🛑I had to remove the links to alibaba in the description, since Pete from @CedricAda ( youtube ) had one of his videos taken down for uploading a similar video under the claims of attempting to sell counterfeit items from the company. I will fight a take down attempt and will name any company specifically who trys. I did leave links to everything else referenced in the video, in the description. Everything expressed here is my own personal opinion based on my experiences. Your opinion and experience may differ. Thanks for watching. 🙂
Dang man. They really do make it hard to make a video nowadays. I like to watch videos from many different genres, gaming, bushcraft/survival, craft etc etc and every single one pf them has similar problems.
Hi Alex I’ve been a big fan of your videos sense your first knife. I’m very happy to see that you’re ok, and this video is great as usual. I still want to purchase a couple of your strops you make, how can I get them if you still make them 🇺🇸
Unfortunately, this is not only true for wetstones, but for almost EVERY popular product. Thanks to Amazon Marketplace, dropshipping has grown ridiculously fast and mostly uncontrolled so there's not just a few "black sheeps", but a whole flock...
Amazon has a lot more product vetting than Temu and Aliexpress at least. I just got an extension cord off of Temu that had bare, unsautered wires at one end instead of a plug. I've had a lot more success buying higher quality products used off of Ebay and Craigslist when it comes to getting what I need at an affordable price.
This is very reason i stopped shoping on Amazon. It is littered with scam and I do not have time to check every scam offer. It should be shop responsibility.
You guys are just too lazy to do the research. Besides, there are a few trusted names out there if you are picky. If you do not know how to search and evaluate on your own, yiu deserve to get burned. Amazon does not have the staff, time or resources to check each item listed by third party. If unhappy, return it and ask for a refund. Besides, you can buy junk just as easily at your local hardware store, or any other shopping venue. Remember the old Roman saying, Caveat Emptor - Let The Buyer Beware.
The satire had me laughing my tail end off. Great info on the stones the good, the bad, and the ugly. As a rule, I avoid items on Amazon that have too many look alike competitors, all sharing similar reviews, written in poorly executed English. Subscribed because I like your delivery!
True, but there's a different problem. If a shady company doesn't like your video, they can issue a takedown notice anyway. Even if it's bogus, you still have to go through UA-cam's slow ass appeal process (hell YT might ignore you anyway). So, you either have to get lucky and hope a human employee at UA-cam sees you, or you raise a big stink with a bunch of followers on social media to get UA-cam's attention, just to get the false copyright strike removed. And it only takes one shady company to decide they don't like your video and strike you.
I've seen this with several content creators who provide news from er, Eastern Europe that a certain propaganda factory doesn't want propagated... It takes weeks and lots of subscriber noise to get the lies from the bots dealt with.
@@BreakdancePeachAlternatively, the uploader can also demand that the takedown notice issuer take them to court over it, although that requires giving your name address to the takedown notice issuer.
You might find this interesting. I worked in China for about 10 years in manufacturing. The prices you see on Alibaba are much higher than directly from the manufacture. About manufacturers, what may seem like a manufacturer is in fact what is called a "trading company" which is a independent sales company buying product to export from the real manufacturer. Some manufacturers do not have a export license to export so they use a trading company or companies. Ok now you're dealing directly with the manufacturer who has an export license, does that mean you're getting the lowest price? No, not at all, because you are say an American importer "you're rich so I can charge you more". In addition an export company will have the Chinese sales tax refunded to them so the "export price" is BS. Back to the sharpening stones being sold for +$50 the real price from a manufacturer, based on my experience, and my Chinese wife who also works in manufacturing would be around 50cents, based on quantity.
That’s true, if I say I’m from UK the china seller or manufacturer will give me a higher price, however the same product you can buy from India or Philippines etc from a seller for cheaper, and they bought it from china and imported and made a profit and it’s still cheaper then me buying direct from Chinese manufacturer as I’m from UK
I bought DMT plates starting fine then 3 others going up 8000. I learned watching your sharpening video and can do freehand mirror finish edges. People act impressed when they find out i don't use a guided system. I have been using those plates for about a year and my dad is happy with one I recommended to him for his chisels. Thanks for not selling out on us.
The newer DMT plates have a few QC issues... Gouges in the plates, or inconsistent grit ( occasionally you'll get one with a strangely out-of-place bigger grain of diamond on it... They leave nasty scratches).
@scottcrawford3745 I think breaking them in first helps. I start off using the plates on some tools and cheaper knives. After they have been used alot they are much better in my opinion.
Honestly I’ve used and own a ridiculous amount of DMTs, the course and fine are by FAR my favs, leave extremely keen edge. The extra fine HC (hardcoat version) simply can’t be broken in, leaves terrible scratches and doesn’t put a great edge on due to the lack of uniform particle sizes. That said, it’s oddly good for lapping other things flat (wouldn’t lap stones with it cuz it wouldn’t leave a surface with enough bite) If your method uses a strop, try stripping straight from the coarse and straight from the fine, you might be incredibly surprised by the quality and durability of the edges these stones provide! They nailed the particle size and density distribution on those 2 specific plates for sure Cheers
One trick is to sort reviews by most recent. Usually the review padding was done long ago and then they vote up the reviews they want you to see. But most recent will give you a more unfiltered view and you will usually find a much higher percentage of critical or bad reviews in the last 20 than from the "top" 20.
@ChauntelleARussell I actually knew that channel! Haha completely forgot about them. Unfortunately they don't review the type of things that I'm typically looking to purchase haha.
Once upon a time, there were no reviews to be read because there was no internet. You were pretty much stuck with what local retailers made available. So while the review situation is annoying, I welcome the tremendous selection that is at my fingertips today. You just have to be a little skeptical and do your own research.
I took your advice on your "beginner sharpening" video and went with a steel back diamond stone so I didn't need to worry about dishing and because many of my knives have very tough steels like 20CV, Magnacut, S90V, etc. Really glad I took your advice because I almost bought an identical looking 1k/6k stone. Your advice helps.
Unless you cut meat for a living or sharpen lawnmower blades with your water stone, it will not dish for many years. Rubbing it on a sheet of 180 grit wet-or-dry sandpaper every year will keep it flat as new.
@@Bob_Adkins To be honest I'd rather just stick with steel stones I now have that has a better sharpening medium (damond). I'd also rather not need a flat reference like a sheet of glass or steel with the 180 grit to see where the low spots are and make sure I'm actually improving the stone flatness. I'm also not sharpening lawnmower blades, but like a guy with a truck, when you have a stone you're not the only one using it so it does get some extra table time. I appreciate the solution, especially for those still using them, and especially to know for my old stones so thank you, but remember that this was from a video to corect mistakes from newbies.
@@karelenhenkie666 Luckily I'm a buy once cry once kind of guy (only took me 5 years to get that TRM Neutron in stock, lol) but I honestly didn't even know that was possible, TYVM. Learn something new every day. Do you run a bubble level on it or flat edge, just in case the good factory was rushed on a late Friday that slipped out the door or whatever?
@@sqeeye3102 I have a flat piece of plane steel that ik take across it, baseball on the scratchen ( outside edges or inside) I can see immediatley if they are flat enough for my plane blades
I started out with the crappy Amazon stones and then found your channel and decided to give the dmt stones a try and my sharpening skills really improved so much that i don't even touch the wet stones anymore. I will also say that ultra sharp makes some really good full sized stones 8" in a set of 3 that are just as good as DMT stones I like the bigger ones and the smaller ones is nice to. I have a set of each but the one down side to diamonds is that the fine grits above 1200 do not last very long so it would be nice if you could recommend a good whetstone for honing as right now I'm using ceramic rods which I feel you lose some geometry of the knife when using rods. But as for now the 600 and 1200 diamond stones work awesome for me along with the leather strop
I have a ton of those stones (used them to sharpen my chisels) but I remember they were super cheap a few years ago. The business model of overpriced crap unfortunately applies to pretty much every single item sold on Amazon nowadays.
I purchased a few of these whetstones last year but never used them on anything seriously hard. I just kept them in a tupperware container of water for touching up my cheap kitchen knives. They are messy and a bit of a pain to use compared to the Spyderco stone I bought later. Thanks for pointing out the downsides to these products and being a bit of a goofball while doing it. Your sense of humor makes your videos a lot of fun to watch.
What’s so depressing a Spyderco has decided to discontinue their sharpening stones/bench stones. So hold onto those! I have the whole set and I’m not even gonna let them go. I will be keeping them dearly and making sure they’re safe.
I wish I had seen this video a month ago. I knew all those whetstones had to have came from the same manufacturer, but I didn't realize what I'd be getting into. I know maintaining the proper angle is key, but this was nothing like sharpening my pocket knives on smaller stones. Instead, I (while using the guide that came with the stones) ended up dulling my kitchen knives even more. I should have gone with a diamond stone set like I had originally been thinking, but thought I'd save money...but I just flushed it down the drain.
A diamond sharpener ain't gonna help if you can't get a knife sharp with a wet stone. You have to know how to maintain the same angle, and how to get a burr. It wasn't the stone that dulled your knife, it was you
@@dereksteele2284 I have one of these amazon whetstones and they really are garbage. I was using the 6000 grit side and a 2mm lump pops out of the surface. What caught this lump? the edge.
I've sharpened up piss dull chef's knives at work with these crap amazon stones over 100 times at work over the course of about a year. These stones really do work, they're just crap and irritating. Like the guy says, they're soft af and dish out super fast. You'll have to flatten them out constantly and they make mess all over the place. But they do work, I consistantly got low quality knives (relatively soft stainless steel) razor sharp, enough to make paper thin slices out of tomatoes. I do think these crap stones have a legit purpose. For someone wanting to learn how to freehand sharpen on a stone, get one of these crap-o stones for 20 bucks, one of those 400/1000 combo stones and a cheap food service chef's knife. Dull it up on the side walk and practice on the crap stone until you get the feel for it. Once you can consistantly raise a burr and finish it up, and get it cutting paper nicely, go get some real stones.
I fell for those stones a couple of years ago. I have three different ones with 2 grits each. One big tip off is that many of them come w a bamboo holder and a small rubber mat, and sometimes a plastic angle guide. I must have bought mine before the price took off since I have perhaps $20-25 total in all three. And that is still far more than they are worth. Every bad thing that you said about them is spot on. One of mine even separated where the two different stones were glued together. They are extremely difficult to sharpen a blade on. I have several old stones I bought for a couple of dollars at garage and estate sales. You can also often get some nice pocket stones for only a buck or two. Most folks used oil on their stones in the past, which can be a problem if you prefer using water. I soak the oiled stones in water with dish washing soap for a couple of days. Sometimes I hit them with a brush if they are really gnarly. Then I run them through an ultrasonic cleaner a few times in water with dish soap and the warm mode turned on. After another bath in dish soap and a fresh water rinse, I let them air dry. The oil is usually gone and they work fine from then on with plain water or soapy water. Even somewhat dished out or nicked stones can be flattened with sandpaper, or on the cement sidewalk in a pinch. The side of a dismounted 8 inch grinder wheel works pretty well also, just use both sides of the wheel so that you get your stone more flat than you can by only using one side 100% of the time. In my experience any old stones made by Norton or Craftsman are usually worth buying. And many that are labeled Arkansas Stones are good also. Lansky and other name brands are usually good as well. Some of the older stones, especially natural ones, don't cut some of the new super steels that well. But you are generally better off with diamond stones for those anyway. I use two cheap Harbor Freight stones as flattening or trueing stones for garage sale finds. You'll get the best results if you have 3 stones to work against each other, rather than just two. Watch Alec's videos on sharpening with a coffee mug, or on a car window if you're still tempted to buy these crappy stones. I think you'll have better results using the bottom of a mug than these stones! Wet/dry sandpaper laid on a sheet of wet glass would also work better than these stones.
That's what I use for quick chisel sharpening on the job: a broken piece of glass pane and some worn down 220 grit sandpaper. I'm not building a jewelry box so it's plenty sharp enough.
A while back, a friend of mine asked me to help him sharpen his knives because he had no idea how. Another friend overheard this and volunteered to help, so we turned it into a little knife sharpening party. Friend 2 brought a set of three two-sided waterstones like the one in this video. When I arrived, he had already been there a while and had two of them soaking in a big bowl while he used the third. I set down my little two-sided diamond sharpening block that comes with its own little carry case/non-slip pedestal and set to work. In twenty minutes, I'd sharpened half a dozen knives and friend 2 was working on his second one. Friend 1, dubious that my single stone and speed could be as good as friend 2's multiple stones, checked the edges and was like, "Wow, there's no comparison." Friend 2's "finished" knife was still _dull._ I sharpened it to the same level as the others in about thirty seconds. Friend 2 had paid $150 for his stones. Mine was $45.
