Shapton K0710 Melon 8000 Blade Finishing

The kuromaku 220 and 320 are two must have stones for sharpeners. They are fast cutting and slow wearing stones that handle even steels like super blue at 65rc very well. Now they aren't for steels with high levels of tungsten and or Vanadium carbides but any of your lower alloy steels even if they are ran very hard these stones will do a fine job with. I sharpen zdp189 at 67rc on them all the time and they handle it very well, zdp189 is a high alloy steel with lots of carbides of course but it's chromium carbide mainly and these stones will cut chromium carbide efficiently and effectively. The kuromaku line of stones offers a lot of performance and quality for a very fair price. They are true splash and go stones and that's a huge plus and they aren't messy when sharpening as they don't create any mud, just swarf and they don't load up with steel so that's another huge plus. They come perfectly flat out the box and no lapping needed out the box and that's very nice! I really love these stones and have the full line of them except for the 30k as I don't have a need for it beings I have the 30k shapton glass stone and rarely if ever use the 30k except on straight razors maybe once or twice a year and the 30k stones are very expensive for something that isn't hardly ever used. The 120, 220 and 320 are the cherries of the kuromaku line, they are amazing stones and the extremely fast cutting they are capable of makes them a real gem and 3 that every sharpener should have in their arsenal. Out of the 3 coarse stones if you are only gonna get one I would suggest the 220 as the 320 isn't aggressive enough for heavy reprofiling or larger chip damage repair and the 220 is yet it's not as fast wearing at the 120 is and still cuts steel plenty fast. Personally I only use the 120 for thinning knives and the 220 is for reprofiling and damage correction. The 320 is my start stone to set a fresh bevel and remove fatigued steel on well used and dulled edges and that's what the 320 is perfect for, the 320 is also great if your looking for a fast cutting stone that's a one and done type stone for nice super toothy edges, you can finish on the 320 and have a very aggressive toothy edge if that's what your looking for. The 1k is the best all around stone for most people, it's the perfect one and done stone for home cooks and for general sharpening so long as there is little to no damage to the edge and your not trying to reprofile. The 1k leaves a very sharp edge with high level of keenness and good bite/tooth and is personally the stone I finish most of my cooking knives on as it's the perfect finish for general kitchen knives where you want high keenness but also with good bite. Knives that I use for cutting delicate pieces of fish they will be finished at 8 or 16k but those are knives that are for a specific purpose and require very high levels of keenness with very little bite. Every stone in the kuromaku lineup is very good and each grit has a purpose but for most people the 220, 1000, 5000 will be a pretty well complete set of stones that will cover all their needs. A lot of people will tell you go 320, 1k, 5k but trust me and go 220 instead of the 320 and you will thank me as soon as you have a big chip you need to sharpen out or you are wanting to reprofile a knife that's in a hard and wear resistant steel that's not to say the 320 isn't a great stone because it most definitely is but the 220 will serve most people better just for the fact that it will significantly speed up reprofiling and or damage correction over the 320 and most people aren't going to finish on the 320 anyhow they will go to at least the 1k. These are great quality stones and if you buy them you will be happy and you will have a quality sharpening set that will last you many years and provide you with high performance. The case they come with has great grip on the bottom so when you place the stone in the top of the holder and use it as a sharpening base everything will stay nice and stable for you so a stone vice isn't needed if you don't already have one, the case doubles as a storage case and a sharpening base. Get you some kuromakus and you will be happy!

I had been completely happy with my sharpening system. Quality diamond stones, coarse, fine and extra fine, and then I would strop with either chromium oxide (the green stuff) or diamond paste. it was fast, easy and very affordable, when you consider that the stones will last a lifetime. Then i got a Shapton ceramic glass stone 6000. It also is a "splash n go" so not all of the mess associated with water stones, it cuts really fast and was easy to flatten (i use my coarse diamond for this) and it put nice polish on my steel, but i still had to strop. Well, enter the Shapton Kuromaku 12000. I just sharpened a brand new Veritas 2 1/2" wide PM-V11 plane iron. it took less then five minutes, two on the 6000 two on the 12000 and one min. to put the blade back in the plane. oh, and yes, the hairs on my arm were jumping off before the edge was even near them. Perfect performance from the plane, stropping unnecessary. It looks like touching up my edges can be done with these two stones faster and more easily than ever before. i'll still keep my strop clamped to my bench to maintain the edge of chisels while I'm using them, and don't want to drag out my stones, spray bottle and sharpening jig, (Yes, I use a jig to establish a micro bevel, and using the strop will round that over a bit. Maybe there are some who can accurately maintain a micro bevel on a strop, but I'm not one of them) but at the end of the day, I'll touch up the edges on my stones, and I don't need stropping when coming directly off of the 1200, so next time i pick up those chisels they're super sharp with a perfect micro bevel. You should probably get this stone.

Nice finishing stone for straight razors, it's about as good as my naniwa 12k, I use this after a naniwa 8k then this And then a couple laps on the naniwa 12k or Chinese 12k, had to lap it out of box, had some rough spots , but works well now, can't go wrong with this or a naniwa 12k! This stone does cut metal, it's more aggressive then naniwa 12k, thick hard stone and has good feedback,when the blade starts sticking I know the raozrs about ready, highly recommend.

Je pensais que la finition 12000 était peut-être excessive. Pas du tout. Le poli miroir obtenu garantit un tranchant exceptionnel, rendant presque inutile le passage au cuir. Une partie de la poussière de métal peut rester présente sur la pierre après nettoyage. J'utilise une pierre synthétique 4000 bon marché pour la faire partir très facilement sous le robinet.

Best buy ever. Cuts soo fast and don't clog up. If you want to restore a damaged edge this is the stone. Follow up with king 800 and finish with a polish stone. Done in minutes. I did 3 knifes, that had an edge taken down totally with a file, in 30 min to mirror edge.

Truely a master piece loved it

Makes repairing and reprofiling any knive a breeze, without using power tools.

I have 6 differnt grits from 600 to 12000 . these are quality stones that sharpen knifes very well . from my cromo15 to my bd1n or my blue paper steal and my mC67, all my blades you can shave with . they are all sharpened by these stones .