edge line. I wanted to keep the tools, and had spent hours attempting to get the edge I needed - they came to me second-hand and in need of a fresh edge, so some of the work was unavoidable. But for whatever reason, whether I tried the slowest gentlest method or the fastest, I could get hair shaving sharpness but working wood (maple) quickly caused the edge to go jagged. I nearly pitched them. Instead, I bought this combination stone. I read the reviews with the various methods of soaking people were using, and decided to soak the course side for 15 min and to spray the fine side with a fine mist - once just before using and then as needed. Within less than 10 minutes, I'd re-edged a gouge that had been jagged before, and I could selectively shave hairs. I was pretty happy, but still apprehensive. Then I took it to my work, a bass (violin) scroll, and found the edge held up and cut the maple like butter. I've worked over 4 of the tools from that set with this stone, and put in hours of work with a couple of them without needing even a touch-up. The edges are still as intact and mirror like as ever.

before i buy, i saw many people received broken ones... but luckily, my whetstone arrived in perfect condition!!!

this is sure not gonna be as good as those artisan whetstone from japanese craft shops.
but for starters, this is the best buy. extremely good value.

and for picky customers like me... the base is plastic instead of wood.

I purchased this to sharpen a couple of Japanese Damascus Steel Santoku/Chef knives I own. Since their edge is at a smaller angle (10-12 degrees) than German steel, I could not use the traditional "all knives are the same" sharpener.

The product arrived well packaged to protect the stone while in transit.

The base holds the stone well and sits nice and sturdy on the countertop, being secured in place by rubberized non-slip legs.

The stones, 1000 and 6000 grit need to be submerged in water for about 5 minutes before sharpening. After use, they dry in about a day.

Overall, the sharpener works well. It brought my knives back to the point where they cut through a sheet of paper effortlessly. Great product. Strongly recommend.