I fell victim to those stones when I first started out. I was able to get a good edge but they are a mess and agree they start to dish out almost right away. Based on your suggestion in one of your earlier videos I got a Spyderco Med. grit ceramic and a coarse DMT for removing metal. Very entertaining video thanks very much!
The last few minutes had me in stitches. The cynicism and sarcasm was palpable. You sir are one of my new favorite people. Thanks for making my Friday afternoon. 👍
Yeah, I tried that stone, I have the exact one. Has all the problems you pointed out. My biggest issue is it dishes out really fast, and if your buying this cheap stone you (like me) probably aren’t looking to shell out more for a flattening stone then your actual stone cost, to keep it flat. And the one they give you is tiny and would never work. Just garbage.
Here's a low cost trick for flattening soft stones like that: glue a sheet of coarse sandpaper (60-80 grit) on a piece of window glass, than stick the glass (on the opposite side) to a table with double sided tape to keep it in place. Grind the sharpening stone on the sandpaper in a circular motion, applying just enough pressure to keep good surface contact. You may need to brush or blow away the accumulated dust a few times so it doesn't clog the sandpaper, but the whole job shouldn't take more than 10 minutes or so.
@@Dr_VIf you wet the glass before you put the sandpaper down it often doesn't move. No glue needed! :-) Some tile and countertop stores have 1ft square samples of their counter top material that they will give or sell you very cheap. Those samples are pretty thick and heavy. I also bought a 1 ft by 2 ft granite tile at a flooring store for a flattening project. These tiles are around 3/8 -5/8 in thick. These pieces of granite aren't as flat as a special machinist stone, but they work for sharpening blades, or polishing up a flat surface on many items.
I appreciate the video. In my view, every stone has certain characteristics and limitations. Japanese stones for instance are very very soft and wear quickly, they use a big slurry, etc. Many many stones need to soak thoroughly, mainly for the same reason we need water for wet sanding. And I wonder about how much pressure people are exerting, and if they are expecting to use a stone to renew an edge or just polish. Also many professional people in kitchens and street stalls worlwide use deeply dished stones, especially for knives.... if it degrades so quickly, then flattening will be a cinch, if you feel that's what you need. Just as an example, the very best woodworking can be found in periods 200 years ago where you could not get a stone so easily, and when getting a truly flat stone meant extraordinary effort, so the stone you described for 15 bucks or so isn't so terrible. I come from Cleveland area where there is a long sandstone tradition--try that sometime for an interesting experience. I think there is something to be said for how you use it and what you expect from it. I have used a wide range, from found/hand prepared stones to Arkansas, diamonds, dollar store stones... They all have a place if you approach it knowing what to expect. Better to have more reviews so people know what to expect. So for that i commend you. I'll add my best bang for buck is the Norton India stone, black and orange. Very very good hard oil stone that can be a splash and go with water.
Thanks for your honesty,almost got one of those(the blue & white) but they looked a bit "fishy" to me since the same stone was offered with different prices under different vendors...I will continue using my oil stone that I bought for €1.50 ($1.00) a year ago and stills flat with no wear .This type of videos are really helpfull!! Thanks!!
I commonly tell people to get a 1k/6k and a stick of buffing compound to practice with but never spend more than $18 delivered for the setup. These stones are GREAT for learning what you're doing wrong because they _will_ actually produce very sharp edges once you learn to do everything right. I use my 1k/6k to polish maring and burn-on out of steel baking sheets and to do rough-in on knives before using my good stones... work fine for that. You can just use a mopping towel to clear the grit between sweeps and none of them have to be soaked before use.
I agree that these stones are good for learning. I have a cheap one, and it's much more obvious when the angle is off compared to a cheap diamond stone.
I have one of these and I have blamed my technique for not getting razor sharp blades. I saw your review of the Sharpal doublesided and bought that and a Sharpal strop and now the back of my hand is completely hair free. Thank you for the advice.
I learned to sharpen on a 10$ Chinese stone from aliexpress very much like the one in the video. It can get knifes reasonably sharp and after about 2 years it's still not really dished out due to regular flattening. Idk about "sharpening experience" but it seems like pretty good value for the money. I don't think a regular home cook needs anything more.
I've used them too, only paid 20 & while it isn't the greatest sharpener it absolutely gets my large kitchen knives sharp enought to easily go right through a tomato.
Yeah, I just sharpened my two knives up yesterday and they cut just fine. I guess I just don't know any better, but I've been using it for a couple years without an issue. I bought it just because it was cheap and I didn't know if I would be able to get the hang of it or not. If it does wear out on me, I'll get a nicer one next time.
If all you're sharpening is kitchen knives the stones don't have to be all that flat. If you're sharpening expensive wood chisels and plane irons the dead flat is very important.
His review is BS, I paid exactly what he did and got: "Knife Sharpening Stone Set , Includes 4 Side Grit 400/1000 3000/8000 Whetstone Knife Sharpener Kit,Safe Whetstone Knife Sharpener,Non-Slip Bamboo Base, Angle Guide,Polishing Compound，Leather Strop, Flattening Stone,Razor Strop,Rubber Holder and Honing Guide". And I got it in Canada. Normally stuff here is not available, or twice the price. Plus if i didn't like the product, I get "free" returns.
@@tacticalskiffs8134 None of that is related to anything he said in the video. So I cannot trust you about anything. OK it might be the same price but its clearly not the same product.
This was amazing. And COMPLETELY explains why I have never been able to sharpen my own knives. My brother has a bushcrafting YT (Half-Insane Outdoor Guy) and recommended the stone grit to use but probably didn't know about this sham. This is my second video of yours I've seen. So glad I found it.
Just a tip re the links below Alex: Huusk took down my videos for selling counterfeits because I linked in my pinned comment the other alibaba versions of their garbage kitchen knives. I tried to appeal saying it was for information re the scam etc but the youtube robot didn’t listen and I lost the whole video 🤕
I know, thats why i didn't include any copyrighted content / all original. If they file a claim I'll fight it and re upload another video actually naming them. 👍
yeah, just to be on safe side. in my new video i just showed them on screen so people couldnt actually click through to them and havent had an issue so far. They’ll probably claim for other stuff they can warp the claiming form to match but we take each day as it comes 😺
Bought one of the kits off Amazon so came here to the University of UA-cam for sharpening tips. So glad I came upon this video. One thing I noticed with my kit is I feel no difference in grit between the stone labeled as 400 grit compaired to the one labeled 8000 grit. I can feel a big difference with sand paper that is 400 grit vs even 2000 grit. Thank you for your video. I am of to shop for a few Diamond Stones per your recommondation.
this is why when it comes to buying things on amazon I look at 5 things. 1. who is selling it 2. if it has multiple user reviews from multiple different websites 3. number of reviews has to be over 100 buyers 4. the 5 star rating has to be over 80% 5. read all the negative reviews only to find if there are common problems with the item. this gives me a better picture of the item in question. I will never buy anything under 100 reviews that has lower than 80% 5 star rating that has 2 or more negative comments about the same problem.
I've got a couple of stones like the one in this video. It gets the job done. But your point about it being messy is correct. I usually just watch TV and mindlessly sharpen my knives. I usually get them more than sharp enough to shave with. So like you said they do work. Just they're messy. I would like something that works a lot better but I'm not sure what to buy.
I bought a very similar cheap white/blue stone and had the same problems. Immediate cupping after the first use and it became strangely gritty and wavy. I attempted to fix it with a flattening stone and sandpaper but eventually realized it was just poor quality. There are decent 400/1000 stones for cheap but with anything else I think it's best to look at higher quality brands.
I bought a 4 grit kit for $20 on Amazon. Didn’t even get through 1 knife before I had to true up the 400 grit. The stone was half cone by the 4th knife. One of the high grit stones had a deep gouge and a big rock in it rendering it unusable. Sending the whole thing back, just got the sharpal for $44 on Amazon. The end of this video finally got you a subscriber. Effin hilarious!
I don't mind these types of stones too much, a bit messy but I've gotten stuff shaving sharp without all that much misery. That said, I appreciate you clarifying things so that at least people know what they're getting! I'll definitely upgrade to something proper once these wear out or I get tired of them.
@@truthhurts2149exactly. It’s possible to get things sharp with a brick and some cardboard, so these stones work too. But the quality is in the 10 dollar range. If a waterstone is your thing, For less than 50 bucks you can get a King 1000/6000 with a plastic stand. It’s a budget take on their much harder/better stones, but still great quality from a well known brand, and good bang for your buck.
Like many around, I started with the cheap investment in sharpening stones. I wish that you had this video years ago. Never to late to learn a lesson. Thank you for your honest presentation. Same level of fake enthusiasm you can find in the videos on knives. On the other hand I like your work and the level of craftsmanship!
Wish you told me this years ago :P. Great stuff :) You should have an online store I'd buy your stuff. You're a trusted honest voice and that's a rare valuable thing
I suddenly feel so vindicated. I bought one of these stones to learn on and I got my knives to a sharpness I was happy with several times. The past month I have been struggling and have been so confused and irritated and wondering what I'm doing wrong. I've been adjusting my technique over and over again trying to get it to work with hit or miss results. Thank you so much for making this video
Have you ever tested the Masters of synthetic japanese stones? Companies like Naniwa, Suehiro, Shapton, and King? Especially the Splash and Go stones that dont need soaking? Thanks for great content.
Naniwa professional/chosera and Shapton glass are absolutely phenomenal stones. So long as you are dealing with steels that are 66 or less hrc and have no vanadium or tungsten carbides both of those stones I just spoke of are AMAZING. I'm more of a super vitrified diamond and Metallic bonded cbn stone girl my self and those two types of stones are mostly what I do edges with (along with the atoma 140 that is what I do most reprofiling on) but I mostly deal with hard steels with very high carbide volumes so that's where they shine. When im dealing with carbons and more simple stainless alloys then I do most of those edges for customers on either shapton glass or Naniwa professionals. The edge quality those water stones are capable of on steels like super blue, 10xx, super gold, 14c28n, vg10 etc etc is pretty much untouched by any diamond or cbn abrasive. I find that the naniwa pros stop cutting efficiently on low carbide steels that are around 64hrc and the shapton glass do pretty well up until about 66hrc but those are pretty much the limits of the steel matrix hardness before the aluminum oxide abrasives in the stones just can't handle cutting the steel any longer. For the right steels you will love them, if you mostly deal with high performance high carbide ratio steels then don't spend your money on them as they will not do the job you need them to. A great option is resin bonded diamond, that's the best in between that feels closer to water stones yet has the cutting power to handle any steels you throw at it. They are more expensive BUT they will last an extremely long time and have the cutting power to handle any steel yet with a more refined water stone type edge rather then the typical highly aggressive diamond plate type edge.
Yup, I feel sorry for people that are just getting into any sort of craft. I settled on water stones a long time ago and I am not changing from my king stone, but I would be very interested how a cheap stone like the one you show would compare to a premium brand of similar grits.
I found this video because I wanna know the difference between a good and a bad (soaking) whetstone, but he just jumped right on to diamond plates. Still trying to find some good info on the subject
Would that be the 1000/6000 combo stone? I love that thing, so cheap compared to other options, but since I've used it I never felt the need to upgrade.@@That_one_and_only_username
@@themindset3329 I have the same DMT diamond impregnated stones the guy in video has. Using them is a very different animal from those whetstones. Those diamond blocks do not play, they will shred metal right off the blade with ruthless efficiency. If I remember correctly, the package inserts state, "Let the diamonds do the work". You use very little pressure and run across it dry. You use a plastic veggie scrubber under some running water to clean it off, all that runs off it is metal from the blade. Zero dishing, no need to flatten, ever.
I have followed your channel for years because I trust you and all your advice are practical and honest. I agree with you about the cheap and nasty quality products that fills Amazon. This is why I read most of the reviews of 3 stars and below rather than 4 &5 stars. Finally I thank you for your professional advice and look forward to continue following you in the future.
I bought that exact blue/white stone from Amazon after seeing a video on a popular cooking channel. I had a difficult time with the stone and started thinking I was no good at knife sharpening. Then I found your video and returned it. Thank you!
I fell for this one, it was my first time buying a sharpening stone and i wanted something good. Since they were all built like this I assumed it must be the ideal build. It felt absolutely terrible to use! Because of it I thought sharpening was supposed to be messy and awful. There were no negative reviews and loads of positive so I thought it was just me having an issue.
