Review on 🔪 Enhance Your Cutting Precision with Shapton Ceramic Kuromaku Abrasive & Finishing Products - Whetstone Sharpening at its Best by Mark Cannon

I bought 12k as an alternative to using sandpaper for finishing edges after a run of DMT EF/EEF followed by Shapton followed by two sides of Spyderco Ceramic Ultrafine. One side of the Spyderco UF is coated with EEF, which I use to prepare a high gloss finish on lapping foil. 12k is approximately 1-2 microns (decimals) which is finer than say 3k wet/dry sandpaper. It gives a polished/mirror edge, but not if you use a chisel or large surface grinder as a reference. Large flat surfaces sometimes come out a little closer to 3000-5000 grit sandpaper, but simply rubbing down with 1 micron or less lapping foil/wood polish will instantly produce a mirror-like edge. By using any type of lapping paste or foil you can post enhance the finish to a practical mirror finish. Edit: see below. I'm wrong in my impression that this is the equivalent of 3k-5k sandpaper, you should let the stone load. I'll see if I can update this review to see what I learn about the usability of this stone in the long run as part of the final sequence. I doubt I wear as much as anyone who uses a set of waterstones as I have previously used Spyderco UF (polished one side to be thinner than the shaft surface) to give the edge a dull finish under magnification to give a mirror finish. This simply reduces the time spent lapping submicron foils to achieve a clean, mirror-like finish. I was hoping that at 12km it would have a finish close to the thinner lap film but I suspect it may be due to the lack of flex. However, it is definitely more durable than lapping foil/sandpaper. Edit: If you want to get the perfect finish, you'll want to make sure there's no pooling on this stone. See attached photo. This is a requirement, do not clean the stone between grinding, do not level it with a diamond plate, do not leave chips embedded in it. Softer steels tend to really pack up, while harder steels will laugh at you until you apply a lot of pressure, at which point you risk scratching the stone's surface. This gives you something in between a real mirror or a dull/slightly scratchy mirror finish. It won't slow down the stone, you'll get an incredible finish. You need to do 60-120 strokes of light pressure if you have one like mine to get close to the mirror surface. Warning: This is a "softer" stone. If you press the forward stroke of the blade and tilt the knife, it will happily pierce it. If you need to apply pressure, do so with the edge back and avoid pulling the tip.