Chinese Water Stone

W

Working Edge

Joined
Dec 14, 2020
Messages
74
I gave up on my King water stones from the mid-1980's because their tactile feedback was a complete mystery back then...like attempting to sharpen on compacted dried mud.
Been very happy with my oilstones, but have been reading a lot lately about "modern" water stones, and let my curiosity get the best of me and so placed an order for the Work Sharp Whetstone.
This new double-sided sided water stone is completely different from the King stones I rejected, the stone is hard, cuts reliably and quickly and offers great feedback while cutting.
Work Sharp's user manual states the Whetstone kit is assembled in USA with imported components.
I asked Work Sharp what was the stone's country of origin, and they told me it's from China.
This surprised me to say the least, given the many negative reviews on chinese stones on amazon.
My question: has anyone else here had positive experiences with chinese stones, and if so, what brand(s) and where to buy them?
Thanks in advance,
Mark
 
I haven't used any personally but there are some youtubers that review sharpening stuff. Try "cheapest stone on Amazon" from outdoors55? They are usually not flat, inconsistent or unknown grits. Sorry I don't have 1st hand experience to share. Good luck on your quest.
 
Back in the early days, I was a cheapskate and used cheap Chinese stones. My work was ok, but it sort of plateaued. At the advice of a friend, I started using some Japanese stones. Overnight, my work improved dramatically. Now I use a variety of Japanese and American stones, depending on what I'm doing. Although I still have the junk Chinese stones in case a situation arises that I might want them, I can't remember the last time I used one. My time and my knives are worth too much to waste them on junk tools.
 
unklfranco said:
I haven't used any personally but there are some youtubers that review sharpening stuff. Try "cheapest stone on Amazon" from outdoors55? They are usually not flat, inconsistent or unknown grits. Sorry I don't have 1st hand experience to share. Good luck on your quest.
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Thank you, I will check that out
Mark
 
RustyIron said:
Back in the early days, I was a cheapskate and used cheap Chinese stones. My work was ok, but it sort of plateaued. At the advice of a friend, I started using some Japanese stones. Overnight, my work improved dramatically. Now I use a variety of Japanese and American stones, depending on what I'm doing. Although I still have the junk Chinese stones in case a situation arises that I might want them, I can't remember the last time I used one. My time and my knives are worth too much to waste them on junk tools.
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Niether am I interested in junk.
I'm just wondering what the Chinese manufacturer of this one good quality stone might be, (the stone sold by Work Sharp,) and whether there might be other grit choices available from that manufacturer.
Thanks,
Mark
 
Getting something made to spec and making sure of the work is different than whatever they make for retail. So the company doesn't necessarily make stones of the same quality.

An example on the knife side - IIRC San Ren Mu has made some of the Byrds for Spyderco, but the stuff they sell under their own name is far more inconsistent and generally worse.
That's not always true, Ruike made the City Tool series for Boker and it's better than most China made Boker knives. They also sell the same knives under their own name at the same quality.
 
As others have mentioned, country of origin doesn't play as big of a role as the specs the manf is required to work within. There is a reason many knife/gear/clothing manf have offshore brands or lines that offer similar or even better specs then what they could offer for the same price if it were made state side. Keep in mind, 50 years ago something made in Country X was frowned upon, but now it is the golden standard in which we hold electronics to be made. With that said, I still personally support USA made products when I can.

As far as stones go, it will be a bit difficult to try to track down the OEM supplier. There could even be a good chance they have a few suppliers for the same "spec" of stone. The challenge with purchasing items on Amazon, is you can't control whom you get the product from unless its directly from the manf as the seller. So if you have (5) vendors who sell the same SKU on Amazon, but 1 of the vendors gets the SKU from a questionable source, they can't pin down which of the (5) vendors provided the item. When the Amazon warehouse gets the product from the (5) vendors, it all goes into the same bin. When you purchase the product on Amazon, it will come out of that bin, and you aren't sure which one you will get. The "vendor" that you purchased it from will rotate randomly "the buy box."

The way to combat this is there are many wonderful forum supporters that have already done much of the research for us and carry quality products on their website. Yes, they might not be the cheapest, but you can purchase with confidence that its a good product that has been vetted. The list of paid dealers can be found here:

https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/paid-dealer-members-list-updated-10-13-2020.1089879/

Finally, the saying you "You get what you pay for, still usually holds true". Well, the majority of the time.
 
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I would echo others. Country of origin may have been a good indicator back in the 80s and might have been pretty good up until about 10 years ago but now you can find some pretty good gear coming out of china so long as it is from reputable makers.
 
krazichinaman said:
As others have mentioned, country of origin doesn't play as big of a role as the specs the manf is required to work within. There is a reason many knife/gear/clothing manf have offshore brands or lines that offer similar or even better specs then what they could offer for the same price if it were made state side. Keep in mind, 50 years ago something made in Country X was frowned upon, but now it is the golden standard in which we hold electronics to be made. With that said, I still personally support USA made products when I can.

As far as stones go, it will be a bit difficult to try to track down the OEM supplier. There could even be a good chance they have a few suppliers for the same "spec" of stone. The challenge with purchasing items on Amazon, is you can't control whom you get the product from unless its directly from the manf as the seller. So if you have (5) vendors who sell the same SKU on Amazon, but 1 of the vendors gets the SKU from a questionable source, they can't pin down which of the (5) vendors provided the item. When the Amazon warehouse gets the product from the (5) vendors, it all goes into the same bin. When you purchase the product on Amazon, it will come out of that bin, and you aren't sure which one you will get. The "vendor" that you purchased it from will rotate randomly "the buy box."

The way to combat this is there are many wonderful forum supporters that have already done much of the research for us and carry quality products on their website. Yes, they might not be the cheapest, but you can purchase with confidence that its a good product that has been vetted. The list of paid dealers can be found here:

https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/paid-dealer-members-list-updated-10-13-2020.1089879/

Finally, the saying you "You get what you pay for, still usually holds true". Well, the majority of the time.
Click to expand...
Excellent posting, thank you.
 
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