worst stones you ever tried?

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I did not like Suehiro Debada 320, or any of the Sigma PowerSelect II stones, except maybe the 240, although plenty do like them it seems. Debado dishes like sand and the Sigma stones feel like death. But whatevs.
This is helpful. I was looking at the debado 320 hoping it wouldn't dish like the cerax.

I have this odd impression that I’ll find a low grit stone I love. Somehow I don’t think that’s going to happen. Sigma was (and probably is) going to be my next attempt.
 
Got one to beat them all, and I guarantee you will agree!

'Sharpening' on a concrete curb is definitely for losers.
 
I have the same stone which I use as a finishing stone for steels with hard carbides.

I don't mine it either, there is some feedback and it leaves a pretty nice edge. I haven't noticed glazing but I guess glazing is less of an issue if only used for finishing?
I was using it for finishing too, but not on steels with hard carbides. I'm not sure what the difference is in our experiences. Maybe the hard carbides help keep the stone from glazing?
 
The king 6k side of the king combistone however? That stone sucked. 6k was more then I needed grit wise (but I bought it when I first got into sharpening and didn’t realize it). It gouges something awful, if your angle slips (as it will when learning, many times) your stone gets ugly as sin real quick and you can feel a piece of your soul die everytime you hear that scrape.
If it's anything like the King 6k standalone I had...I gouged that one sometimes too, and not, I think, just in the newbie phase. It was so darned slippery, condition it as I might, that I couldn't keep it consistently on the bevel. What an awful stone.
 
I was using it for finishing too, but not on steels with hard carbides. I'm not sure what the difference is in our experiences. Maybe the hard carbides help keep the stone from glazing?
Maybe. But I do tend to use the conditioning stone every time I break it out, so probably every 1 or 2 knives. So maybe I would notice more loading if I didn't. Especially given that I've only used it to polish an already existing edge.
 
Maybe. But I do tend to use the conditioning stone every time I break it out, so probably every 1 or 2 knives. So maybe I would notice more loading if I didn't. Especially given that I've only used it to polish an already existing edge.
Oh. That sounds like sufficient explanation, and is about what I do.
 
While the Naniwa 1000 diamond cuts fast and is great for a quick reset of bevels. It doesn't feel or sound very nice.
 
The worst stone that I have used is a $4 two sided coarse aluminum oxide stone that I found at H Mart. It loaded up almost immediately and became pretty useless after.
This is similar to one of the things i was going to list.

However the one I bought at hmart was a silicon carbide stones and I have never seen a stone dish faster in my life, and I've used the cerax 320. Its absurd. One sharpening, or thinning and most of the stone is gone. The good thing about it though, is it's so friable its pretty good for getting out deep scratches after thinning.

On the opposite side of the spectrum. I bought a silicon carbide oil stone from ace hardware. The fine and the coarse side were terrible. It glazed immediatel. It's to the point of be unusable if you ask me. I've never found a practical application for this stone, and I should honestly just throw it in the trash. Its so bad, it made me think that other oilstones, and particularly the crystalon would be terrible too. Thankfully i was wrong.

Moral of the story, buy your stones from real abrasive companies.
 
A brown saeki and a sasaguchi-do. Both coarse, but much slower than i antecipated.
I'm still figuring out if i can find a use for both.

How's it like compared to the black saeki? The black one is supposed to be finer but that one was so fast. Omura I have is kinda weird or slow. . . just sorta glazes but wears down. I also had a black saeki that was super hard and fine like a fine aoto. It had the saeki spots and coloration though.
 
Beston 500, never understood why that used to be a popular stone. Slower than many 1ks and feels like sharpening on a concrete paver. Also the blue nonpareil synth aoto, ludicrously muddy and slow... I guess it's been a while since I bought a bad stone
The Bestor 500 is also my worst ever. One of my first stones, thirsty bastard, but could be too wet in a minute. Never could get the balance. Tried it again after a couple years and still didn't work for me. Eff it.