Same here. Got one labeled "Amazon Basics" which was the top seller in the category. Was only 15 bucks though.Said it was 400/1000 but I doubt it. terrible usage and experience. Needs constant rewatering and the water seems to go through it immediately. Rating 4.7 out of 5 stars LOL. Stay away!
I know nothing about knives or steel. In spite of the fact that I consider myself to be a conscientious person and someone who is experienced with tools, my attempts at knife sharpening over the years have been mostly unsatisfying and always messy and time consuming. In the last few years, I have used one of those 2-sided stones you mention in this video. I am now going to replace that with the diamond stone you recommended in a more recent video, the Sharpal 162N. I also just watched a number of your other videos and I am writing to thank you for your experience and expertise. I look forward to learning how to do this better. Thank you! P. S. Just a heads up, when I go to the above link to your website, I get the title page, but none of the pictures appear and there are no links that work to anything else. I tried this with both Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge browsers. So I can’t shop on your site.
I have a couple of Smith stones that I bought as a young man back in the late 1970s. One is medium grit, and the other is fine. They've held up nicely through the years and still do a great job when it comes to sharpening a knife. Somehow, they haven't gotten lost despite me moving 18 times - literally 18 times.
Have a feeling this is for people that sharpen knives a lot. I only use my whetstone for kitchen knives very occasionally so I haven’t had an issue, but for people that would use it more often, I can see why a relatively soft whetstone could be an issue
I must be old, old school - all I use in the kitchen is a good old fashioned Sheffield sharpening steel - couple of swipes and my knives are sharp enough for anything I'm likely to be doing. Now in the workshop,....that is a whole different matter
28 днів тому
I decided to look into knife sharpening after one of my dinner knives couldn't easily cut a tender chicken breast. You bring humor with your teaching. Thank you so much!
I originally bough "Japanese water stones" off of Amazon years ago and didn't care for them much. Later I bought the cheap plastic DMT diamond "stones" that worked better, but did not last at all. Years later I found your channel and bought some ceramic stones that you recommended and I liked them, but I still wasn't getting a great sharpening (I guess I just suck at using a stone.) A bit later I bought a ceramic rod and I absolutely love it. I can get a very sharp blade on any of my knives with very little effort or time.
@@redangrybird7564 I honestly get a lot of use and success out of the Spyderco Sharpmaker set, and bought the extra coarse diamond rods, and the extra fine ( red tips) rods for it. In a pinch they will zip up almost any knife in a jiffy. I keep mine in the kitchen right beside my knife blocks ( yes, I have 2 blocks). I also pack it with my on every hunting trip, fishing trip, or any time I visit friends or relatives and zip up their knives too. Does 30 and 40 degree bevels, and can mount a single "stone" out the end for doing scissors ( this one will take you a bunch of practice/ trial & error, but can scissors Very sharp if you keep your angles true). They run about $75 CDN. ALWAYS use the safety guide rods that come with it... they're not hard to put on/take off, and WILL prevent a lot of slips... I also have a little pad of harh rubber that I rest mine on when I'm using it. Keep it secure. Do Not go too fast. Do not Push hard. Just take your time and they will do their job.
@@redangrybird7564 I've used the IOXIO white ceramic and the Cook's Standard ceramic rods with success. Don't expect these to remove nicks, or sharpen a dull knife, or perform other tasks requiring lots of metal removal; get a coarse/fine combo DMT diamond stone for that. These rods are best used to maintain an existing sharp edge. Don't be tempted to get a coarser rod; you may end up with a wavy edge over time because of inconsistencies in the pressure you apply to the edge as it passes over the rod. It is easier to maintain a straight edge using a large, flat stone. Like an 8" DMT diamond stone, for example... Ceramic rods are fragile; dropping one will likely break it. A ceramic rod is very hard. It's also round. The contact patch between a blade and the rod is TINY. All pressure focuses through that very hard, tiny point on the rod, making it very easy to deform an edge. Knocking your blade against a ceramic rod does bad things to your edge. Using too much pressure also does bad things to your edge. So don't get the idea you can sharpen / hone your knife the way the way you see "pros" do it on TV, slapping your blade up and down the rod at high speed. Use light, consistent pressure. I use the lightest pressure I can apply that still allows maintenance of consistent edge angle and pressure as the blade is drawn down the rod. If the bevel of your knife is rounded, chances are you'll end up making the knife duller rather than sharper because of the difficulty of maintaining the correct angle. If the bevel of your knife is hollow, ha ha ha... either dump your wheel sharpener or don't bother with any other sharpening or honing mechanism, because the correct angle is achievable only with the wheel sharpener that created the bevel. Use a DMT coarse diamond stone to regrind rounded or hollow bevels flat, followed by fine, then finish off with your ceramic rod. Good luck.
Rods don't sharpen. They align the edge. Next time you sharpen on a stone, try to align the edge on the stone itself. Your knives will get dull eventually, doesn't matter if you use the rod or not as the sole purpose of the rod is to align the edge and not to be abrasive, so you will always need to use a stone to carve a new, sharp edge.
@@sacoto98 steel rods may not sharpen, you are right, but he mentioned ceramic ones. Aren't Japanese ceramic whetstones made of ceramic, same as ceramic rods?
Ok, that makes sense. I got a set and thought I ruined them by soaking for too long and that's why they were falling apart. One of the stones separated too; they're just glued together.
I'd think some ceramic plates or rods shouldn't be ruled out (particularly for finer grit), but the price mark-up thing is still something to watch out for.
Also had this stone from a few years ago from aliexpress. It took 30+ minutes to get to a reasonable level of sharpness because the stones simply could nto sharpen. Purchased a 5 dollar diamond set recently based on recommendations and it reaches the same level of sharpness in one minute. Thanks for the information.
I go with king stones for sharpening. I don't typically use it on high wear resistant steels but once flattened I will use it to set the bevel on some straight razors and then progress from there. Good video overall. I think even for less than $10 I would skip those blue&white stones. They just LOOK like garbage.
Wish I had seen your video before buying my deluxe Amazon sharpening stone. But all is not lost. Just ordered your recommended diamond stone from Home Depot (because the Home Depot 6 blocks from my house didn't have it). Thanks for your candor and honesty.
I really enjoyed this video as I think that you're spot on with the truth about these sharpening stones on Amazon. I personally have not purchased them as I use the Spyderco ceramic stones and they are awesome two stones that will last a lifetime providing one doesn't drop them as they will shatter into a lot of pieces.
Good video same goes for knife blanks on Etsy a lot of the pictures of "hand forged knife blanks" are exactly the same as the ones on Etsy by a "maker" same tang and profile, length everything.
I'm not sure if it's in Europe but I've had poor luck with DMT diamond stones from Amazon. I bought like 5 of them and every single one had some quality issues - like missing places of actual abrasive or visible cnc machining tracks on the surface (and that was Extra Fine grit...). Ended up returning all of them. Finally I bought some cheaper post display ones - and those are indeed great.
Ive heard some good and bad reports stemming from the same issue. Either dmt has counterfeit items being sold in their name, or they are selling seconds themselves on Amazon. The link I left was to the item from the DMT store. I ordered mine from the same place (Amazon) 5 years ago. I reached out to dmt a couple years ago about this issue, as i was trying to become a dealer. I never got a straight answer so I decided to not become a dealer. Unfortunately I haven't had much luck with any other diamond stones either.
I think DMT qc might not be up to top standards. I’ve bought quite a few from Amazon and one of them double sided Duo sharp, had really bad quality on one side. After very little use there’s a big spot where all diamonds are just gone. But the backside (325 grit) is still in great shape after 3 years, so definitely not a counterfeit but rather as mentioned, bad quality control.
Why ever on Earth would you say it's "definitely not a counterfeit" when nearly all products on Amazon a clearly factory-seconds/thirds, obvious counterfeits, used-abused/returned then resold, outright scams, etc. Buy direct from DMT and you will likely be very pleased. P.S: I do not nor have ever ever worked for/with DMT or have any relation to them whatsoever (they are quite expensive but that seems to be the "system." Good luck, 76.
@@jess60901 well as I said, the backside of the same stone is perfect after 3 years and maybe 100-150 sharpenings, and it was bought on the DMT Store on Amazon, so yeah definately not a counterfeit but rather very bad QC…
Not only did I learn on that stone, I thinned a chinese cleaver substantially with it. An endless grey sludge formed. The water the stone was in eventually had enough sediment to feed the nile valley. The excess found its way onto my countertop and then proceeded to soak itself in. A month later I'm still cleaning up from it. I'm glad you turned me on to diamond stones. This could have been my forever experience with sharpening.
Well done. I wish more knife people out there were raising awareness about these junk stones. I do the best l can to educate new sharpeners about why it's best to avoid them.
@zeauz Anyone with some skill and experience can get a blade sharp on most anything. But l don't recommend these crappy tools to any beginner when they can get a couple really decent stones for less and have nice tools to learn on.
I can attest to this . Constantly having to straighten out these stones with a flattening stone to the point both stones are almost wedge shaped now with wearing more at one end . Have spent hours trying to get to a decent sharpness with no success . I have better results with a bog standard oil stone with a fine and course side that doesnt dish out much . Glad I came across this video and will definitely be looking at your recommendation of diamond stones.
1:53 I am that person, you can pity me 😭I literally found this video as I'm taking a break from sharpening my kitchen knives with a set of stones very similar to this one, and my experience has been deteriorating with every moment 🙃
@@gbennett58 It also depends on how many knives you're sharpening in one sitting. If you're just doing one or two, it's not that bad, but if you try to do an entire collection at once (like I was when I made the original comment), it very quickly turns everything in the immediate area into a damp, slurry splattered mess.
I bought two days ago from amazon the EXACT sharpening stone that you identified as being cheap and not recommended. I'm returning it today and ordering your recommended diamond stone. Thank you!
Wow man. Integrity. Not something you see a lot of anymore online. I was about to buy one of these highly rated stones as a sharpening beginner. Mostly for my EDC, but my kitchen knives are starting to dull too. I want to do it right and I appreciate the honest feedback and realization of amazon sellers. Also, freaking hilarious with the satire towards the end of the video. This is the first video I’ve seen from you, but believe me, I’ll be watching all your uploads. Thanks friend.
I got the stone set you talked about but only paid $26 for 400/1000 & 3000/8000, it is messy but at this point I am used to that with a lot of sharpening systems, the edge is the best on my tools I have handled so far. I want to eventually upgrade but will be getting more familiar with a system I finally have confidence in compared to oil stones, or other systems that can't keep my edges square.
I know im old school but buying anything from a nebulous source such as Amazon is an unnatural act. I want to lay my hands on the product and judge its quality from my tactile senses, not by the number of stars or thumbs up icons. Like i said, im sort of old school.
Good for you! Authenticity brings long term support ❤ It takes longer to grow but we don't go anywhere :) and we feel safe to trust your recommendations. Keep up your quality content, i love your honest style. I particularly like your content geared towards amateur makers (like me) with limited power tools and an oven (like me) hahaha
While I agree with many of the points I find the whole whetstone process very relaxing, regardless of the mess and even though I'm an complete noob I was able to get super sharp knifes with this stone, later also without the guide. At the beginning yes, I felt like I was dulling instead of sharpening but once I got a nice burr on both sides which I then fleshed out with the 6000 the knifes were sharp as never before. For 25$ which I paid with shipping and a truing stone included I find this to be the perfect start into the endeavor.
"I have a conscience." *looks down* I feel the same way. I used to work for a martial arts retailer and could have started my own brand to buy cheap things from factories in china and over charging naïve customers on amazon. I do have days where i think about how much money I feel I let go but at the end of the day, I do live with peace knowing I'm not scamming people and instead tell people what is good and what isn't. Great video. I am subbed.
For 50 years I've been a fan of Norton India stones. I have a 100/320 grit combination stone that will put a shaving edge on a knife in no time. Yeah, shaving the hair on my arm at 320. And that's a very functional edge for an EDC.
you payed 60 dollars for that one? I payed 15 for a similar one and it did me fine. you just have to keep it flat and it will do you fine. and strop after then you are golden
Glad I found your video, saved a lot of stuffing around. I ended up buying a dual sided diamond encrusted sharpening stone from a US company. 350/1300 grit and for the first time in many years I have sharp knives. good stuff.
I've beeen a butcher for over 23 years and recently I bought a few of those sharpening stones for home use. I instanly notice that feeling not right. I will never ever buy them again
Oh wow, I'm the person you mention in the video, I was that person trying to learn sharpening for the first time with this exact item from Amazon. Today I learned.
