Works well and quickly with my water stones. It works on my harder stones too, I just have to work harder and it takes longer. The two most important things I've found are good lubrication to allow for easy removal of wear particles. If the grader seems clogged up anyway, then a quick spray with my sink sprayer seems to work well to get it back up to its coarseness. I'm very happy with how it works. The flat side comes in handy for my axes and sledgehammers when I want to quickly get back to the tobacco.