The Shapton Pro 5000 is the only Shapton I've not found a use for. Just Meh.

And pink 220's. Rather go to the dentist.
 
That 180 Suehiro👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻, SP 120 is really hit or miss or needs a lot of special prep.

I’m using the 120 Gritomatic now, but then still check with my SP120 afterwards

As for natural stones I instantly sold my Natsuya and Aizu 👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻

SP 5000 is for final polishing before suita or tomae or if you have a super fine nagura, I use this stone for all of my polishes/sharpening
 
I feel like theres so much variation in natural stones, they might as well be left off of this thread. Maybe one aizu is terrible, but another could be perfect for certain jobs. It's such a roll of the dice, I don't think it would be fair to put any of them as terrible.
 
Gonna add Naniwa Pro 5000. I got to use it for some knives, and I never realize it is that bad and overpriced.
I just bought the Gokuen Arata (Baby Chosera) 5k out of interest, as others had said that it was very soft with poor feedback. After another thread where it was mentioned that stone to stone variation is a thing, I wondered whether these views reflected the whole line or were just bad examples of the line.

I found it to be softer than my Chosera 3k, but not ridiculously soft. The feedback is there although different to the 3k. It's quite useful feedback, though. The main thing I noticed was how thirsty the stone is, even though I sealed it. It's only 15mm thick but needed a splash every couple of seconds. Where does the water go?

I quite liked the edge it gave (after Chosera 1k then 3k). It was definitely finer than the 3k. Reminiscent of a Belgian Blue.
 
I just bought the Gokuen Arata (Baby Chosera) 5k out of interest, as others had said that it was very soft with poor feedback. After another thread where it was mentioned that stone to stone variation is a thing, I wondered whether these views reflected the whole line or were just bad examples of the line.

I found it to be softer than my Chosera 3k, but not ridiculously soft. The feedback is there although different to the 3k. It's quite useful feedback, though. The main thing I noticed was how thirsty the stone is, even though I sealed it. It's only 15mm thick but needed a splash every couple of seconds. Where does the water go?

I quite liked the edge it gave (after Chosera 1k then 3k). It was definitely finer than the 3k. Reminiscent of a Belgian Blue.
the edge is okay, Arashiyama 6k or Morihei 6k produced a better edge for me. even Chosera 3K + Nagura is more than enough for most job.
 
Yeah I tried a coworkers shapton pro 5k once. It was in terrible condition, very clogged and had never been flattened. After about 10 minutes with an atoma it performed about the same as it did clogged lol. Definitely recommend staying away from that stone.
 
I’ll say my Nubatama Ume 4k because I paid too much for it before I knew much about stones. Also, I don’t really need a 4k, so now I have a creamy green paper weight.
 
I really dislike my Shapton Pro 1k - first stone I got and, looking back, wish that a) the shop that sold it to me didn't sell it to me and b) I'd bought another medium grit sooner! Still have it but months go by without me using it, then I think "hmm, maybe it wasn't so bad, i should use it more" promptly to re-appreciate the reasons I hadn't used it for months... It cuts fast and wears slowly but has absolutely minimal feedback.
 
Weird to see the Shapton 5K and Aizu getting some hate on here. I had assumed they were good. I’ve never had either one so I don’t have a say.

I have a 60 grit Naniwa Lobster. I thought if a 220 grit stone is good, a 60 grit has to be four times as good. Nope. Zero water retention and doesn’t cut at all. Worked good for sanding down some fiberglass though.
 
My first stone, about 15 years ago, was a Messermeister 400/1000 combo stone. It’s a fairly coarse and thirsty stone that cuts slow. Only upside is it’s slow wearing. I didn’t know how bad it was until I started using better stones about two years ago. Now my NP400 and SP1k, SP2k feel like heaven in comparison to that old Messermeister. Even Norton oil stones feel better.
 
Suehiro Kongou-to Coarse 80. It's just too soft. Fells like trying to sharpend a knife on a warm block of butter. Debado 200 (180), on the other hand, is perfect.
 
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