K0702 Blade, #1000, Medium, Orange

As expected from its reputation, this Shapton #1000 stone is a pleasure to use. There is a bit of a learning curve at first, but once you get the feel for it, the results are outstanding. A reliable and satisfying sharpening stone that you won’t regret owning.

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 !

This is a good stone. Easy to get a great edge.

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.

This 1k stone absorbs a lot of water, calling this splash and go is a bit misleading. If you have a few knives to sharpen, this stone's thirst should be quenched by the time you finish the first knife, then you just need to replace water you push off the stone. The shapton pro 5k is a legit splash and go stone that absorbs very little water. This 1k is harder and wears slower than the cerax 1k I've used, so hopefully won't need flattened as often.

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.

Nice whetstone. Good size, smooth and works well. Will buy other grits in the future.

This is my second whetstone. The first one I bought was a 1000/6000 combo stone that I purchased 10yrs ago. It was a cheaper stone that worked fine, until it wore down in the middle. The biggest problem was the mess it made…the cleanup process was more tedious than the sharpening process. This whetstone is different… no noticeable “slurry” is created during the sharpening process. I’m still convinced that the sharpening technique is more important than the actual stone, and that my knives would be sharper if I was better, not if I had a much more expensive whetstone. That said, I’m very happy with this product, im glad I bought it, and I will try to get better at sharpening.