I bought a two-sided sharpening stone at a restaurant supply store. The consistency of the grit was very variable. It was kind of like sharpening the knife on the brick at the start of the video - even on the fine grit. I could feel it gouging out the edge. It's now a door stop.
Thank you for the honest review. Learned some lessons too with bad products and paid literally for crap. Some said, why not watch reviews on youtube first. But this is where the Journey into buying worthless products starts. So many hidden sponsoring, moneybags and blatant lying, it's hard to differentiate between garbage and well-designed working products. Because what i learned, the price is by far no safe indicator for a product being good or not. Sometimes design flaws ruin everything.
what you said applies to so many products on amazon. so many cheap products bought from china online shops and resold on amazon at 10x the price. it's an epidemic of scammers and scalpers
I honestly trained myself to sharpen on these cheap stones. For beginners it's not a bad start, but getting the flattening stone is a must since these dish out so badly you could take a drink after sharpening. Diamond stones are a godsend, and I do plan to upgrade to real DMTs eventually. Right now, I use the cheap china ones with rubber or PU bases. The plates themselves are pretty good, but they're only 1 to 2mm rhick, and tend to bend to confirm to the rubber base. I get a good cutting edge out of them, and they don't dish out. But I have to bend them back to flatness once in a while. Great vid brother! Cutting-edge content as always!
Get the ones without the rubber backing (or remove the rubber) and glue them with UV glue to a thick glass plate. I have a couple of those and I'm pretty happy. Makes sure that you glue them evenly thou.
@@galileo_rs Thanks! That's a great idea. There's no base flatter than glass. And I have to make sure that the plate is dead flat before I glue it on. I almost forgot to mention, the worst thing about those rubber bases is that they smell really bad when they first arrive. Like burning tires.
@@gall_blader_works Technically not correct, float glass is not that flat but at these dimensions it should not matter. Easy way to check is to tear apart an old printer and get the rods and use that to check. I glued one badly because I applied to much pressure in the middle of the stone in an effort to spread the glue. Best method seems to be to put your glass plate on another piece o glass, dump a bunch of glue and press lightly. Shine the UV light below and you should be good to go.
@galileo_rs Thanks! That's an awesome tip. I was wondering how best to shine that UV light. At first I was using double stick tape when the adhesive failed. But UV looks like a much better adhesive to use. You've got very wise solutions 👍
@@gall_blader_works You are welcome and thanks. BTW if for any reason you need to unglue the plate just put the in the oven, make sure to cool the class gradually or it will crack. Just don't do it if your wife is around, she will not appreciate the smell 😉
DMT Diafold red and blue in the kitchen drawer, free-hand, at the sink, 30 seconds, keeps the kitchen knives sharp. Works great on my Benchmade D2 tool steel blade, too. In the shop I have DMT two sided plates, Black+Blue and Red+Green for woodworking tools. Strop with a piece of scrap leather and some buffing compound to a mirror finish.
Very happy to have found out about this, I used a brick for a couple of years before finding an old $20 stone from the 90's that had been lost in the back of a cupboard for nearly 20yrs.. it lives on my kitchen window and gets used at least once a week for over a decade now. I've only just flattened it down a few months back and it'll likely outlast me as it's still got plenty of meat left on it. I was contemplating having a look at some of these fancy new diamond stones, but i don't reckon i'll bother now.. Thanks muchly..
This is exactly how I felt when I bought those stones, I dished them out and couldn't get anything sharp, I was so done with trying to learn to sharpen, rather than getting a trueing stone and attempting to continuing with them which is what I considered in the first place (again thinking it was my fault for sharpening wrong and gouging out the stone) I got the 3 set of dmt stones and the 3 set of dmt paste and they're so much better, then I made my own strops, one for each grit after ordering a strip of leather from amazon after watching your video. I'm so mad about those cheap stones I bought because I thought they should be good for the price and reviews and that it was me not being able to sharpen and hold an edge. I literally took all my hours of frustration in practice onto the dmt stones and got a razor sharp knife on my mora the first time, then I took my second mora and did a true scandi and it was unreal.
It is cheap whetstone you best buy a cheap diamond plate to level it as well as clean it after sharpening. Probably okay if you are sharpening cheap kitchen knives occasionally. But if you sharpening your expensive japanese kitchen knives or collection of expensive pocket knives.. best to listen to the advice in this video.
So glad you posted this one man, thank you. While I've not graduated to diamond stones just yet I can say I haven't went down the road of cheap stones this video was about. However, I have looked at several and read several reviews from eBay and Amazon on them, and came really close at times with them in my "checkout basket" but never pulled the trigger on them:) I have 3 stones one Smith's as my course one, because I've always heard the course one doesn't much matter. Spyderco Bench Stones, the medium grit and the (white) fine grit one makeup the rest. Still practicing on those and really enjoy them and maybe not top tier quality, but I def could've done worse and I do get a sharp knife out of it:)
Great video! I fell for these stones off Amazon initially as well and spent more time trying to flatten them after one use than actually sharpening my knives. I recently went with a better diamond stone, after doing some light research and have been really happy with it.
After purchasing some decent quality hand planes and Sheffield steel wood chisels I tried the "scary sharp" system of abrasive papers but after a short while it was clear that stones were required. Endless hours of browsing Amazon and other sellers was nothing short of frustrating. I didn't trust anything on Amazon and ended buying up at a dedicated woodworking store. I got 300 and 1200 grit 3"x8" diamond stones. They were more expensive than those at Home Depot (probably no better though) but I have never regretted buying quality stones. They're also great for knife sharpening and honing hand ground HSS lathe tools. The close of this video is priceless!
My landlady has one of these, same "soak in water" instructions, same cheap clay that slowly "dishes out", except it's about 50 years old. I've only used it once, on garden shears that we had used and abused and struggled to cut through branches because it was chipped. I had literally no idea what I was doing, I just held the blade at an angle and rubbed until I heard grinding metal... I can say with pride that the garden shears cut through branches again.
use those to load other sharpening stones. there’s not a lot going on with abrasives, it’s pretty straightforward. but the bond is what gives a sharpening stone most of its qualities. he’s showing stones with cheap bond but there’s still abrasives in there and since the bond does break down really easily you will need to flatten it, so just pick a coarser stone with a stronger bond (which in the flip side doesn’t release abrasives very fast) and load it with the abrasives from the softer stone. that is flattening your cheaper stones and it is also getting more out of them and also it’s getting better use out of your other stones. every stone serves a purpose not every stone will immediately suit your needs. you don’t need a single sharpening stone and you also need all of them.
@@OUTDOORS55 well a stone without abrasives would be pretty stupid so they are both important. there are designer abrasives that are pretty nice, i have a few that are supposed to imitate a natural stone and they leave a really nice finish and there are different shaped abrasives but for the most part they are all very similar. the $10 stone in the video has aluminum oxide abrasives which is really cheap and is also next to diamonds are the second hardest thing on the planet and the same abrasive is used in the very best knife sharpeners and everything in between. if you’re only looking at the abrasive then why not just buy the abrasives without the bond? it’s much cheaper and widely available and if you really geek out on it you’ll discover that you are circling around the same two or three options which is exactly what is inside your sharpening stones. if you go to the naniwa catalog they sell little stones for loading up larger stones even though both stones use the same abrasives and the little stones are the exact same thing as some of their larger stones. the stone in the video actually works really well on my shapton stones and since i don’t have to produce as much downforce it extends the lifespan of my better stones. some stones have larger grit patterns and a harder bond but won’t do much by itself because until the bond breaks down it won’t release the abrasives and so it requires a lot more downforce which is not good. i collect sharpening stones and i get as much use out of cheap stones that dish out as i do out of more expensive stones, like i’m glad i’ve tried a little of everything but i think you could make a better video about the good value you can get out of cheaper stones.
I was taken by the cheaper water stones sold on Amazon. Yea, they wear out like crazy. I finally bit the bullet and purchased a set of Shapton ceramic stones and love them. I never use the printed side except for some very infrequent flattening. Shapton stones hardly wear at all. I also purchases a couple of the cheaper diamond stones for profiling as well as axes and machete's ...I think they are "Ultrra Sharp" and I have no regrets on that purchase. I also have a King or two that are not bad but just don't have that same pleasant feedback the Shaptons have.
that looks like the exact stone I used to try and start learning. I have not had much luck trying on and off for over a year now. I am trying some of the ones recommended by this channel, so we will see what comes from those for me
Funny, I've been using one of those stones for years now, only thing that's going to change is where I order it. I only have the two knives and they come out polished and razor sharp each time. Hallowing? I have a second brick for that to adjust it flat, but it's not much of a problem I usually just spread my strokes slighly across the stone.
Well, sir, I just stumbled across this video of yours and will finish it in the morning, but I do want to say I totally agree on the DMT Dia-Sharp diamond plates. I got a pair of Wood River two sided diamond plates - 120/180 & 400/1200 grit and fortunately they were half off from them when I purchased them, They're actually diamond coated metal sheets with a plastic core sandwiched in between them, not a solid steel plate with a +/- .001" flat side impregnated with diamonds. I have three; 120 gr., 325 gr. & 1,000 gr.. Since I'm sharpening not only kitchen, fishing and hunting knives, but hand planes, chisels, spoke shaves and more I'll be getting the 600 gr. and the 8,000 gr. ones as well.
I bought one of these exact stones for 12 bucks... First timer here and I couldn't get it to sharpen anything... For all I can tell my knife was duller than I started with... I felt like the knife sinks into the stone and never creates a proper apex... Now looking for a diamond steel plate one. 😊 Wish I've seen your videos earlier... 😢
Thank you for the trigger warning! I'm very sensitive to words like 'obfuscate', 'minimal', 'taxes', 'incandescent' and 'refrigerator', not to mention the colors taupe and chartreuse. Hearing or reading these words, or seeing those colors, is deeply traumatizing and I have to self medicate with powerful drugs I buy from a kid down the street. Thank you for being so concerned about my fragile emotional state. Great video!
🛑I had to remove the links to alibaba in the description, since Pete from @CedricAda ( youtube ) had one of his videos taken down for uploading a similar video under the claims of attempting to sell counterfeit items from the company. I will fight a take down attempt and will name any company specifically who trys. I did leave links to everything else referenced in the video, in the description. Everything expressed here is my own personal opinion based on my experiences. Your opinion and experience may differ. Thanks for watching. 🙂
Thanks mate.
Thank you sir, good man👍
Dang man. They really do make it hard to make a video nowadays. I like to watch videos from many different genres, gaming, bushcraft/survival, craft etc etc and every single one pf them has similar problems.
Hi Alex I’ve been a big fan of your videos sense your first knife. I’m very happy to see that you’re ok, and this video is great as usual. I still want to purchase a couple of your strops you make, how can I get them if you still make them 🇺🇸
I think the company in question taking dubious actions against Pete have realized they're messing with the wrong upside-down Aussie man 😂
Unfortunately, this is not only true for wetstones, but for almost EVERY popular product. Thanks to Amazon Marketplace, dropshipping has grown ridiculously fast and mostly uncontrolled so there's not just a few "black sheeps", but a whole flock...
Amazon has a lot more product vetting than Temu and Aliexpress at least. I just got an extension cord off of Temu that had bare, unsautered wires at one end instead of a plug. I've had a lot more success buying higher quality products used off of Ebay and Craigslist when it comes to getting what I need at an affordable price.
Spot on
This is very reason i stopped shoping on Amazon. It is littered with scam and I do not have time to check every scam offer. It should be shop responsibility.
amazon has become a landfill simulator, it is absolutely impossible to find a good product
You guys are just too lazy to do the research. Besides, there are a few trusted names out there if you are picky. If you do not know how to search and evaluate on your own, yiu deserve to get burned. Amazon does not have the staff, time or resources to check each item listed by third party. If unhappy, return it and ask for a refund. Besides, you can buy junk just as easily at your local hardware store, or any other shopping venue. Remember the old Roman saying, Caveat Emptor - Let The Buyer Beware.
The satire had me laughing my tail end off. Great info on the stones the good, the bad, and the ugly. As a rule, I avoid items on Amazon that have too many look alike competitors, all sharing similar reviews, written in poorly executed English. Subscribed because I like your delivery!
Copyright laws do not prevent you from copying material for the purposes of review or commentary, which is considered "fair use".
True, but there's a different problem. If a shady company doesn't like your video, they can issue a takedown notice anyway. Even if it's bogus, you still have to go through UA-cam's slow ass appeal process (hell YT might ignore you anyway). So, you either have to get lucky and hope a human employee at UA-cam sees you, or you raise a big stink with a bunch of followers on social media to get UA-cam's attention, just to get the false copyright strike removed.
