SHAPTON K0709 Blade Blade, #320 Rough Blue Black

I purchased an entire line of the Shapton Kuromaku Whetstones with grit ratings of 100 to 4000. This #320 is a must have for extremely dull or reprofiling work. The hype is real from what you may have heard about the Shapton Kuromaku. I can verify all the hype- that they work incredibly fast, have great feedback and are VERY uniform. These are long lasting ceramic based stones that are known for their uniformity, speed, longevity. I have used this stone to profile(sharpen) 20 knives so far and have also purchased this as a gift for my Step Dad who is equally impressed. This is a critical stone to have as it is used for setting the knife's profile and does the raw sharpening (first stage). if you dont' get this right, the finer grit stones won't help.. so this is a critical stone to have in your collection. With care, I expect this to last a life time.

This is a very course stone. It's used to change an angle if you have to regrind or take out nicks from a knife. I use it every time I get a new knife as I prefer and really enjoy hand sharpening. I also do woodworking so sometimes I end up with a blade knick I have to take out and these really speeds up the process.

Reviewing for the 12000 I recently received... I have a number of Shapton Kuromaku stones and as always they are just a joy work with. Please just package the item better for shipment! It's an expensive item that can break or crack, don't send it in a postage bag. No wonder there are lots of reviews with broken stones.

Great, great stone. My best sharpening experience with this stone.

It's a great stone. It has good feedback and decent durability. But it seems in a different "class" than Shapton's other ceramics. It's noticeably more porous than their finer stones, and feels kind of sandy to me and requires more rinsing due to more slurry. It still cuts great and does it fast, it just doesn't have that premium feel that drew me to their other stones. Not a bad stone for the price, but you definitely won't be finishing your edge on this one!

I have several Shapton whetstones, starting from 1,000 and going up. I usually sharpen my knives before they start getting dull, but I got the 320 just in case. The case the stone comes in is great for protection and storage. It also stacks well. I'm looking forward to many years of use.

I needed this grit to profile the edge. The scratch pattern isn't too bad. I use these for alot of kitchen knives some of which are cheap stainless. I can get a decent edge but I've got the dbl sided diamond plate on order

Shapton whetstones work amazingly well compared to competitor stones.