Our extensive selection delights the connoisseur, as among the many stones from several renowned manufacturers, one is sure to find the stone that suits their task.

We carry stones from multiple manufacturers because each has different focal points, and strengths and weaknesses are widely spread. In other words, for an optimal sharpening set, most woodworkers need stones from various manufacturers.

If you can embrace the characteristics of certain stones, you might also commit to one manufacturer, which can be advantageous in certain cases. There is no one right solution for everyone; the stones need to fit both you and your working method.

About the individual manufacturers/brands:

King and Sun Tiger
The Japanese sharpening stone manufacturer Matsunaga from Osaka, known for the brands King and Sun Tiger, is likely the longest-known Japanese water stone manufacturer in the West.

King stones are consistently soft, providing a pleasant sharpening experience because you can sensuously perceive the material removal on the blade. Due to their softness, these stones need to be flattened more frequently, i.e., made flat again.

The Sun Tiger grinding stone with grit 240 hollows relatively quickly, but rewards with an extremely high material removal rate, for example, when grinding out nicks on knives. With this stone, you can grind out a nick in just a few minutes, but it should be flattened before every use with blades where a straight edge is important. Keep in mind that this is not everyone’s cup of tea, but if you accept it, you have a wonderful, fast-working stone. You need significantly less pressure with this stone compared to the SHAPTON 120, as the loose grit of the SUN TIGER grips well right away.

SUEHIRO and CERAX
The Japanese sharpening stone manufacturer Suehiro from Niigata, known for the brands Suehiro and Cerax, is particularly popular with the latter brand Cerax. Cerax stones are notable for not wearing down as quickly as traditional Japanese water stones. With the 8000 grit stone, you achieve the sharpest edges and polished mirror surfaces on chisels. Additionally, besides the traditional 6000 grit SUEHIRO honing stone, we offer an intermediate size with grit 3000.

We recommend not storing SUEHIRO and CERAX stones in water continuously; it’s sufficient to immerse the stone in water 5 minutes before use. The surface of these stones can dissolve with constant water storage. This is not a disadvantage, as it indicates a low amount of binding agent: the fewer the binding agents, the faster fresh grains are released, making the sharpening process more effective. „Baked” in an oven from aluminum oxide with added binding and filling agents.

SHAPTON Ha-no-kuromaku Series
The Japanese sharpening stone manufacturer Shapton from Nabatame, Tochigi Province, produces perhaps the hardest Japanese water stones. Unlike nearly all other brands, they maintain their shape best and need to be flattened less frequently.

SHAPTON sharpening stones show their strength most in grinding and effective sharpening. The sharpening process feels very different from that of softer stones. You can truly feel the hardness of the stone and might need to check several times if it’s removing material. It is! And very quickly!

The 120 grit is similar in speed to the 240 grit SUN TIGER by Matsunaga, but it maintains its shape much better in comparison. Effectiveness can be increased by applying more pressure with the coarse stone.

The 1000 grit SHAPTON sharpens faster than traditional Japanese 1000 grit stones, though the grind pattern is somewhat coarser than even that of a traditional 800 grit stone.

Unlike traditional 8000 grit stones and the 8000 grit CERAX, the SHAPTON 8000 grit hardly polishes and leaves a highly fine matte sharpening pattern. Whether this affects the final sharpness has not been conclusively determined, but it is known that, for instance, some high-quality Japanese natural stones also do not leave a polish, yet the achieved sharpness is excellent.

Shapton stones only need to be wetted with water before use and in between as needed; a several-minute soak in water like traditional stones is not necessary.

NANIWA
Lobster
The „Lobster” by Naniwa is a soft, resin-bonded stone and provides a pleasant sharpening experience because you can perceive the material removal on the blade well. Because the Lobster stones are soft, they need to be flattened more frequently, i.e., made flat again.

The „Lobster” coarse stone with grit 220 is one of the most affordable coarse stones and yet very effective. It should be soaked in water for at least 5 minutes before use. Please store it dry after use.

NANIWA Super Stones / Advance
The Japanese sharpening stone manufacturer Naniwa from Osaka is known for producing some of the best honing stones.

NANIWA Sharpening Stones are significantly harder than King stones and slightly harder than Cerax stones, but noticeably softer than Shapton stones. Despite their hardness, you get the impression of sharpening on a soft stone. The material removal on the blade is almost sensuously perceived. This is one of the secrets of Naniwa stones: they create the pleasant feeling of sharpening on a soft stone while hiding that they are actually hard. This becomes apparent later when you find that they hollow grind only slowly.

Naniwa stones show their particular strength in the fine range. No other stone achieves such fine edges.
Note on a name change at Naniwa: The series Super Stone was renamed to Advance. The properties of the stones remain the same.

NANIWA PROFESSIONAL / CHOCERA PRO STONE
With the „PROFESSIONAL STONE” series, Naniwa offers a top product in sharpening stone technology. The Professional Stone is significantly harder than the stones in the Sharpening Stone series from the same manufacturer. Naniwa targets this product at professionals with the highest demands among users. Especially for those who don’t have much time and want to achieve a quick and clean sharpening result in between, these stones are ideal.

Professional Stone sharpening stones are quite close to Shaptons in terms of hardness. They are bound more firmly than the Sharpening Stones and only hollow grind very slowly. Especially in the coarser range – grit 3000 and below – they are significantly superior in terms of sharpening speed. When grinding out nicks, the 400 grit Professional Stone is even faster than the 220 grit Sharpening Stone and only slightly behind the Shapton 120 grit. Typically, it’s sufficient to wet the surface of the stone with water.