And it only takes one shady company to decide they don't like your video and strike you.
I've seen this with several content creators who provide news from er, Eastern Europe that a certain propaganda factory doesn't want propagated... It takes weeks and lots of subscriber noise to get the lies from the bots dealt with.
@@BreakdancePeachAlternatively, the uploader can also demand that the takedown notice issuer take them to court over it, although that requires giving your name address to the takedown notice issuer.
You might find this interesting. I worked in China for about 10 years in manufacturing. The prices you see on Alibaba are much higher than directly from the manufacture. About manufacturers, what may seem like a manufacturer is in fact what is called a "trading company" which is a independent sales company buying product to export from the real manufacturer. Some manufacturers do not have a export license to export so they use a trading company or companies. Ok now you're dealing directly with the manufacturer who has an export license, does that mean you're getting the lowest price? No, not at all, because you are say an American importer "you're rich so I can charge you more". In addition an export company will have the Chinese sales tax refunded to them so the "export price" is BS.
Back to the sharpening stones being sold for +$50 the real price from a manufacturer, based on my experience, and my Chinese wife who also works in manufacturing would be around 50cents, based on quantity.
That’s true, if I say I’m from UK the china seller or manufacturer will give me a higher price, however the same product you can buy from India or Philippines etc from a seller for cheaper, and they bought it from china and imported and made a profit and it’s still cheaper then me buying direct from Chinese manufacturer as I’m from UK
No sh-t, you're also paying for the logistics of it.
Play
I bought DMT plates starting fine then 3 others going up 8000. I learned watching your sharpening video and can do freehand mirror finish edges. People act impressed when they find out i don't use a guided system. I have been using those plates for about a year and my dad is happy with one I recommended to him for his chisels. Thanks for not selling out on us.
The newer DMT plates have a few QC issues... Gouges in the plates, or inconsistent grit ( occasionally you'll get one with a strangely out-of-place bigger grain of diamond on it... They leave nasty scratches).
@scottcrawford3745 I think breaking them in first helps. I start off using the plates on some tools and cheaper knives. After they have been used alot they are much better in my opinion.
Dmt is the best. I dont use over 1200 then go to leather, I carve sharpen everyday
Honestly I’ve used and own a ridiculous amount of DMTs, the course and fine are by FAR my favs, leave extremely keen edge. The extra fine HC (hardcoat version) simply can’t be broken in, leaves terrible scratches and doesn’t put a great edge on due to the lack of uniform particle sizes. That said, it’s oddly good for lapping other things flat (wouldn’t lap stones with it cuz it wouldn’t leave a surface with enough bite)
If your method uses a strop, try stripping straight from the coarse and straight from the fine, you might be incredibly surprised by the quality and durability of the edges these stones provide! They nailed the particle size and density distribution on those 2 specific plates for sure
Cheers
@@BenCase88We aren’t acting, homie. We truly ARE impressed. 😊
I hate this phenomenon. It's impossible to know wether a product is good because all the reviews are always positive, I hate it.
If you want quality don’t look for the cheapest prices. 🤷🏻♂️
One trick is to sort reviews by most recent. Usually the review padding was done long ago and then they vote up the reviews they want you to see. But most recent will give you a more unfiltered view and you will usually find a much higher percentage of critical or bad reviews in the last 20 than from the "top" 20.
Watch Project Farm. The best review channel on the entire internet
@ChauntelleARussell I actually knew that channel! Haha completely forgot about them. Unfortunately they don't review the type of things that I'm typically looking to purchase haha.
Once upon a time, there were no reviews to be read because there was no internet. You were pretty much stuck with what local retailers made available. So while the review situation is annoying, I welcome the tremendous selection that is at my fingertips today. You just have to be a little skeptical and do your own research.
I took your advice on your "beginner sharpening" video and went with a steel back diamond stone so I didn't need to worry about dishing and because many of my knives have very tough steels like 20CV, Magnacut, S90V, etc.
Really glad I took your advice because I almost bought an identical looking 1k/6k stone. Your advice helps.
Unless you cut meat for a living or sharpen lawnmower blades with your water stone, it will not dish for many years. Rubbing it on a sheet of 180 grit wet-or-dry sandpaper every year will keep it flat as new.
@@Bob_Adkins To be honest I'd rather just stick with steel stones I now have that has a better sharpening medium (damond). I'd also rather not need a flat reference like a sheet of glass or steel with the 180 grit to see where the low spots are and make sure I'm actually improving the stone flatness. I'm also not sharpening lawnmower blades, but like a guy with a truck, when you have a stone you're not the only one using it so it does get some extra table time.
I appreciate the solution, especially for those still using them, and especially to know for my old stones so thank you, but remember that this was from a video to corect mistakes from newbies.
The cheap diamond plates can be very curved! Look out for that
@@karelenhenkie666 Luckily I'm a buy once cry once kind of guy (only took me 5 years to get that TRM Neutron in stock, lol) but I honestly didn't even know that was possible, TYVM. Learn something new every day.
Do you run a bubble level on it or flat edge, just in case the good factory was rushed on a late Friday that slipped out the door or whatever?
@@sqeeye3102 I have a flat piece of plane steel that ik take across it, baseball on the scratchen ( outside edges or inside) I can see immediatley if they are flat enough for my plane blades
I started out with the crappy Amazon stones and then found your channel and decided to give the dmt stones a try and my sharpening skills really improved so much that i don't even touch the wet stones anymore. I will also say that ultra sharp makes some really good full sized stones 8" in a set of 3 that are just as good as DMT stones I like the bigger ones and the smaller ones is nice to. I have a set of each but the one down side to diamonds is that the fine grits above 1200 do not last very long so it would be nice if you could recommend a good whetstone for honing as right now I'm using ceramic rods which I feel you lose some geometry of the knife when using rods. But as for now the 600 and 1200 diamond stones work awesome for me along with the leather strop
I have a ton of those stones (used them to sharpen my chisels) but I remember they were super cheap a few years ago.
The business model of overpriced crap unfortunately applies to pretty much every single item sold on Amazon nowadays.
Absolutely. Amazon is a last resort/ Look elsewhere first.
@@cryptostormer2512or if you have prime, look when you’re almost out of time and need something now
I purchased a few of these whetstones last year but never used them on anything seriously hard. I just kept them in a tupperware container of water for touching up my cheap kitchen knives. They are messy and a bit of a pain to use compared to the Spyderco stone I bought later. Thanks for pointing out the downsides to these products and being a bit of a goofball while doing it. Your sense of humor makes your videos a lot of fun to watch.
What’s so depressing a Spyderco has decided to discontinue their sharpening stones/bench stones. So hold onto those! I have the whole set and I’m not even gonna let them go. I will be keeping them dearly and making sure they’re safe.
@@markcoffman494
That's a damned shame. I only have the medium grit stone. I guess I'll have to get the diamond stones he mentioned.
@@markcoffman494Your post damn near gave me a heart attack. The bench stones are still listed on their website. Where did you get the news?
I wish I had seen this video a month ago. I knew all those whetstones had to have came from the same manufacturer, but I didn't realize what I'd be getting into. I know maintaining the proper angle is key, but this was nothing like sharpening my pocket knives on smaller stones. Instead, I (while using the guide that came with the stones) ended up dulling my kitchen knives even more. I should have gone with a diamond stone set like I had originally been thinking, but thought I'd save money...but I just flushed it down the drain.
A diamond sharpener ain't gonna help if you can't get a knife sharp with a wet stone. You have to know how to maintain the same angle, and how to get a burr. It wasn't the stone that dulled your knife, it was you
Pls dont flush Something Like STONES
@@dereksteele2284 I have one of these amazon whetstones and they really are garbage. I was using the 6000 grit side and a 2mm lump pops out of the surface. What caught this lump? the edge.
I've sharpened up piss dull chef's knives at work with these crap amazon stones over 100 times at work over the course of about a year. These stones really do work, they're just crap and irritating. Like the guy says, they're soft af and dish out super fast. You'll have to flatten them out constantly and they make mess all over the place. But they do work, I consistantly got low quality knives (relatively soft stainless steel) razor sharp, enough to make paper thin slices out of tomatoes. I do think these crap stones have a legit purpose. For someone wanting to learn how to freehand sharpen on a stone, get one of these crap-o stones for 20 bucks, one of those 400/1000 combo stones and a cheap food service chef's knife. Dull it up on the side walk and practice on the crap stone until you get the feel for it. Once you can consistantly raise a burr and finish it up, and get it cutting paper nicely, go get some real stones.
@@David-bc4rh he didn't say he had a lump on the stone, he just said the stone dulled his knife
I fell for those stones a couple of years ago. I have three different ones with 2 grits each. One big tip off is that many of them come w a bamboo holder and a small rubber mat, and sometimes a plastic angle guide. I must have bought mine before the price took off since I have perhaps $20-25 total in all three. And that is still far more than they are worth. Every bad thing that you said about them is spot on. One of mine even separated where the two different stones were glued together. They are extremely difficult to sharpen a blade on.
I have several old stones I bought for a couple of dollars at garage and estate sales. You can also often get some nice pocket stones for only a buck or two. Most folks used oil on their stones in the past, which can be a problem if you prefer using water. I soak the oiled stones in water with dish washing soap for a couple of days. Sometimes I hit them with a brush if they are really gnarly. Then I run them through an ultrasonic cleaner a few times in water with dish soap and the warm mode turned on. After another bath in dish soap and a fresh water rinse, I let them air dry. The oil is usually gone and they work fine from then on with plain water or soapy water.
Even somewhat dished out or nicked stones can be flattened with sandpaper, or on the cement sidewalk in a pinch. The side of a dismounted 8 inch grinder wheel works pretty well also, just use both sides of the wheel so that you get your stone more flat than you can by only using one side 100% of the time. In my experience any old stones made by Norton or Craftsman are usually worth buying. And many that are labeled Arkansas Stones are good also. Lansky and other name brands are usually good as well. Some of the older stones, especially natural ones, don't cut some of the new super steels that well. But you are generally better off with diamond stones for those anyway.
I use two cheap Harbor Freight stones as flattening or trueing stones for garage sale finds. You'll get the best results if you have 3 stones to work against each other, rather than just two.
Watch Alec's videos on sharpening with a coffee mug, or on a car window if you're still tempted to buy these crappy stones. I think you'll have better results using the bottom of a mug than these stones! Wet/dry sandpaper laid on a sheet of wet glass would also work better than these stones.
oh ffs, I bought 2 of those. I swear, can't buy anything nowadays! Not even a rock!
That's what I use for quick chisel sharpening on the job: a broken piece of glass pane and some worn down 220 grit sandpaper. I'm not building a jewelry box so it's plenty sharp enough.
A while back, a friend of mine asked me to help him sharpen his knives because he had no idea how. Another friend overheard this and volunteered to help, so we turned it into a little knife sharpening party.
Friend 2 brought a set of three two-sided waterstones like the one in this video. When I arrived, he had already been there a while and had two of them soaking in a big bowl while he used the third. I set down my little two-sided diamond sharpening block that comes with its own little carry case/non-slip pedestal and set to work. In twenty minutes, I'd sharpened half a dozen knives and friend 2 was working on his second one. Friend 1, dubious that my single stone and speed could be as good as friend 2's multiple stones, checked the edges and was like, "Wow, there's no comparison." Friend 2's "finished" knife was still _dull._ I sharpened it to the same level as the others in about thirty seconds.
Friend 2 had paid $150 for his stones. Mine was $45.
So which one is yours ?
I fell victim to those stones when I first started out. I was able to get a good edge but they are a mess and agree they start to dish out almost right away. Based on your suggestion in one of your earlier videos I got a Spyderco Med. grit ceramic and a coarse DMT for removing metal. Very entertaining video thanks very much!
The last few minutes had me in stitches. The cynicism and sarcasm was palpable. You sir are one of my new favorite people. Thanks for making my Friday afternoon. 👍
Yeah, I tried that stone, I have the exact one. Has all the problems you pointed out. My biggest issue is it dishes out really fast, and if your buying this cheap stone you (like me) probably aren’t looking to shell out more for a flattening stone then your actual stone cost, to keep it flat. And the one they give you is tiny and would never work. Just garbage.
