Japanese King Knife Sharpener Whetstone Grit 220 G-45

OK, this is for a King , 6000 grit, HT-43/S-45, and I don't know what HT-43/S-45 means in the slightest, What I do know is this is my third, single grit, King waterstone, which is the brand I trust from reading a plethora of articles, Kings "how great we are" mini books, searching the web, and talking, i.e.: getting on steel manufactures "how to" boards, sharpening knife blade boards, knife manufacture boards, boards for beginners, middle, and advanced users who have been sharpening for a short or long time, and I definitely got good advise from every one of them, things that, after 40+ years of only using oilstones, I learned that I had been doing some things a little wrong to a very bad, and I was very happy I spent the time to find better ways to use my oilstones, and the way that all of the listed above boards where telling me "How to use a waterstone correctly."Waterstones are a bit different than oilstones, you can read up on it by just Googling them, and if you follow instructions instead of just saying to yourself "I know how to do anything without any help, how hard can it really be", like those poor people in Chernobyl did, you too can find a whole new way to sharpen a blade of almost any quality to a blade with an edge that suits your needs vary fast, relatively speaking, just as you were getting using oilstones, or edges you and I may not have known about, their advantages and disadvantages, and spending a lot less money, at least in my case, and hopefully yours as well.This King stone with a 6000 grit is a finishing stone as you may have guessed, and I will admit that in 40+ years, I have never gotten a finish on a blade like I have now. I admit, I have oilstones that gave me edges, I thought, that where as good as you could get outside of a factory edge. I am wondering if I need to have anything to make me more happy with the results the 6000 grit has given me, it's a mirror finish, and I truly mean a mirror, and when keeping your angle correct, if you need a system which is what most people new to sharpening seem to like with their own blades, get one. Research it very well, and buy the best for your budget, for the cost of replacement stones, and other replacement parts or upgrades available in the future. If you freehand sharpen like some of the older or more experienced people do, and myself, but because that was the way I was taught, I do not claim to be better than anyone else, but keeping the same angle the whole time gives me the nicest, slicing with little to no effort, super edge I have ever seen. Buy be careful, with an edge that sharp, you can cut small pieces of yourself off, and not know it until you start bleeding, and coming from experience, you want it to bleed fast, because that generally means the cut is shallow. Trust me, you don't want to be hanging around with your friends comparing "whos cut is the worst", because that just means that you are not paying attention to what you are doing, and getting needless cuts for it.Either way, buy the Japanese King Knife Sharpener Whetstone Grit 6000 HT-43/S-45, it lasts with a lot of work being done on it, it comes with it's own non-slip base and good packaging, you will be happy with the beautiful finish you get with it, and they do make a base for stones like this to keep you safe.Stay safe, enjoy your new hobby, impress yourself on how well you can do something new, and impress yourself on how few cuts you get doing it.

Excellent wet stone. Fine grain. Use this to get a nice sheen on your knives and finish the sharpening process.Make sure to use clean, filtered water on it.

great stone holds up well and takes metal off well

I've had this thing for years. My husband LOVES it for keeping his chefs knife sharp. After having for at least 5 years we just had to get a block to even out the surface. Should keep working for years at this rate. Highly recommend.

It’s good, don’t get me wrong, but my main issue with it is that the stone is glued to the plastic holder. This makes the process of waiting for it to dry out longer and I believe it may also raise the potential for mold to grow down in the glued area.

I've had this one for going on a decade and am still pleased. Great value.As others reviews have noted, many of poor reviews are written by folks who aren't yet familiar with sharpening or with how stones should be handled. Because of differences in materials and manufacturing, fine grit stones like this don't need to be soaked and if you do give it a quick soak, don't leave it submerged for long or the material will break down more quickly. It's a finishing stone not a "sharpening stone," so it's meant to be used after you've already raised and then polished off a burr using a coarser stone (or two, depending on how much work you need to do). The size is more than enough for 10" and 12" knives. I use it on a bunch of knives of European manufacture after sharpening with a 1000-grit stone, and am always pleased with my edge.

An amazing finishing stone! If you don't want to spend hundreds of dollars on a natural stone or high end whetstone, Kings are the best bang for your buck.In my opinion, many of these lower ratings seem to be for the wrong reasons.It is slightly smaller than the 1000/6000 combo version but by no means too small to get the job done.Some have stated that this doesn't sharpen their knives, but finishing stones are not used for that purpose. You use a finishing stone (4000 & up) to refine the edge you've already set from your medium stone (1000 to 3000).Then there's the lack of durability. Whetstones in general are always prone to cracking, but there are ways to prevent that. Mainly, soak only as long as you need to. Medium grit stones should need no more than 30 minutes before you begin using them. Finishing stones should never be soaked. Soaking the finer grits will definitely weaken the integrity within a few uses. You only need to splash it with water prior to use and adding little as you continue to maintain a slurry. I like to keep a small spray bottle handy and use that when I need more moisture. Also as soon as you are finished, pat down your stones with a rag and allow them to air dry the rest of the way before storing.If they happen to arrive split from mishandling during delivery then request a new one. Don't slander the manufacturers for the negligence of those doing the delivering. Small chips off the corner are not a big deal and won't cause any problems. I've had no issues with replacing the ones that arrived with big cracks or completely shattered.