180mm Japanese Combination Water Stone - Set of 3

These Japanese combination water stones are man-made from Corundum, a synthetic aluminium oxide abrasive, set in a resin bond. Combination stones consist of two stones of different grits which are machine-fused together to create a permanent joint, allowing you to rotate the stones to select the most appropriate grit. The finish that you achieve with a water stone is an amalgamation of the particle size, durability of the abrasive and the resin bond strength. These water stones have a medium strength bond and wear relatively slowly, releasing fresh, sharp abrasive at a reduced rate in comparison to stones with weaker bonds that release abrasive at higher rates and wear down more quickly.

The water stone formulation is excellent for sharpening O1 general tool steel, a steel commonly used to make knives, and are fast cutting when sharpening tough alloys such as A2 and M2 high speed steels which are used to manufacture chisels, plane irons, turning and carving tools. You simply immerse the stones in water and allow to soak for 3 to 5 minutes, at which point they are ready for use. It is important to ensure the water stone retains moisture during the sharpening process. The fresh abrasive particles break down and dull during the sharpening process, creating progressively finer grits, allowing you to move seamlessly from a coarse grit stone, to a medium grit stone to a fine grit stone. After use leave the water stone to dry out naturally, before using a diamond flattening stone to re-level the face of the water stone. The combination stones sit in a polymer base which has two large no-mar rubber feet to prevent the stone from wandering during the sharpening process whilst protecting the work surface from scratching.

This set consists of three combination stones with six different water stone grits. The 1000 grit water stone is the fastest cutting stone and is used to remove nicks before sharpening and to shape and establish a basic edge. The 2000 grit is used to refine the edge and sharpen blunt edges and the 3000 and 4000 grit are used for removing burrs, sharpening and honing. The 6000 grit will hone and add a razor sharp edge and the 10,000 is an ultra fine grain stone for final polishing and adding a mirror finish. The combination water stones measure 180mm in length with a width of 60mm and a depth of 29mm.

This is our most popular set of water stones as it contains a grit of stone suitable for each sharpening process and incorporates the ultra fine grain 10,000 stone for mirror polishing of knives and fine edge woodworking tools. ©