Here's a low cost trick for flattening soft stones like that: glue a sheet of coarse sandpaper (60-80 grit) on a piece of window glass, than stick the glass (on the opposite side) to a table with double sided tape to keep it in place. Grind the sharpening stone on the sandpaper in a circular motion, applying just enough pressure to keep good surface contact. You may need to brush or blow away the accumulated dust a few times so it doesn't clog the sandpaper, but the whole job shouldn't take more than 10 minutes or so.
@@Dr_VIf you wet the glass before you put the sandpaper down it often doesn't move. No glue needed! :-)
Some tile and countertop stores have 1ft square samples of their counter top material that they will give or sell you very cheap. Those samples are pretty thick and heavy. I also bought a 1 ft by 2 ft granite tile at a flooring store for a flattening project. These tiles are around 3/8 -5/8 in thick. These pieces of granite aren't as flat as a special machinist stone, but they work for sharpening blades, or polishing up a flat surface on many items.
I appreciate the video. In my view, every stone has certain characteristics and limitations. Japanese stones for instance are very very soft and wear quickly, they use a big slurry, etc. Many many stones need to soak thoroughly, mainly for the same reason we need water for wet sanding. And I wonder about how much pressure people are exerting, and if they are expecting to use a stone to renew an edge or just polish. Also many professional people in kitchens and street stalls worlwide use deeply dished stones, especially for knives.... if it degrades so quickly, then flattening will be a cinch, if you feel that's what you need. Just as an example, the very best woodworking can be found in periods 200 years ago where you could not get a stone so easily, and when getting a truly flat stone meant extraordinary effort, so the stone you described for 15 bucks or so isn't so terrible. I come from Cleveland area where there is a long sandstone tradition--try that sometime for an interesting experience. I think there is something to be said for how you use it and what you expect from it. I have used a wide range, from found/hand prepared stones to Arkansas, diamonds, dollar store stones... They all have a place if you approach it knowing what to expect. Better to have more reviews so people know what to expect. So for that i commend you. I'll add my best bang for buck is the Norton India stone, black and orange. Very very good hard oil stone that can be a splash and go with water.
Thanks for your honesty,almost got one of those(the blue & white) but they looked a bit "fishy" to me since the same stone was offered with different prices under different vendors...I will continue using my oil stone that I bought for €1.50 ($1.00) a year ago and stills flat with no wear .This type of videos are really helpfull!! Thanks!!
I commonly tell people to get a 1k/6k and a stick of buffing compound to practice with but never spend more than $18 delivered for the setup. These stones are GREAT for learning what you're doing wrong because they _will_ actually produce very sharp edges once you learn to do everything right. I use my 1k/6k to polish maring and burn-on out of steel baking sheets and to do rough-in on knives before using my good stones... work fine for that. You can just use a mopping towel to clear the grit between sweeps and none of them have to be soaked before use.
I agree that these stones are good for learning. I have a cheap one, and it's much more obvious when the angle is off compared to a cheap diamond stone.
Good video! Spreading discernment and truth is important in these days. You have to question EVERYTHING you see on the screens.
I have one of these and I have blamed my technique for not getting razor sharp blades. I saw your review of the Sharpal doublesided and bought that and a Sharpal strop and now the back of my hand is completely hair free. Thank you for the advice.
I learned to sharpen on a 10$ Chinese stone from aliexpress very much like the one in the video. It can get knifes reasonably sharp and after about 2 years it's still not really dished out due to regular flattening. Idk about "sharpening experience" but it seems like pretty good value for the money. I don't think a regular home cook needs anything more.
I've used them too, only paid 20 & while it isn't the greatest sharpener it absolutely gets my large kitchen knives sharp enought to easily go right through a tomato.
Yeah, I just sharpened my two knives up yesterday and they cut just fine. I guess I just don't know any better, but I've been using it for a couple years without an issue. I bought it just because it was cheap and I didn't know if I would be able to get the hang of it or not. If it does wear out on me, I'll get a nicer one next time.
If all you're sharpening is kitchen knives the stones don't have to be all that flat. If you're sharpening expensive wood chisels and plane irons the dead flat is very important.
His review is BS, I paid exactly what he did and got: "Knife Sharpening Stone Set , Includes 4 Side Grit 400/1000 3000/8000 Whetstone Knife Sharpener Kit,Safe Whetstone Knife Sharpener,Non-Slip Bamboo Base, Angle Guide,Polishing Compound，Leather Strop, Flattening Stone,Razor Strop,Rubber Holder and Honing Guide". And I got it in Canada. Normally stuff here is not available, or twice the price. Plus if i didn't like the product, I get "free" returns.
@@tacticalskiffs8134
None of that is related to anything he said in the video. So I cannot trust you about anything. OK it might be the same price but its clearly not the same product.
This was amazing. And COMPLETELY explains why I have never been able to sharpen my own knives. My brother has a bushcrafting YT (Half-Insane Outdoor Guy) and recommended the stone grit to use but probably didn't know about this sham. This is my second video of yours I've seen. So glad I found it.
Just a tip re the links below Alex: Huusk took down my videos for selling counterfeits because I linked in my pinned comment the other alibaba versions of their garbage kitchen knives. I tried to appeal saying it was for information re the scam etc but the youtube robot didn’t listen and I lost the whole video 🤕
I would hope cos these stones are a tad more generic looking than the Huusk knife they’d have less of a leg to stand on but just FYI 😊
I know, thats why i didn't include any copyrighted content / all original. If they file a claim I'll fight it and re upload another video actually naming them. 👍
Re read the comment...I'll remove the links👍
yeah, just to be on safe side. in my new video i just showed them on screen so people couldnt actually click through to them and havent had an issue so far. They’ll probably claim for other stuff they can warp the claiming form to match but we take each day as it comes 😺
I removed the links. Thanks for the heads up👍 I completely forgot you had that issue on that video!
Bought one of the kits off Amazon so came here to the University of UA-cam for sharpening tips. So glad I came upon this video. One thing I noticed with my kit is I feel no difference in grit between the stone labeled as 400 grit compaired to the one labeled 8000 grit. I can feel a big difference with sand paper that is 400 grit vs even 2000 grit. Thank you for your video. I am of to shop for a few Diamond Stones per your recommondation.
this is why when it comes to buying things on amazon I look at 5 things.
1. who is selling it
2. if it has multiple user reviews from multiple different websites
3. number of reviews has to be over 100 buyers
4. the 5 star rating has to be over 80%
5. read all the negative reviews only to find if there are common problems with the item.
this gives me a better picture of the item in question.
I will never buy anything under 100 reviews that has lower than 80% 5 star rating that has 2 or more negative comments about the same problem.
I tend to look at the 1 and 2 star reviews firstly, as junk sellers pay for the fake reviews.
Ah yes. My dad bought one of these from amazon called a sharp pebble. i threw it in the trash last week
I've got a couple of stones like the one in this video. It gets the job done. But your point about it being messy is correct. I usually just watch TV and mindlessly sharpen my knives. I usually get them more than sharp enough to shave with. So like you said they do work. Just they're messy. I would like something that works a lot better but I'm not sure what to buy.
I bought a very similar cheap white/blue stone and had the same problems. Immediate cupping after the first use and it became strangely gritty and wavy. I attempted to fix it with a flattening stone and sandpaper but eventually realized it was just poor quality. There are decent 400/1000 stones for cheap but with anything else I think it's best to look at higher quality brands.
I really enjoy the informative and instructional nature of your videos. I always appreciate honest reviews too. Please keep up the good work.
I bought a 4 grit kit for $20 on Amazon. Didn’t even get through 1 knife before I had to true up the 400 grit. The stone was half cone by the 4th knife. One of the high grit stones had a deep gouge and a big rock in it rendering it unusable. Sending the whole thing back, just got the sharpal for $44 on Amazon.
The end of this video finally got you a subscriber. Effin hilarious!
I don't mind these types of stones too much, a bit messy but I've gotten stuff shaving sharp without all that much misery. That said, I appreciate you clarifying things so that at least people know what they're getting! I'll definitely upgrade to something proper once these wear out or I get tired of them.
Hope you didn't pay more than 10 bucks
The dmt fine stone was the best purchase i have ever made
@@truthhurts2149exactly. It’s possible to get things sharp with a brick and some cardboard, so these stones work too. But the quality is in the 10 dollar range.
If a waterstone is your thing, For less than 50 bucks you can get a King 1000/6000 with a plastic stand. It’s a budget take on their much harder/better stones, but still great quality from a well known brand, and good bang for your buck.
I wouldn't pay more than $5, I got a couple of cheap ones for $2 at the dollar sense store in Australia.
@@truthhurts2149 If he is happy with them and his purchase, it doesn't matter how much he paid.
Like many around, I started with the cheap investment in sharpening stones. I wish that you had this video years ago. Never to late to learn a lesson. Thank you for your honest presentation. Same level of fake enthusiasm you can find in the videos on knives. On the other hand I like your work and the level of craftsmanship!
Wish you told me this years ago :P. Great stuff :) You should have an online store I'd buy your stuff. You're a trusted honest voice and that's a rare valuable thing
I suddenly feel so vindicated. I bought one of these stones to learn on and I got my knives to a sharpness I was happy with several times. The past month I have been struggling and have been so confused and irritated and wondering what I'm doing wrong. I've been adjusting my technique over and over again trying to get it to work with hit or miss results. Thank you so much for making this video
Have you ever tested the Masters of synthetic japanese stones? Companies like Naniwa, Suehiro, Shapton, and King? Especially the Splash and Go stones that dont need soaking? Thanks for great content.
Naniwa professional/chosera and Shapton glass are absolutely phenomenal stones. So long as you are dealing with steels that are 66 or less hrc and have no vanadium or tungsten carbides both of those stones I just spoke of are AMAZING. I'm more of a super vitrified diamond and Metallic bonded cbn stone girl my self and those two types of stones are mostly what I do edges with (along with the atoma 140 that is what I do most reprofiling on) but I mostly deal with hard steels with very high carbide volumes so that's where they shine. When im dealing with carbons and more simple stainless alloys then I do most of those edges for customers on either shapton glass or Naniwa professionals. The edge quality those water stones are capable of on steels like super blue, 10xx, super gold, 14c28n, vg10 etc etc is pretty much untouched by any diamond or cbn abrasive. I find that the naniwa pros stop cutting efficiently on low carbide steels that are around 64hrc and the shapton glass do pretty well up until about 66hrc but those are pretty much the limits of the steel matrix hardness before the aluminum oxide abrasives in the stones just can't handle cutting the steel any longer.
For the right steels you will love them, if you mostly deal with high performance high carbide ratio steels then don't spend your money on them as they will not do the job you need them to. A great option is resin bonded diamond, that's the best in between that feels closer to water stones yet has the cutting power to handle any steels you throw at it. They are more expensive BUT they will last an extremely long time and have the cutting power to handle any steel yet with a more refined water stone type edge rather then the typical highly aggressive diamond plate type edge.
@@EDCandLaceNice to see a women loving the hobby (and knowing her facts)!
Yup, I feel sorry for people that are just getting into any sort of craft. I settled on water stones a long time ago and I am not changing from my king stone, but I would be very interested how a cheap stone like the one you show would compare to a premium brand of similar grits.
I found this video because I wanna know the difference between a good and a bad (soaking) whetstone, but he just jumped right on to diamond plates. Still trying to find some good info on the subject
Im glad that i just bought a king stone instead of the amazon basics kit with every same stones.....
Would that be the 1000/6000 combo stone? I love that thing, so cheap compared to other options, but since I've used it I never felt the need to upgrade.@@That_one_and_only_username
@@themindset3329 I have the same DMT diamond impregnated stones the guy in video has. Using them is a very different animal from those whetstones. Those diamond blocks do not play, they will shred metal right off the blade with ruthless efficiency. If I remember correctly, the package inserts state, "Let the diamonds do the work". You use very little pressure and run across it dry. You use a plastic veggie scrubber under some running water to clean it off, all that runs off it is metal from the blade. Zero dishing, no need to flatten, ever.
I have followed your channel for years because I trust you and all your advice are practical and honest. I agree with you about the cheap and nasty quality products that fills Amazon. This is why I read most of the reviews of 3 stars and below rather than 4 &5 stars.
Finally I thank you for your professional advice and look forward to continue following you in the future.
Amazon is now just another front for Chinese crap, but then priced to its max.
@@rogierius
I noticed that recently too
I bought that exact blue/white stone from Amazon after seeing a video on a popular cooking channel. I had a difficult time with the stone and started thinking I was no good at knife sharpening. Then I found your video and returned it. Thank you!
Great video. Thank you. Also thank you for calling these bogus companies out trying to sell something at 3000% mark up
This is the best knife sharpening channel on the internet. I didn't know I have been ruining my knifes all the time. Now, I know!
