Spyderco - BenchStone Sharpening Stone with Polymer Case - Medium Grit - 302M

I would say this stone is actually a great stone to start with for anyone, even for beginners. It is a bit pricier up front, but you will save money by skipping lesser stones (and the stuff to maintain those stones) and just getting this one. The big benefit of a ceramic stone even for a beginner is that it doesn't dish anywhere as soon as a traditional water stone (or effectively at all for most people's use patterns), and as others have mentioned, this stone doesn't need water or oil (although the windex tip actually does improve its cutting efficiency a lot and reduces how much effort you have to put into cleaning it. I say this stone is good for beginners too because it gives you excellent feedback, and you can feel and hear if you're off your angle, even by a little bit. This is a great way to train in muscle memory because you can correct in real time. This stone is also great for a wide range of things that need sharpening, and I've even finished a hatchet blade to hair shaving sharp on this stone, no problem. I will say it is worth it to get a coarse diamond stone to pair with this stone if you have a VERY full knife or are reprofiling often. Otherwise you'll spend a lot of time on this stone (which isn't always a bad thing). I will also say this stone handles very high-end steels just fine, if you are good at maintaining an angle well. I have been able to sharpen S30v no problem at all on it, and to my surprise was able to sharpen K390 and S110v (supersteels) to hair-shaving sharp just fine without a problem, and a marginal increase in time spent. I haven't dulled a maxamet blade enough to try on this stone. I even examined the blades under a microscope and found no chips/microchips in the edge at all. If you're concerned about the loading and cleaning of the stone, don't be. The windex trick is great, but even when I'm lazy I don't do that and just sharpen dry. I tend to clean after every 2-3 knives (dry) but you can probably get to 4 or 5 before it's affecting your sharpening. The easiest and best way to clean the stone is to use Barkeeper's Friend or Comet powder cleaner in a paste. You can use an old toothbrush or a sponge or brillo pad to just scrub a paste of the cleaner on the stone for about 5-10 minutes and it comes out very clean. I suspect the BKF cleaner's oxalic acid is actually dissolving the very fine metal shavings embedded in the stone, leaving behind just the stone. As some have stated, this stone doesn't always arrive perfectly flat (I have 2). One of mine the stone is overall curved longitudinally (think slight banana-like curve) but not enough to notice by eye, only enough to notice by pressing a level up to it. If you are planning on sharpening woodworking tools, I would not use this stone. Otherwise this stone is great for general use knives. I think the people the very minimal curve matters for are already people who have the sharpening skills or needs that justify better or other stones. I will advocate for pairing a leather strop with this stone. An inexpensive Sharpal strop is a good option, and the green (chromium oxide) compound works just fine. Even on the super steels. I have the fine and ultrafine stones, and I use those on nice kitchen knives when sharpening for friends/family for a shinier edge, but for the most part they wouldn't really notice the difference if I didn't. I actually don't use the F or UF stones on my pocket knives, as I find it makes it a little harder to cut through cardboard in the end. Moreover with stropping with the medium stone, I can easily get hair-whittling sharp (usually on Vg10, S30V, and S45VN steel). Finally, I'll say that it's easiest to keep a knife sharp rather than sharpening from dull. This stone is perfect for doing that. After breaking down a lot of boxes, I do 15 passes on each side, then alternate sides for 10-15 passes each side, and get back to hair shaving sharp again. Takes 5 minutes. This stone is easily my most-used and best value in my entire sharpening toolkit. I recommend this to anyone getting started or moving from the beginner into the novice phase of sharpening.

Best stone for getting your knives into shape. It lasts forever and I even bought one for my grandpa.

These Spyderco stones are great. I have all three, medium, fine, and ultra fine. I would say they are best for experienced sharpeners though. None of them are particularly aggressive so you can get frustrated trying to bring back a very dull knife. You will want to add something more aggressive to your kit. Do your homework, don't just randomly buy these because you want a 'good' sharpener and don't know where to start. Depending on the steel and the degree of LIGHT pressure that you use, they could load up quickly and stop cutting efficiently. I clean mine with a scouring powder before each use. You can read for weeks on sharpening and get hundreds of opinions on what is 'best'. My main kit includes four dmt diamond stones, x course, course, fine, and x fine. Between those and the Spydercos, I am covered for everything I might need. The Spyderco medium is said to be similar to the dmt x fine. I find it slightly more fine. Maybe they cut similarly, but the Spyderco leaves me with a smoother edge. Some feel the dmt xfine and Spyderco brown are redundant, I don't. Some find the fine and medium too similar, I don't, but I understand their thoughts and experiences. Some prefer the ultra fine over the fine. I only use the ultra for special jobs, others use it routinely. Do your homework, these are good stones, but you need to understand where they fit in a more complete sharpening routine and there are different paths to a great edge.

