Shapton K0706 Blade Black Edge #220 Rough Moss

I own all of the Shapton Pro stones except the 30k and they are all great, but not all necessary.120 Grit is excellent for removing material but leaves deep scratches if you push to hard, this stone is very coarse and is medium wearing compared to other Shapton stones, but still wears slower compared to other companies. I use this stone for fixing chips etc. but if there is an excessive amount of material to remove I'll use a diamond as this is not as fast as a diamond plate.220 Grit is good for working out minor chips but wears pretty fast. It will last you hundreds of sharpens but you will visibly see the stone wearing each sharpen. I would say this stone wears faster than the 120. If I could do it over I would skip this one or buy it in Glass form. It does the job but I'm not that crazy about it.320 Grit is excellent as well, and can fix minor chips or restore a dull edge pretty fast. It wears slower than the 220 but faster than the 120 in my experience. Like the 320 you will see a mud coming off the stone but at a slower pace than the 220. A great stone and worth a buy, but once again it's better in Glass form. If you were to finish on this stone it would leave an aggressive toothy edge.1000 Grit is excellent, a coarse medium stone that is more comparable to an 800 grit. Feels great to sharpen on, wears slow and can sharpen up a dull edge and is a great stone after the 320. This was my go to stone, that is till I got the 1500. This stone will leave a toothy edge if finished on.1500 Grit is one of my favorites, its a medium stone that is not as coarse as the 1k but in the middle of the road of the medium grit range. It feels smooth but also feels like it is doing a great job cutting. It is slow wearing and it feels more like a 1k then the actual 1k stone and is definitely worth a buy. Still leaves a toothy edge if finished on.The 2000 Grit is my favorite, its on the finer side of the medium range and feels excellent, smooth, and almost as if this is where the polishing starts but the stone still cuts a decent amount. The stone is very slow wearing and can easily last a lifetime or years and years depending on how much you sharpen.But out of the 1k, 1.5k, and 2k if you can only afford one I would go with the 1.5k. Simply because if you are coming from a 320 you only need one of these stones, and 1.5k is the perfect progression from the 320 and can also be sharpened on by itself to touch up an edge where the 2k may be a little to fine and take much longer. Leaves a finer toothy edge which feels really nice.The 5000 Grit is where the polishing begins. It doesn't have the greatest feedback but cuts and polishes up an edge with no problem. A necessary stone in my opinion. This is where the polished edges begin, you can still get a toothy edge from this if you don't stay on it to long, but if you spend a bit more time on it the edge will become polished.The 8000 Grit is great and where a mirror polish really starts to happen. Like the 5k it doesn't feel the best but does the job no problems. This stone is where most people would end on as their progression and for good reason. A great stone and best to jump to after the 5k. But if you can't afford two polishing stones you can jump to this after 1.5k but will spend more time on it than if you came from the 5k. Leaves a fine polished edge.12000 Grit is another excellent polishing stone, feels really smooth and not much feedback like all the Pro polishing stones. But it does its job and offers a decent mirror polish. It will still leave micro scratches if you look closely but still creates a great mirror polish. Not necessary but using this stone as a final stone gives really razor sharp results. Obviously it leaves a very fine polished edge.30000 I don't have this one! I will update whenever I get it, have to pay taxes and simply cannot afford it right now. I mean I can but I'm not going into my savings account to buy a stone I don't need.