I fell for this one, it was my first time buying a sharpening stone and i wanted something good.
Since they were all built like this I assumed it must be the ideal build. It felt absolutely terrible to use! Because of it I thought sharpening was supposed to be messy and awful. There were no negative reviews and loads of positive so I thought it was just me having an issue.
I just got one a few days ago too. Then I found this video 😢
Same here. Got one labeled "Amazon Basics" which was the top seller in the category. Was only 15 bucks though.Said it was 400/1000 but I doubt it. terrible usage and experience. Needs constant rewatering and the water seems to go through it immediately. Rating 4.7 out of 5 stars LOL. Stay away!
I know nothing about knives or steel. In spite of the fact that I consider myself to be a conscientious person and someone who is experienced with tools, my attempts at knife sharpening over the years have been mostly unsatisfying and always messy and time consuming. In the last few years, I have used one of those 2-sided stones you mention in this video. I am now going to replace that with the diamond stone you recommended in a more recent video, the Sharpal 162N. I also just watched a number of your other videos and I am writing to thank you for your experience and expertise. I look forward to learning how to do this better. Thank you! P. S. Just a heads up, when I go to the above link to your website, I get the title page, but none of the pictures appear and there are no links that work to anything else. I tried this with both Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge browsers. So I can’t shop on your site.
I have a couple of Smith stones that I bought as a young man back in the late 1970s. One is medium grit, and the other is fine. They've held up nicely through the years and still do a great job when it comes to sharpening a knife. Somehow, they haven't gotten lost despite me moving 18 times - literally 18 times.
Great job! Brutally honest and informative video with unexpected comedy at the end.
Thank you for keeping it real! These "grey zone scams" on amazon should be illegal.
Have a feeling this is for people that sharpen knives a lot. I only use my whetstone for kitchen knives very occasionally so I haven’t had an issue, but for people that would use it more often, I can see why a relatively soft whetstone could be an issue
Naw, if you know what you are doing then these generic stones work just fine in a professional environment.
I must be old, old school - all I use in the kitchen is a good old fashioned Sheffield sharpening steel - couple of swipes and my knives are sharp enough for anything I'm likely to be doing. Now in the workshop,....that is a whole different matter
I decided to look into knife sharpening after one of my dinner knives couldn't easily cut a tender chicken breast. You bring humor with your teaching. Thank you so much!
I originally bough "Japanese water stones" off of Amazon years ago and didn't care for them much. Later I bought the cheap plastic DMT diamond "stones" that worked better, but did not last at all. Years later I found your channel and bought some ceramic stones that you recommended and I liked them, but I still wasn't getting a great sharpening (I guess I just suck at using a stone.) A bit later I bought a ceramic rod and I absolutely love it. I can get a very sharp blade on any of my knives with very little effort or time.
Can you pls give me the name (brand) of your ceramic rod?
I'm about to buy one, your info may help.
Thanks.
@@redangrybird7564 I honestly get a lot of use and success out of the Spyderco Sharpmaker set, and bought the extra coarse diamond rods, and the extra fine ( red tips) rods for it. In a pinch they will zip up almost any knife in a jiffy. I keep mine in the kitchen right beside my knife blocks ( yes, I have 2 blocks). I also pack it with my on every hunting trip, fishing trip, or any time I visit friends or relatives and zip up their knives too. Does 30 and 40 degree bevels, and can mount a single "stone" out the end for doing scissors ( this one will take you a bunch of practice/ trial & error, but can scissors Very sharp if you keep your angles true). They run about $75 CDN.
ALWAYS use the safety guide rods that come with it... they're not hard to put on/take off, and WILL prevent a lot of slips... I also have a little pad of harh rubber that I rest mine on when I'm using it. Keep it secure. Do Not go too fast. Do not Push hard. Just take your time and they will do their job.
@@redangrybird7564
I've used the IOXIO white ceramic and the Cook's Standard ceramic rods with success.
Don't expect these to remove nicks, or sharpen a dull knife, or perform other tasks requiring lots of metal removal; get a coarse/fine combo DMT diamond stone for that. These rods are best used to maintain an existing sharp edge.
Don't be tempted to get a coarser rod; you may end up with a wavy edge over time because of inconsistencies in the pressure you apply to the edge as it passes over the rod. It is easier to maintain a straight edge using a large, flat stone. Like an 8" DMT diamond stone, for example...
Ceramic rods are fragile; dropping one will likely break it.
A ceramic rod is very hard. It's also round. The contact patch between a blade and the rod is TINY. All pressure focuses through that very hard, tiny point on the rod, making it very easy to deform an edge. Knocking your blade against a ceramic rod does bad things to your edge. Using too much pressure also does bad things to your edge. So don't get the idea you can sharpen / hone your knife the way the way you see "pros" do it on TV, slapping your blade up and down the rod at high speed. Use light, consistent pressure. I use the lightest pressure I can apply that still allows maintenance of consistent edge angle and pressure as the blade is drawn down the rod.
If the bevel of your knife is rounded, chances are you'll end up making the knife duller rather than sharper because of the difficulty of maintaining the correct angle. If the bevel of your knife is hollow, ha ha ha... either dump your wheel sharpener or don't bother with any other sharpening or honing mechanism, because the correct angle is achievable only with the wheel sharpener that created the bevel. Use a DMT coarse diamond stone to regrind rounded or hollow bevels flat, followed by fine, then finish off with your ceramic rod.
Good luck.
Rods don't sharpen. They align the edge.
Next time you sharpen on a stone, try to align the edge on the stone itself.
Your knives will get dull eventually, doesn't matter if you use the rod or not as the sole purpose of the rod is to align the edge and not to be abrasive, so you will always need to use a stone to carve a new, sharp edge.
@@sacoto98 steel rods may not sharpen, you are right, but he mentioned ceramic ones.
Aren't Japanese ceramic whetstones made of ceramic, same as ceramic rods?
Ok, that makes sense. I got a set and thought I ruined them by soaking for too long and that's why they were falling apart. One of the stones separated too; they're just glued together.
I'd think some ceramic plates or rods shouldn't be ruled out (particularly for finer grit), but the price mark-up thing is still something to watch out for.
Also had this stone from a few years ago from aliexpress. It took 30+ minutes to get to a reasonable level of sharpness because the stones simply could nto sharpen. Purchased a 5 dollar diamond set recently based on recommendations and it reaches the same level of sharpness in one minute. Thanks for the information.
These same stones cost like $6 in Russia and I imagine they're under $3 in China (obviously much cheaper in bulk). Almost bought one just now
This kinda dropshiping via amazon plagues the entire site. It goes beyond sharpening stones. heaps of electronics or LED lights etc.
I go with king stones for sharpening. I don't typically use it on high wear resistant steels but once flattened I will use it to set the bevel on some straight razors and then progress from there. Good video overall. I think even for less than $10 I would skip those blue&white stones. They just LOOK like garbage.
Wish I had seen your video before buying my deluxe Amazon sharpening stone. But all is not lost. Just ordered your recommended diamond stone from Home Depot (because the Home Depot 6 blocks from my house didn't have it). Thanks for your candor and honesty.
I really enjoyed this video as I think that you're spot on with the truth about these sharpening stones on Amazon. I personally have not purchased them as I use the Spyderco ceramic stones and they are awesome two stones that will last a lifetime providing one doesn't drop them as they will shatter into a lot of pieces.
Good video same goes for knife blanks on Etsy a lot of the pictures of "hand forged knife blanks" are exactly the same as the ones on Etsy by a "maker" same tang and profile, length everything.
I'm not sure if it's in Europe but I've had poor luck with DMT diamond stones from Amazon.
I bought like 5 of them and every single one had some quality issues - like missing places of actual abrasive or visible cnc machining tracks on the surface (and that was Extra Fine grit...). Ended up returning all of them. Finally I bought some cheaper post display ones - and those are indeed great.
Ive heard some good and bad reports stemming from the same issue. Either dmt has counterfeit items being sold in their name, or they are selling seconds themselves on Amazon. The link I left was to the item from the DMT store. I ordered mine from the same place (Amazon) 5 years ago. I reached out to dmt a couple years ago about this issue, as i was trying to become a dealer. I never got a straight answer so I decided to not become a dealer. Unfortunately I haven't had much luck with any other diamond stones either.
I think DMT qc might not be up to top standards.
I’ve bought quite a few from Amazon and one of them double sided Duo sharp, had really bad quality on one side. After very little use there’s a big spot where all diamonds are just gone. But the backside (325 grit) is still in great shape after 3 years, so definitely not a counterfeit but rather as mentioned, bad quality control.
@@jez76overall, Atoma is way better quality. I like DMT but Atoma are better made.
Why ever on Earth would you say it's "definitely not a counterfeit" when nearly all products on Amazon a clearly factory-seconds/thirds, obvious counterfeits, used-abused/returned then resold, outright scams, etc. Buy direct from DMT and you will likely be very pleased. P.S: I do not nor have ever ever worked for/with DMT or have any relation to them whatsoever (they are quite expensive but that seems to be the "system." Good luck, 76.
@@jess60901 well as I said, the backside of the same stone is perfect after 3 years and maybe 100-150 sharpenings, and it was bought on the DMT Store on Amazon, so yeah definately not a counterfeit but rather very bad QC…
Not only did I learn on that stone, I thinned a chinese cleaver substantially with it.
An endless grey sludge formed. The water the stone was in eventually had enough sediment to feed the nile valley. The excess found its way onto my countertop and then proceeded to soak itself in. A month later I'm still cleaning up from it.
I'm glad you turned me on to diamond stones. This could have been my forever experience with sharpening.
Well done. I wish more knife people out there were raising awareness about these junk stones. I do the best l can to educate new sharpeners about why it's best to avoid them.
there's nothing wrong with any of the cheap stones, its usually a lack of user experience.
@zeauz Anyone with some skill and experience can get a blade sharp on most anything. But l don't recommend these crappy tools to any beginner when they can get a couple really decent stones for less and have nice tools to learn on.
I can attest to this . Constantly having to straighten out these stones with a flattening stone to the point both stones are almost wedge shaped now with wearing more at one end . Have spent hours trying to get to a decent sharpness with no success . I have better results with a bog standard oil stone with a fine and course side that doesnt dish out much . Glad I came across this video and will definitely be looking at your recommendation of diamond stones.
1:53 I am that person, you can pity me 😭I literally found this video as I'm taking a break from sharpening my kitchen knives with a set of stones very similar to this one, and my experience has been deteriorating with every moment 🙃
I have felt your pain!
On the other hand, I'm using one of those cheap stones with no problems. Your mileage may vary.
@@gbennett58 It also depends on how many knives you're sharpening in one sitting. If you're just doing one or two, it's not that bad, but if you try to do an entire collection at once (like I was when I made the original comment), it very quickly turns everything in the immediate area into a damp, slurry splattered mess.
@@resurgam_b7 My cheap Amazon stone was made in Japan, perhaps that makes a difference.
I bought two days ago from amazon the EXACT sharpening stone that you identified as being cheap and not recommended. I'm returning it today and ordering your recommended diamond stone. Thank you!
Wow man. Integrity. Not something you see a lot of anymore online. I was about to buy one of these highly rated stones as a sharpening beginner. Mostly for my EDC, but my kitchen knives are starting to dull too. I want to do it right and I appreciate the honest feedback and realization of amazon sellers. Also, freaking hilarious with the satire towards the end of the video. This is the first video I’ve seen from you, but believe me, I’ll be watching all your uploads. Thanks friend.
Thanks for the kind words! Im glad someone gets my attempts at comedy😆👍
I even just went as far as using your affiliate link to buy your first suggestion even though a Home Depot is within 5 mins of me.
I got the stone set you talked about but only paid $26 for 400/1000 & 3000/8000, it is messy but at this point I am used to that with a lot of sharpening systems, the edge is the best on my tools I have handled so far. I want to eventually upgrade but will be getting more familiar with a system I finally have confidence in compared to oil stones, or other systems that can't keep my edges square.
I know im old school but buying anything from a nebulous source such as Amazon is an unnatural act. I want to lay my hands on the product and judge its quality from my tactile senses, not by the number of stars or thumbs up icons. Like i said, im sort of old school.
In my opinion one of the best, most entertaining & primarily most honest videos on UA-cam! Keep going!
Greetings from Germany💚🤘
Good for you! Authenticity brings long term support ❤
It takes longer to grow but we don't go anywhere :) and we feel safe to trust your recommendations. Keep up your quality content, i love your honest style. I particularly like your content geared towards amateur makers (like me) with limited power tools and an oven (like me) hahaha
I once bought one of those beginner sets. The stones are useless, but I get good use out of the strops, honing compound and honing guide!