Traditional Stones
For those who find the other Naniwa sharpening stones too soft, this is a good alternative. The Standard Stone (formerly known as Traditional) is somewhat harder and thus doesn’t hollow grind as quickly as the other Naniwa sharpening stones. This stone is an all-rounder and suitable for virtually all tool steels. Soak the stone in water for a few minutes before use, 10 to 15 minutes are sufficient. Resoaking may be necessary, as especially the 220 grit stone is quite thirsty. It’s recommended to store dry, as we do with all other sharpening stones.

IMANISHI Bester
BESTER sharpening stones from Imanishi in Kyoto provide a sharpening experience almost akin to natural stones. BESTER stones have a medium hardness, don’t require excessive water, and you can work with them very efficiently. You can hear and feel that significant material removal is occurring, and when you check the blade, you’re amazed by the volume. The stone responds quite directly to the user’s actions – those who have rubbed on stones and felt no change on a blade, or couldn’t develop a sense of what was happening, will appreciate this.

The wear of the stone and the associated hollow grinding are relatively low. You should soak them for about 5 minutes. The coarser stones may require additional water after a few minutes, which is rewarded with increased sharpening speed. Suitable for both carbon steels and stainless steels. The grits 400, 4000, and 8000 are somewhat harder than the grits 700, 1000, 1200, and 2000. The size specifications are approximate; Bester stones are usually a few mm larger.

SIGMA Select II
The sharpening stone manufacturer SIGMA Power Corporation from Tokyo targets users of high-alloy steels like HSS with its premium Select II line. Even with these stones, there’s a visible effort to create a sharpening feel similar to that of natural stones. Unlike resin, magnesium, or cement-bonded stones, Select II stones have no binding agents. Instead, the vitrification process is used to bind the grains. By increasing the viscosity during the cooling of the sharpening stone mass, crystallization is prevented, resulting in amorphous material analogous to glass production. This process is expensive, but the Sigma Select II are real steel eaters.

Not only does the steel get removed quickly, but so does the stone – resulting in quite a bit of slurry during sharpening – the price for speed! Therefore, it needs to be flattened more frequently, but this is very quick with this stone.

JUUMA Cobalt Blue
JUUMA sharpening and honing stones represent a simplified sharpening principle while maintaining the highest possible quality in the offered grits. You only need two of the three offered stones: Choose either grit 800 or grit 1200 depending on the usual condition of your chisels or knives before sharpening. If you’re among those who tend to postpone sharpening a bit too long, choose grit 800, otherwise, as a regular sharpener, opt for grit 1200. After sharpening with grit 800 or grit 1200, move on to grit 2000 for a fine finish or to remove the burr. If you can’t appreciate a 6000 grit stone due to lack of experience and practice – learning to sharpen properly to achieve the highest sharpness takes time – the final sharpening with the JUUMA grit 2000 will serve you well. Additionally, you are free to later acquire an 8000 grit honing stone as a supplement from our extensive sharpening stone program as your experience grows.

Why the name Cobalt Blue? JUUMA Cobalt Blue stones are made from aluminum oxide and a binding agent. The addition of cobalt serves to reduce stone wear during use and increase sharpening speed. This is particularly noticeable with Blue Steel (blue paper steel, commonly used in Japanese plane blades and chisels), where the stone grips much better. Cobalt is responsible for the blue color of the stones.

JUUMA Whetstone Pro
Water stones based on corundum with a tendency towards a slightly softer expression, increasingly so with finer grits. The surface can be easily leveled with appropriate measures.

The stones provide good feedback. Slurry forms quickly, and in a short time, the surface color changes from „white” to „black”. This reflects the significant removal rate. Suitable for all steels. Even PM-V11 might lose its „terror” for some users. A smooth sharpening experience without feeling scratchy.

To prevent warping of the stones, they are equipped with a tempered glass plate. Grit indication on the back of the stones, secured by glass plate.

In terms of water needs, these are “Splash-and-Go” stones. Pre-soaking is not necessary; usually, wetting the surface at the start of work is sufficient, followed by a modest additional splash. We definitely advise against water-soaking sprees, as this can lead to hairline cracks, similar to the NANIWA Professional/Chocera stones. However, due to the glass base, the stone breaking apart is not a concern. In further application, it’s more of a cosmetic flaw without impact on the sharpening result. Neither acid nor alkali resistant (kitchen cleaners!). Store dry!

For a complete setup in sharpening and honing, not all 5 stones are necessarily needed; already with 3 of them, one can be very well served.

Combination Sharpening Stones, Small Sharpening Stones
For many users, a combination stone suffices. For those who sharpen frequently, it can be a disadvantage that only one side of each grit size is available – unlike a stone with only one grit, where you can use both sides. This becomes relevant when a stone is slightly hollowed and you are not inclined to flatten it immediately.

We offer several smaller combination sharpening stones that are interesting for those on a budget due to their very affordable price. Our mini combination stone with a plastic handle is for anyone who wants an affordable all-purpose sharpener for the kitchen or on the go, without investing too much. The composition of the small stones is of the same quality as the large stones. However, sharpening with small stones is somewhat more cumbersome, as no generous sharpening movements can be performed. For chisels and plane blades, where a straight and right-angled bevel is important, a small stone does not allow as much precision as a large stone. This should be considered when deciding on a sharpening stone.

The two Cerax stones are very popular among knife owners due to their particularly favorable price-performance ratio. Beginners tend to choose the stone with the combination 1000/3000, while the experienced knife sharpener opts for the combination 1000/6000.