Smith’s 50008 8” Diamond Tri-Hone Bench Stone - Fine, Medium, & Coarse Stones - 3-Way Honing & Sharpening System - Nonslip Rubber Feet - Restore Tools, Hunting, Kitchen, Fishing & Pocket Knives

I had the 6" version and wanted to upgrade. Well worth the extra expense to cover a broader range of blades that I make and use. The Coarse stone is quick to sharpen. The Fine stone refines the edge and the Arkansas stone polishes it. Excellent on my wood chisels and plane blades.Highly recommend. I saved until I earned a enough gift card credits so it cost me nothing.

I’m writing this review about 1.5 years after my purchase. In a nutshell, I think this is an excellent honing device and is well worth the investment for any person who likes to keep their knives sharp. Below are details on how I use the device for anyone who is interested.If you are new to sharpening knives, keep in mind that no matter what honing device you purchase, sharpening your knives takes practice and will likely be frustrating at first no matter what you’re using. Regardless, my set of kitchen knives are of mediocre quality and after a good 5-10 minute sharpening with this device, they maintain their edge for about 2-3 weeks after at least daily dinner preparation + breakfast/lunch on the weekends. The knife edges would probably last longer if my wife took care of them properly when it was her turn to cook, but I figure we are even because I never put the toilet seat down. Nevertheless, the below approach has been successful for me over the past 1.5 years and I don’t see this bench wearing out anytime soon. I sharpen about 7-8 knives every 2-3 weeks or so and have had just as much success with the various pocket knives I own.No matter the status of the knife, I always start with the coarse stone. The bench comes with a wedge, but you’ll quickly find that one angle doesn’t fit all knives and depending on the purpose of the knife, the angle will differ. So, to find the right edge, I’ll first run the knife forward at a minimal angle with the edge pointing away from me and keep increasing the angle until it starts picking up the honing solution (which I always have a thin layer of on the stone). This is a decent approach when you’re sharpening a knife for the first time and trying to figure out its angle, but it’s not perfect. After enough practice, you’ll learn to feel the right angle by both the sound and vibrations of the knife as you pass it across the stone.Once I have my angle down, I’ll do about 20 to 30 strokes on one side of the blade, alternating between forward and backward passes with each stroke before doing the same on the other side. Some people suggest going straight up and down, but I find more success with passing the knife along a horizontal angle so that the entire blade crosses the stone with each stroke. The amount of pressure I use is about what I would need to push an elevator button.Before I switch to the next finer stone to repeat the process, I test the knife edge on a piece of paper. If the entire edge passes easily through paper, I know that my angle should be good. This should be the case even after your first pass with the coarse stone, which will give you coarser cuts visible via the frayed paper fibers, but should still be smooth and easy.. However, one caveat is that if both sides of the blade are not equally honed, the knife won’t easily pass through the paper. This doesn’t mean you need to start over, but that you might need to balance the edge. To determine what edge needs further honing, rub your thumb perpendicularly across the blade (never test the sharpness of a blade by running a finger down the edge, that is a good way to cut yourself) - the edge that feels rougher/grainier is the one that may need a few more strokes against the stone.Once I’m done using the stones, I finalize the edge by running it about 30 times up and down each side of a leather strop that has decreasing grits at approximately the same angle I was using on the stones.Hope this helpful for people who are just as frustrated as I was when I first starting sharpening my knives. Once you figure it out, having sharp knives in the kitchen makes cooking so much more enjoyable.

Very nice stones, very large sharpening surface makes it very easy to sharpen very small knives to full sized kitchen knives. It may just be me But I cant get my knives to be easily hair shaving sharp. If I apply pressure when trying to shave hair it will come off but it is not razor sharp, but I am a newbie knife sharpener so maybe I will get better as time goes on. I got my kitchen knives sharp enough to cut tomatoes super thin without smashing out the guts so I am very happy with that. overall I would say buy this stone, it is pricey but if you want to learn to sharpen your own knives you may as well just get a nice set first instead of spending the money on the cheap versions and buying the nice one later anyways.OH AND FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY! don't buy the lansky oil for this stone, it is an oil based lubricant and right in the manual for the stones it says DO NOT USED OIL BASED HONING SOLUTIONS. the smiths oil is available on amazon and is not oil based, it is very nice and a bottle comes with the stone. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002F9N0NS/ref=ox_sc_act_title_6?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

WARNING... this will make your knifes REALLY sharp! Yes I did cut my finger on the very first knife I sharpened. Now that I learned that lesson I can safely say this sharpener is amazing. After about 2 minutes of sharpening even my cheapest knifes are razor sharp. I have been using the standard counter model sharpeners with 2 grooves to run your knifes through. I was never able to get my knifes even remotely sharp.This is a very well built product and makes knife sharpening a breeze. After reading many reviews and learning about many types of knife sharpeners, I decided to go this route. I also purchased a steal sharpener too. After I use the Tri-Hone, I like to run my knifes up the steal a few times to smooth out any roughness. The instructions are adequate but I recommend watching a pro on YouTube. You can find many tutorials to get you moving in the right direction.

This 8" Tri-Hone is large enough to sharpen any knife. The course diamond surface will bring any dull edge back to sharp quickly. This is also the one to use for taking the chips out of your blade. The fine diamond is great for touching up edges that are rolled or just a little dull. The medium Arkansas stone will put an absolute mirror edge on your knife blade.Now for the downside: Even though it comes with an angle guide, it is a freehand process. You have to hold the blade at the proper angle and you have to keep it at that angle. The good news is that it is doable. it just takes some practice. I suggest you start with a old knife and practice, practice, practice. You can do it and have the pride of having a super sharp knife that you sharpened freehand.

The unit is well made. It feels solid on the bench while you're sharpening irons. I think I need one more stone a little coarser than the coarse on this, maybe a 180 or 200 grit, before you hit the coarse stone. this is for initializing a plane iron or chisel. at 325 grit it takes a long time to get the bevels flat and to the right angle

i have not been good at sharpening knife until nowSmith's Diamond tri-hone is the most easy and fast sharpening tool i have ever try so far i am very satisfied and i recommend itthat's an easy 5 stars at that price imho.

Marvelous bit of kit.

J’utilise les produits smith’s et j’suis très satisfait de tout ce que j’ai acheter merci

Es un articulo que es bueno pero por el costo uno esperaria mucho mas, lo habia comprado para afilar mi navaja multiherramienta pero tiene la desventaja que por el grosor no es favorable afilar toda la navaja pero para cuchillos de cocina super bien pero cuchillos de acero duro es imposible y la piedra arkansas es pesima calidad