While I agree with many of the points I find the whole whetstone process very relaxing, regardless of the mess and even though I'm an complete noob I was able to get super sharp knifes with this stone, later also without the guide. At the beginning yes, I felt like I was dulling instead of sharpening but once I got a nice burr on both sides which I then fleshed out with the 6000 the knifes were sharp as never before. For 25$ which I paid with shipping and a truing stone included I find this to be the perfect start into the endeavor.
Awesome 👍 some absolutely love the whetstone process. Glad you only spent $25 too!
Yeah they can be a cheap start to sharpening and practicing technique
mine are just ok too, and came with a flattening stone which works okayish too
"I have a conscience." *looks down*
I feel the same way. I used to work for a martial arts retailer and could have started my own brand to buy cheap things from factories in china and over charging naïve customers on amazon. I do have days where i think about how much money I feel I let go but at the end of the day, I do live with peace knowing I'm not scamming people and instead tell people what is good and what isn't. Great video. I am subbed.
you are a literal elf
I need further explanation I don't see it. But I've never seen an elf before so idk what I'm looking for
the ears are pointed! @@andrewgiunta2182
@@andrewgiunta2182brother the ears 😂
Elf on the shelf
Fuck now that i see it, I can’t undo it
For 50 years I've been a fan of Norton India stones. I have a 100/320 grit combination stone that will put a shaving edge on a knife in no time. Yeah, shaving the hair on my arm at 320. And that's a very functional edge for an EDC.
you payed 60 dollars for that one? I payed 15 for a similar one and it did me fine. you just have to keep it flat and it will do you fine. and strop after then you are golden
Glad I found your video, saved a lot of stuffing around.
I ended up buying a dual sided diamond encrusted sharpening stone from a US company. 350/1300 grit and for the first time in many years I have sharp knives. good stuff.
I've beeen a butcher for over 23 years and recently I bought a few of those sharpening stones for home use. I instanly notice that feeling not right. I will never ever buy them again
Oh wow, I'm the person you mention in the video, I was that person trying to learn sharpening for the first time with this exact item from Amazon. Today I learned.
Lisa, I want to buy your rock.
I bought a two-sided sharpening stone at a restaurant supply store. The consistency of the grit was very variable. It was kind of like sharpening the knife on the brick at the start of the video - even on the fine grit. I could feel it gouging out the edge. It's now a door stop.
Thank you for the honest review. Learned some lessons too with bad products and paid literally for crap. Some said, why not watch reviews on youtube first. But this is where the Journey into buying worthless products starts. So many hidden sponsoring, moneybags and blatant lying, it's hard to differentiate between garbage and well-designed working products. Because what i learned, the price is by far no safe indicator for a product being good or not. Sometimes design flaws ruin everything.
what you said applies to so many products on amazon. so many cheap products bought from china online shops and resold on amazon at 10x the price. it's an epidemic of scammers and scalpers
I honestly trained myself to sharpen on these cheap stones. For beginners it's not a bad start, but getting the flattening stone is a must since these dish out so badly you could take a drink after sharpening. Diamond stones are a godsend, and I do plan to upgrade to real DMTs eventually. Right now, I use the cheap china ones with rubber or PU bases. The plates themselves are pretty good, but they're only 1 to 2mm rhick, and tend to bend to confirm to the rubber base. I get a good cutting edge out of them, and they don't dish out. But I have to bend them back to flatness once in a while.
Great vid brother! Cutting-edge content as always!
Get the ones without the rubber backing (or remove the rubber) and glue them with UV glue to a thick glass plate. I have a couple of those and I'm pretty happy. Makes sure that you glue them evenly thou.
@@galileo_rs Thanks! That's a great idea. There's no base flatter than glass. And I have to make sure that the plate is dead flat before I glue it on.
I almost forgot to mention, the worst thing about those rubber bases is that they smell really bad when they first arrive. Like burning tires.
@@gall_blader_works Technically not correct, float glass is not that flat but at these dimensions it should not matter. Easy way to check is to tear apart an old printer and get the rods and use that to check. I glued one badly because I applied to much pressure in the middle of the stone in an effort to spread the glue. Best method seems to be to put your glass plate on another piece o glass, dump a bunch of glue and press lightly. Shine the UV light below and you should be good to go.
@galileo_rs Thanks! That's an awesome tip. I was wondering how best to shine that UV light. At first I was using double stick tape when the adhesive failed. But UV looks like a much better adhesive to use. You've got very wise solutions 👍
@@gall_blader_works You are welcome and thanks. BTW if for any reason you need to unglue the plate just put the in the oven, make sure to cool the class gradually or it will crack. Just don't do it if your wife is around, she will not appreciate the smell 😉
I bought this stone too. It was NOT a good stone. It was so bad, that I did not even try and buy another stone of any sort for many years.
DMT Diafold red and blue in the kitchen drawer, free-hand, at the sink, 30 seconds, keeps the kitchen knives sharp. Works great on my Benchmade D2 tool steel blade, too. In the shop I have DMT two sided plates, Black+Blue and Red+Green for woodworking tools. Strop with a piece of scrap leather and some buffing compound to a mirror finish.
I've been thinking of getting the Diafold.
Very happy to have found out about this, I used a brick for a couple of years before finding an old $20 stone from the 90's that had been lost in the back of a cupboard for nearly 20yrs.. it lives on my kitchen window and gets used at least once a week for over a decade now. I've only just flattened it down a few months back and it'll likely outlast me as it's still got plenty of meat left on it.
I was contemplating having a look at some of these fancy new diamond stones, but i don't reckon i'll bother now.. Thanks muchly..
That reminds me of the story of Abraham Lincoln and the Whetstone...
This video is talking directly to me about me… been trying to use mine for years and wondering why I can never get it to workout
This is exactly how I felt when I bought those stones, I dished them out and couldn't get anything sharp, I was so done with trying to learn to sharpen, rather than getting a trueing stone and attempting to continuing with them which is what I considered in the first place (again thinking it was my fault for sharpening wrong and gouging out the stone) I got the 3 set of dmt stones and the 3 set of dmt paste and they're so much better, then I made my own strops, one for each grit after ordering a strip of leather from amazon after watching your video. I'm so mad about those cheap stones I bought because I thought they should be good for the price and reviews and that it was me not being able to sharpen and hold an edge. I literally took all my hours of frustration in practice onto the dmt stones and got a razor sharp knife on my mora the first time, then I took my second mora and did a true scandi and it was unreal.
It is cheap whetstone you best buy a cheap diamond plate to level it as well as clean it after sharpening. Probably okay if you are sharpening cheap kitchen knives occasionally. But if you sharpening your expensive japanese kitchen knives or collection of expensive pocket knives.. best to listen to the advice in this video.
So glad you posted this one man, thank you. While I've not graduated to diamond stones just yet I can say I haven't went down the road of cheap stones this video was about. However, I have looked at several and read several reviews from eBay and Amazon on them, and came really close at times with them in my "checkout basket" but never pulled the trigger on them:) I have 3 stones one Smith's as my course one, because I've always heard the course one doesn't much matter. Spyderco Bench Stones, the medium grit and the (white) fine grit one makeup the rest. Still practicing on those and really enjoy them and maybe not top tier quality, but I def could've done worse and I do get a sharp knife out of it:)
Great video! I fell for these stones off Amazon initially as well and spent more time trying to flatten them after one use than actually sharpening my knives. I recently went with a better diamond stone, after doing some light research and have been really happy with it.
After purchasing some decent quality hand planes and Sheffield steel wood chisels I tried the "scary sharp" system of abrasive papers but after a short while it was clear that stones were required. Endless hours of browsing Amazon and other sellers was nothing short of frustrating. I didn't trust anything on Amazon and ended buying up at a dedicated woodworking store. I got 300 and 1200 grit 3"x8" diamond stones. They were more expensive than those at Home Depot (probably no better though) but I have never regretted buying quality stones. They're also great for knife sharpening and honing hand ground HSS lathe tools.
The close of this video is priceless!
My landlady has one of these, same "soak in water" instructions, same cheap clay that slowly "dishes out", except it's about 50 years old. I've only used it once, on garden shears that we had used and abused and struggled to cut through branches because it was chipped. I had literally no idea what I was doing, I just held the blade at an angle and rubbed until I heard grinding metal...
I can say with pride that the garden shears cut through branches again.
use those to load other sharpening stones. there’s not a lot going on with abrasives, it’s pretty straightforward. but the bond is what gives a sharpening stone most of its qualities. he’s showing stones with cheap bond but there’s still abrasives in there and since the bond does break down really easily you will need to flatten it, so just pick a coarser stone with a stronger bond (which in the flip side doesn’t release abrasives very fast) and load it with the abrasives from the softer stone. that is flattening your cheaper stones and it is also getting more out of them and also it’s getting better use out of your other stones. every stone serves a purpose not every stone will immediately suit your needs. you don’t need a single sharpening stone and you also need all of them.
I disagree...The bond and abrasives are both important.
@@OUTDOORS55 well a stone without abrasives would be pretty stupid so they are both important. there are designer abrasives that are pretty nice, i have a few that are supposed to imitate a natural stone and they leave a really nice finish and there are different shaped abrasives but for the most part they are all very similar. the $10 stone in the video has aluminum oxide abrasives which is really cheap and is also next to diamonds are the second hardest thing on the planet and the same abrasive is used in the very best knife sharpeners and everything in between. if you’re only looking at the abrasive then why not just buy the abrasives without the bond? it’s much cheaper and widely available and if you really geek out on it you’ll discover that you are circling around the same two or three options which is exactly what is inside your sharpening stones. if you go to the naniwa catalog they sell little stones for loading up larger stones even though both stones use the same abrasives and the little stones are the exact same thing as some of their larger stones. the stone in the video actually works really well on my shapton stones and since i don’t have to produce as much downforce it extends the lifespan of my better stones. some stones have larger grit patterns and a harder bond but won’t do much by itself because until the bond breaks down it won’t release the abrasives and so it requires a lot more downforce which is not good. i collect sharpening stones and i get as much use out of cheap stones that dish out as i do out of more expensive stones, like i’m glad i’ve tried a little of everything but i think you could make a better video about the good value you can get out of cheaper stones.
I was taken by the cheaper water stones sold on Amazon. Yea, they wear out like crazy. I finally bit the bullet and purchased a set of Shapton ceramic stones and love them. I never use the printed side except for some very infrequent flattening. Shapton stones hardly wear at all. I also purchases a couple of the cheaper diamond stones for profiling as well as axes and machete's ...I think they are "Ultrra Sharp" and I have no regrets on that purchase. I also have a King or two that are not bad but just don't have that same pleasant feedback the Shaptons have.
that looks like the exact stone I used to try and start learning. I have not had much luck trying on and off for over a year now. I am trying some of the ones recommended by this channel, so we will see what comes from those for me
Funny, I've been using one of those stones for years now, only thing that's going to change is where I order it. I only have the two knives and they come out polished and razor sharp each time. Hallowing? I have a second brick for that to adjust it flat, but it's not much of a problem I usually just spread my strokes slighly across the stone.
Well, sir, I just stumbled across this video of yours and will finish it in the morning, but I do want to say I totally agree on the DMT Dia-Sharp diamond plates. I got a pair of Wood River two sided diamond plates - 120/180 & 400/1200 grit and fortunately they were half off from them when I purchased them, They're actually diamond coated metal sheets with a plastic core sandwiched in between them, not a solid steel plate with a +/- .001" flat side impregnated with diamonds. I have three; 120 gr., 325 gr. & 1,000 gr.. Since I'm sharpening not only kitchen, fishing and hunting knives, but hand planes, chisels, spoke shaves and more I'll be getting the 600 gr. and the 8,000 gr. ones as well.
I bought one of these exact stones for 12 bucks... First timer here and I couldn't get it to sharpen anything... For all I can tell my knife was duller than I started with... I felt like the knife sinks into the stone and never creates a proper apex...
Now looking for a diamond steel plate one. 😊 Wish I've seen your videos earlier... 😢
Thank you for the trigger warning! I'm very sensitive to words like 'obfuscate', 'minimal', 'taxes', 'incandescent' and 'refrigerator', not to mention the colors taupe and chartreuse. Hearing or reading these words, or seeing those colors, is deeply traumatizing and I have to self medicate with powerful drugs I buy from a kid down the street. Thank you for being so concerned about my fragile emotional state. Great video!