The kuromaku 220 and 320 are two must have stones for sharpeners. They are fast cutting and slow wearing stones that handle even steels like super blue at 65rc very well. Now they aren't for steels with high levels of tungsten and or Vanadium carbides but any of your lower alloy steels even if they are ran very hard these stones will do a fine job with. I sharpen zdp189 at 67rc on them all the time and they handle it very well, zdp189 is a high alloy steel with lots of carbides of course but it's chromium carbide mainly and these stones will cut chromium carbide efficiently and effectively. The kuromaku line of stones offers a lot of performance and quality for a very fair price. They are true splash and go stones and that's a huge plus and they aren't messy when sharpening as they don't create any mud, just swarf and they don't load up with steel so that's another huge plus. They come perfectly flat out the box and no lapping needed out the box and that's very nice! I really love these stones and have the full line of them except for the 30k as I don't have a need for it beings I have the 30k shapton glass stone and rarely if ever use the 30k except on straight razors maybe once or twice a year and the 30k stones are very expensive for something that isn't hardly ever used. The 120, 220 and 320 are the cherries of the kuromaku line, they are amazing stones and the extremely fast cutting they are capable of makes them a real gem and 3 that every sharpener should have in their arsenal. Out of the 3 coarse stones if you are only gonna get one I would suggest the 220 as the 320 isn't aggressive enough for heavy reprofiling or larger chip damage repair and the 220 is yet it's not as fast wearing at the 120 is and still cuts steel plenty fast. Personally I only use the 120 for thinning knives and the 220 is for reprofiling and damage correction. The 320 is my start stone to set a fresh bevel and remove fatigued steel on well used and dulled edges and that's what the 320 is perfect for, the 320 is also great if your looking for a fast cutting stone that's a one and done type stone for nice super toothy edges, you can finish on the 320 and have a very aggressive toothy edge if that's what your looking for. The 1k is the best all around stone for most people, it's the perfect one and done stone for home cooks and for general sharpening so long as there is little to no damage to the edge and your not trying to reprofile. The 1k leaves a very sharp edge with high level of keenness and good bite/tooth and is personally the stone I finish most of my cooking knives on as it's the perfect finish for general kitchen knives where you want high keenness but also with good bite. Knives that I use for cutting delicate pieces of fish they will be finished at 8 or 16k but those are knives that are for a specific purpose and require very high levels of keenness with very little bite. Every stone in the kuromaku lineup is very good and each grit has a purpose but for most people the 220, 1000, 5000 will be a pretty well complete set of stones that will cover all their needs. A lot of people will tell you go 320, 1k, 5k but trust me and go 220 instead of the 320 and you will thank me as soon as you have a big chip you need to sharpen out or you are wanting to reprofile a knife that's in a hard and wear resistant steel that's not to say the 320 isn't a great stone because it most definitely is but the 220 will serve most people better just for the fact that it will significantly speed up reprofiling and or damage correction over the 320 and most people aren't going to finish on the 320 anyhow they will go to at least the 1k. These are great quality stones and if you buy them you will be happy and you will have a quality sharpening set that will last you many years and provide you with high performance. The case they come with has great grip on the bottom so when you place the stone in the top of the holder and use it as a sharpening base everything will stay nice and stable for you so a stone vice isn't needed if you don't already have one, the case doubles as a storage case and a sharpening base. Get you some kuromakus and you will be happy!

Works great for a blade that needs thinning or a lot of grinding to repair damage. I like the scratch pattern and feedback better than diamond plates. For one very badly damaged blade I used a 140 grit diamond the get most of the damage out then went from the 120 to this stone to remove the diamond scratches. For the corsenes of the stone I feel it is slow to dish or wear compared to others

Review is for 220 Shapton Kuromako sharpening stoneBefore I bought this stone, I was sharpening my pocket knifes with Kuromako 1000 and 5000 grit stones. Some kitchens knifes to.I wasn't liking the feel of the 1000 grit stone. I then got a LT Wright fixed blade knife in 3V (GNS convex), they are hand made knifes and the grind needed some help, the 1000 grit would of got the job done with a couple hours of work, Out of the 120, 220 and 340 Grit Kuromako stones, I got the 220, What a NICE Stone, I went slow and 30 minutes later I was happy with the grind on the GNS.Moving then to 1000 grit was EASY, and the 1000 stone felt great when I had a nice bevel to work with, 5 minutes and I went to the 5000 stone, after 5 minutes the edge was NICE, I then stropped for 5 minutes on the 5000(this stone only gives me mild feedback, but WOW).Before using this stone I was thinking I still might need a 120 or 340 grit, for now, I will not buy another stone, the 220 grit to 1000 grit Kuromako (good enough fast cutter) was so easy.Shapton, Big thank you!!!!!!!It's nice to know when I buy a high rockwell kitchen Knife, my stones will be up to the task!!

If you have and want to keep a shapton pro lineup it’s fine but there are better 220 out there, Imanishi pink 220, shapton glas 220, Suehiro Debado 200, will do the job but not great. It gets muddy allot.