I used to sharpen my knives with a 1000/6000 grit combination sharpening stone. It was pretty sharp but I decided to buy this stone to see if it could be sharpened. The result is amazing. The blade seems to become shinier and more precise. I can easily make cuts on paper that I often find difficult with a 6000 grit stone, and as a novice knife sharpener, I can also achieve a nearly mirror-smooth edge with this Japanese natural stone. What I don't like about this stone is that it's not flat and it took me an hour to smooth it out with Norton Leveling Stone. There are no numbers or verbal inscriptions on the stone to confirm that this is a hard version of this stone. So I'm not sure if my stone is the normal version or the hard version. Overall I am very happy with this sharpening stone.