NORTON Knife Sharpener Whetstone Japanese Sharpening Stone with 4000/8000 Combination Grit, Wet Stone Sharpening Stone

I purchased this stone to hone my straight razors and keep them shave ready. I have had little experience honing my own razors, however, after spending a week searching forums and watching youtube videos that teach honing techniques, I quickly found that this stone is the one most often used by straight razor enthusiasts. Considering my limited knowledge of honing techniques that I studied from the forums, my razors came out super sharp with a smooth polished edge which gave me a comfortable shave. I owe this to the good advice I researched to some degree, but the lion's share of the credit goes to how well this stone works and how easy it is to use. When removed from the box, the box is designed to be used as a stand and since honing razors requires a gentle touch, its stability was more than adequate.When I first purchased this stone I didn't want to spend $73, but I thought in the long run If it works it will pay for itself. A professional honing usually costs between 25-40 dollars. Now that I see how well it works, I wish I would have purchased the Norton waterstone starter kit which sells on amazon for about $137. At first I thought that was too much money and would not get much use from it. Looking back that was a mistake. Now that I see how easy it was to learn honing (about 2 days of practice before reaching good results) I plan to maintain all my own razors from now on and my results will get even better with practice. The first hard lesson was that I had to use the 1000/4000 grit stone to both set the bevel and polish the edge followed by micro abrasives and stropping. Setting the bevel was slow because the 4000Grit side was too smooth to really bite into the blade. I could have done this in half the time with the kit because it comes with an additional courser 220/1000 grit stone which would be more effective to set the bevel. Then the 4000/8000 stone would be used for honing and polishing saving time and wear and tear on the stone. In addition after honing 4 razors I found that I the 4000 grit side of my stone was starting to curve in the middle from all the use. Most likely because I honed an new out of the box razor to shave ready and this took a lot of strokes putting wear on the stone. The kit comes with a lapping stone to "flatten" your stone should this occur. Since I did not have one I used lapping film on a flat surface and got my stone back to normal, but it would have been easier had I not been so cheap and bought the full set from the get go. Hind sight is 20/20.So if you do a lot of honing, consider getting the full kit its definitely worth the price. However, if you are on a budget or just thrifty you can certainly get the job done with one stone. Just plan on spending a lot more time, using a lot more elbow grease and putting more wear and tear on the stone. Either way I am sure you'll be getting some super sharp edges on your Knives, Razors, chisels, or what ever other tools you choose to hone. We use Norton abrasives at work all the time and they never disappoint and I would put this product right up there with the best.

A high grit waterstone is important for the periodic honing of your straight razor. This stone gets the job done and is what I use to maintain my straight razor in a shave-ready condition. But there are a few caveats you should know before you buy.As other reviewers have noted, the stone does not come flat. I personally do not subscribe to the school of thought that a stone must possess molecular flatness in order to be useful. If you use a good X-stroke on a reasonably flat stone, with the right amount of pressure (i.e., just about none), you can get a shave-ready razor off of it. I would therefore not recommend you spend the extra money on Norton's flattening stone, which seems like a bit of a racket. For me, it is sufficient to periodically flatten the stone on some medium grit sandpaper on my countertop (soak it first).This stone needs to be soaked in water before use for about 15 minutes -- that's why it's a "water stone"! The water helps to mediate contact between the blade and the stone and to channel away the swarf from the edge.It comes with a plastic case that doubles as a stand, with non-slip pads on the bottom and notches on the top to secure the stone. This works quite well and I have not experienced any problems with the stone/case slipping. This is particularly unlikely given that, at this fineness, you really should not be applying any pressure to your edge as you sharpen.The stone has 4k and 8k sides. I have only had to use the 4k side in repairing damaged edges. For typical maintenance of your edge, the 8k side is more than sufficient. You can definitely get a shave-ready edge off of it. Many people also use higher grit stones to finish an edge to an even higher fineness. You will have to see what is sufficient for your beard, but know that the vast majority of people should be able to get a good shave off an 8k hone and a good stropping. If you are having trouble getting a good shave, a higher grit stone might be helpful, but I'd recommend you first try to eliminate challenges you can fix for free -- your shaving angle, amount of pressure (use the lightest touch you can), beard prep routine, and stropping technique.

First of all let me state that I have limited experience with sharpening stones.. I had a norton sharpening stone prior to this just for pocket knives with a coarse side and a fine side. The previous stone was amazing and put a great edge on not only my knives but also my axe, machete, and even my snowboard.I recently purchased a straight razor and read that the 4000/8000 grits are the bare minimum needed for honing. So I found this stone and chose it:1. because it was also a Norton2. because it was the cheapest stone I could find for the 4000/8000 on AmazonUpon receiving the stone I anxiously unwrapped it and got her out of the box and laid her in a nice bath of warm water, I then pulled her out after about 20 minutes and began to stroke her soft, smooth, moiste surface... PERVES... Well after all of my fondling I notice that the stone doesn't lay quite as flat as I'd like on either side. I laid my razor across it and sure enough it is not flat on either side... I can use about 3/4ths of the length on the stone so I just stop before it gets to the uneven part. Aside from that little detail which can easily be fixed with a tabletop and some sand paper, this stone did an amazing job on my straight... First time honing a razor and this stone made it easy... This stone is soft and isn't made for grinding out more of a blunt edge on machete or axe... This stone is made for soft accurate strokes that gradually eat away the metal. For this however I had to dock a star even though I didn't really want to ;)... Bottom line this is a great final cut/polishing stone... if you just need a stone for sharpening tools I'd go with something like the IB45 india stone from Norton.. Hope this helps xoxo :)