Norton Waterstone.

I have some a experience with waterstones from a few manufacturers (King, Shapton, Naniwa, Suehiro, and others). My original experience however comes from oil stones(Arkansas, India, Crystolon, off brand). Compared to a lot of what has been said in reviews here, the stone has surprisingly a hard feel. I believe that it is vitrified as it feels that way. Harder feeling stones are better for creating sharper edges than softer feeling stones. Most people compare waterstones as hard and soft, and fail to separate the characteristics of feel on the stone and durability of the stone. In terms of durability, the 1000 is better than expected. The 220 is as expected. From Norton's own description, they claim that their waterstones are softer than oilstones and are designed that way so that fresh grit is constantly exposed for faster sharpening with low pressure. I find this to be that way that waterstones are designed by all manufacturers. However, that doesn't mean they are equal. For example, the Naniwa stones I have used have been rather soft in feel. Durability varies according to the product line though. A stone feeling soft will lead to gouging of the stone on occassion and inhibits the formation of the sharpest apex. The sharpest apex will be created on hard feel stones. Durability also plays a part however. Low durability stones grind fast but will not create a sharp apex like highly durable stones( due to slurry hitting the apex). An exprienced sharpener will know how to somewhat mitigate this. High durability stones grind slower if the person sharpening is not experienced, however, they will form a sharper apex(minimal or no slurry to damage apex). Both sides of this stone perform according to how they should be designed. I tried with a new POS chisel that was $3. I knew this would required a lot of work to flatten the back and get into good shape. I used the 220 to start the flattening. It took quite a while( over an hour). However, I sharpened until I had enough flatness behind the edge. The stone auto-slurried as was designed. A lot of people complained that the 220 was too soft, however, I found that there was no noticiable decrease in the height of the 220 portion of the stone when I was done, despite the fact that there was a lot of slurry and I had used it almost an hour. I feel that the amount of slurry created however was appropriate for the task of a 220 stone where its goal is to grind as much metal as fast as possible. A lot of people say that the Shapton 120 wears down like nothing. I have found that King stones give off a lot more slurry than this 220. Some reviewers claimed that it was uneven after usage. I find that if you make sure you are using the whole stone when flattening the back, the stone remains level. Usually a stone becoming dished is due more to the sharpener than the stone. Those same sharpeners are more likely to dish other stones as well. In my opinion, I find the 220 performs perfectly for it's intended use. Also consider that you can get a full sized Norton 220 8x3x1 for less than $40 which will be unheard of elsewhere. If your coming from oilstones, expect waterstones to wear, that is what they are designed to do. The 1000 grit side works perfectly fast. I did not see any slurry produced and it didn't take long either for the back or the bevel. Without slurry(higher durability), cutting fast, and hard feel makes the 1000 grit side ideal for apexing and sharpening.Overall this combo stone is very well designed, performs well, and if I had to own one stone, this combination would be the most important for knives. For woodworking, this would be a fine starting place.

This is a great stone to own, especially if you're just wanting to try out water-stones and don't want to spend a heap of money right off the bat. The 220/1000 combination is said by some to be impractical, but that's in the face of many people who sharpen in that exact progression as well as Norton's own designs for these water-stones. Their other stones also skip from 1000 to 4000 to 8000, much steeper than you will see in other water-stones, but the grits are meant to work with each other. I've found no real difference when mixing a 325 and 750 grit in between the 220 and 1000, you just wind up spending more of your time you could have spent just transitioning to the 1000.The only thing that I don't really like about the stone is that it requires flattening a lot, the 220 side specially. The more you flatten, the faster the stone will wear away. Mine is actually about half an inch thick now because I dished out the 220 side repairing a blade and had to remove so much to get it flat again. This might not be an issue for those that can find the flat spots to grind on, but I think if you're going to be sharpening a lot on the 220 side it might actually make more sense to just buy the solid grit 220 stone since you will need to flatten that side much more.As far as how sharp it gets... There's way too many ego-inflating, nonsensical "sharpness" tests, and I'll tell you I've achieved most of them with just this stone alone. It will easily produce an edge that will "push-cut" through newspaper or cleanly shave hair off of dry skin with no flaking or catching, and will even split and whittle them if stopped a little afterward. In the end it really depends a lot on your technique, skill level and how much you want to invest polishing a blade on a 1000 grit stone--it can definitely be done, but mistakes are a lot costlier on 1000 grit than 4000.I really like the plastic case that it comes in too, makes a great non-slide sharpening bench to rest the stone on too

I finally ditched the sandpaper(mostly). Water stones are MESSY, but they cut fast and have a much better "feel" than sandpaper methods. I still use sandpaper for rough shaping or reshaping a bevel, though. A grinder is so fast, I feel like I can't easily control the process. A BIG warning, though. The 220 dishes out so fast that I feel it's almost pointless. In a combo stone like this, it's not going to last very long. You simply have to flatten it too often. Other that caveat, this is a good value. Had I known more about how quickly the 220 side dishes and needs to be flattened, I probaly would have just skipped the combo and bought the 1000 stone. That's not the products fault, it's mine for not believing the other reviews. So, I can't ding them badly for that. If it weren't for that fit would be a five star product

Some have complained that the 220 wears out fast and this is true. However, you should only be using the 220 on damaged edges or edges that need reprofiled.These come with basic instructions and these instructions are effective but vague.If you are new to hand sharpening go watch a few YouTube videos. I recommend watching at least 2 from different channels as there is no one way to properly sharpen a knife. (Or other edge tool)These stones have a very nice feel to them. I have the 220 (never use) 1000, 4000, and 8000. After running through these grits I get a mirror polish and stupid sharp edge. Stones cut smooth. Lower grits cut fast and the higher grits are very forgiving.One thing I wish was made more clear in packaging. Once you soaked your stone and you're ready to sharpen. Close the blue case and put your stone on top the case. Not in your case with the lid open...took me way too long to figure out the lid had mounts on it to place your stone.My stones came flat but if yours are not flat out of the box. Simply soak your stone. Get some Waterproof 400 grit sand paper and a flat service (smooth floor tiles work nice) gently sand your stone until flat. Only take off what you need.

I'm a beginner at sharpening, so I wanted something that would build an edge quickly so I wouldn't have to keep holding the angle for too long. The 220 was great at that, and I was able to repair a small chip in two of my knives quite well. A few dozen passes on the 1000 grit and going over the knife with the honing steel and it was just fine. The 220 wore down really quickly, with lots of mud to rinse off, but like I said I'm a beginner so I don't know if that's usual or not. Either way, it worked well with no problems. The plastic case is nice too, providing some protection during storage.