Japanese Professional Knife Sharpening Stone Sharpener

Good price, good stone
So far I've been very happy with this stone. (I use this one and a 6000 grit stone). Good quality at a good price. Have had it for a few months and it is still nice and flat and even. Will update if time proves me wrong.

Edit 6/15/09: I am now more familiar and experienced with stones, so I would like to add a few things. First and foremost, I still believe this is a good stone and at the listed price ($25), it's quite a bargain. I only wish they offered one that was a little wider. I've now tried some King waterstones - the standard for cheap but good Japanese waterstones. In comparison, this stone does not cut as fast as the kings at the 1000 grit level. The 240 side is fairly aggressive and cuts pretty fast, perhaps faster than king's offerings. Like most coarse stones (a notable exception being the bester 500 grit stone), the 240 side dishes quickly. The 1000 grit side dishes comparably at a more moderate pace. More importantly, I feel like this stone leaves a nicer...

Sharpen away!
This whetstone is great for typical knife sharpening maintenance.

It can be used in about 5 - 10 minutes after being soaked in water. However, it takes about a full day to dry completely.

For dull knives:
One side of the stone is 240 grit, which can be used for aggressive sharpening. The other side is 1000 grit, which can be used after the 240 grit sharpening to perform light sharpening. You can then hone the knife on your steel sharpening rod.

For typical knife sharpening maintenance, you can just use the 1000 grit side, followed by some honing on your steel rod.

Note that this stone will not fix damaged knife blades.

A great tool for every kitchen
After neglecting our kitchen knives for too long, I bought this sharpening stone to try to reclaim them from their terrible state. So far so good. It has really helped.
However, the absence of instructions in English do make it somewhat challenging since I really don't know what I'm doing.
Also I learned the hard way that rubber gloves are a good idea. As I sharpened my knives small pieces of metal imbedded into my fingers. Not too bad, but a lesson learned.

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