It might be hard to believe, but given enough time and patience, you could reprofile a knife in this. This is a great intermediary stone (and maybe even finishing if you have a good enough strop and compound). Perfect for kitchen knives, no mess, easy to clean, I don’t have enough good things to say about this quality product. I’m considering buying the next tier up from this for that “extra” sharp polished edged. But these are incredibly expensive putting things into perspective. Also, be very careful with these. Mine didn’t have the “flatness”/“bowing” issues reported in other comments, but it is incredibly fragile. You drop this thing and you’re not going to have a good day. It’s brittle. Nonetheless, this is a very good product and does its job exceedingly brilliantly.

Good stone. It's not flat enough for chisel backs, at least not the whole back. For carving tools though it works very well. Wood carving tools put a lot of pressure in a small area when sharpening so oilstones, Arkansas, Diamond or ceramic are the best choices. Water stones are too soft for carving tools and groove fast. The ceramic is faster than Arkansas and finder than diamond. I hot rodded mine by taking a 400 grit atoma to the one side. So this became a double sided stone. The original side is medium and the side I took the Atoma to cuts finer. Probably as fine as the fine Spyderco. I'm basing this on the white Spyderco slip stone I own which is rated at fine. My medium benchstone lapped with the atoma cuts as fine. If you go the lapping route to flatten be advised it will take a long time and to make sure you are flushing the diamond stone the whole time under running water. Otherwise the swarf/grindings/tailings of the ceramic stone will eat away the nickel the diamonds are embedded in and suddenly your fancy schamncy diamond hone is a piece of steel. Minus one star for flatness. It is 100% flat enough for knife sharpening, chisel sharpening, carving tool sharpeing, but would not be good for initial flattening of chisel backs. I'll take it over water stones any day.

Je possède les 2 autres pierres de la gamme (302F Fine et 302UF Ultra Fine). Grain équivalent à du 800 japonais, donc comme 1ère étape d'aiguisage, idéal pour reprendre un tranchant peu ou pas trop émoussé. Comme ces soeurs, on l'utilise directement à sec et c'est son gros avantage ! Sa largeur (5cm) la prédispose pour des lames petites à moyenne. Livré dans un boitier de qualité qui fait office de support (mais qui pourra gêner lors de l'aiguisage). Bref, un bon produit même si un peu cher.

Spyderco'nun diğer iki taşına da sahip olduğum için (Fine ve UltraFine), seriyi tamamlamak adına satın aldım. Taş düz değil, düzeltmek için zımparalar (60, 150, 400) ile beyhude saatlerden sonra hala düz değil (bir tarafı hafif iç bükey, diğer tarafı dışbükey) ve üstelik taşın agresifliği de azaldı. Ucuz mutfak bıçaklarında sorun olmaz ama bu kadar para verip sadece ucuz bıçakları bileylecek bir taşa sahip olmak mantıklı değil. Bu taşla; tek ağızlı japon bıçaklarını ya da scandi ağızlı bıçakları bilemek isterseniz, saatlerce uğraşsanız da istediğiniz sonuca ulaşamazsınız. Yazık. Bu miktara, amerikan taşı alacağınıza, japon taşı alın. Gerçi o da ayrı bir dünya; farklı giritlerde bileme taşları, düzeltme taşı, taş tutacağı, temizleme, nagura taşı...

Obwohl nur "medium" (600er-Körnung), kann man mit diesem Stein extrem scharf schleifen. Danach nur noch mit Leder abziehen und gut ist. Teuer, aber sehr gute Schleifleistung und schwere Qualität. Von allen bisher getesteten Schleifsteinen einer der besten.

Ha il suo costo, ma e’ assolutamente originale, nuova e dritta, che è quello che conta. Se invece volete sapere di che cosa e’ composta la pietra o come si usa, forse non è il tipo di prodotto più adatto alle vostre esigenze.. Serve della tecnica per affilare a pietra correttamente, e se uno e’ alle prime armi e’ un po’ come imparare a guidare su una Supercar .... :) Detto questo, ottima ottima pietra! Consigliata

Would recommend! Could sit a bit tighter in the box when you use it but that's a minor thing!