Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

So, before beginning this review, I think it's important to note that this stone is a standard item that is sold by a different company and simply branded with "sharp pebble" branding. If you know the right thing to search for on amazon ("sharpening stone knife non-slip base angle guide 1000/6000"), you will find at least 20 more listings selling exactly the same product for a variety of prices, nearly all of them less than this one, which has a higher price because of the fact that it is well-marketed and shows up higher in the search. If you are interested in this stone, it's probably a better bet to get the exact same thing for cheaper, since you can. That being said, I would recommend getting one that comes with the angle guide, which we'll go into more detail on later in the review. Ok with that disclaimer out of the way, this is a really excellent sharpening stone. The included angle guide is a game changer -- by far the most difficult part about sharpening knives is keeping the angle consistent, and this little thing makes it dead simple. I got one of these for my mom, who had never sharpened a knife in her life. After spending about 5 minutes with it, she was up and running. We also had a pretty good test bed for it -- since she had never sharpened a knife before, her knives were so dull that you couldn't injure yourself with one if you tried. They are literally unable to cut through a tomato's skin, even after vigorously sawing back and forth - you'd have to pierce it with the point first. We took one of these completely dull knives and worked it with this stone for probably 45 minutes and while it takes longer than that to get a knife from 100% dull to razor sharp, the difference was abundantly clear to everyone. It was once again an actual knife that could cut vegetables with ease. If you are not familiar with knife sharpening, this is a perfect intro because of the angle guide, and whetstones are much much more effective than stand sharpeners, so this is what you should get. If you are on the fence about whether you need to sharpen your knives at all, you do. Get one of these and it will make cooking much easier and honestly much safer, since the chances of a knife slipping off something you're trying to cut and into your fingers is much lower when the knife is sharp enough that it bites instead of slipping. Ah one more thing - the package does not include instructions on how to use the angle guide so I will add them here. Take the tip of the knife and slide it into the end of the angle guide, then use the ceramic rails to slide the angle guide all the way on to the body of the knife, so the tip protrudes from the other end. Now, within the guide there is some play - if you place the knife/guide on the stone and flex the handle, looking at it from the side, you will see that the knife can rest either against the top or bottom of the plastic inside the guide. I would recommend keeping it resting against the bottom. The *only* way you can mess up is not holding the angle consistently when sharpening, so make sure to keep an eye on this. As you hold the handle, make sure you are putting pressure on it in such a way that the knife stays flat against the bottom of the inside of the angle guide. Beyond that, just go for it, moving the knife back and forth across the stone. You can look up whetstone tutorials on youtube for the rest. One more thing. As you sharpen a knife on a stone, both the knife and the stone are having their surfaces ground away. This means that, over time, the surface of your whetstone will go from being flat, to being uneven. It is super important, however, that your whetstone surface is perfectly flat in order to accurately sharpen a knife. So if you are planning on keeping your knives sharp long term, you will also need what's called a "flattening stone." My research has indicated that using a diamond plate for this will yield best results, however, there are plenty of other types of flattening stones on amazon with good reviews that cost less than a diamond plate, so if you want to experiment, go for it. In fact, there is another listing that sells this same stone with a "flattening stone" as well, for less than the price of this item: Professional Knife Sharpening Stone - Two Grit 1000/6000 Whetstone - Kitchen Knife, Chef Knife & Tool Shaping System - Kit Includes Non-Slip Bamboo Base, Angle Guide, Flattening Stone and Instructions. The bad news is that there are a lot of different flattening stones at a lot of different price ranges. The good news is that you can experiment -- it's quite easy to check whether your stone is actually perfectly flat -- just take any other perfectly straight surface (edge of a piece of paper, ruler, level, any type of construction square, etc), crouch down so your eyes are even with the level of the stone, and move the straight edge across the surface, looking for any gaps. To be super precise, put a light behind it, so you will see the light coming through any gaps. Oook that's it for this mega-review, hope this was helpful!