Spyderco Benchstone Fine 2" x 8" W/Box

I’ve been using the Spyderco Benchstone Fine 2" x 8" for freehand sharpening and finishing my blades, and it has quickly become one of my favorite stones. It allows me to achieve razor-sharp edges, capable of clean push cuts through phone book paper, especially when paired with a leather strop afterward. The stone is well-constructed, consistent, and easy to control during freehand use. It feels smooth, precise, and predictable, making it ideal for honing fine edges and finishing work. Overall, this benchstone is highly effective, give amazign feedback while sharpening, durable, and a must-have for serious knife enthusiasts or anyone who enjoys freehand sharpening.

Review is for the entire Spyderco set: Spent a long time researching and pricing different sharpening stones, steels, ceramics, etc., the Spyderco set is the best value, and is very high quality. They won't cut as fast as the waterstones, but are a huge improvement over Arkansas stones. Unlike waterstones they won't consume you in maintenance in lapping. Many folks have reviews out there where they lapped these stones, but I disagree. They are flat enough for everything I've tried including straight razors, and lapping according to some is not beneficial for the stone. If you are pressed for the absolute flattest surface available, buy a Shapton and spend 3x as much. I am a knifemaker and I do the bulk of my sharpening with my belt grinder, however I still like to sharpen by hand, and it's nice not to have to run out to the shop to touch up my kitchen knives, pocket knife, etc. Only complaint isn't much of a complaint but the limits of the medium stone. The medium is the coarsest but is still fairly fine and is too slow at repairing a truly blunt edge. This is where I turn to the belt grinder to re-establish the bevel, however when I'm traveling or don't feel like going to the shop, a coarse DMT is a must. Use the coarse diamond to regrind the flats on the bevel, then jump to the blue medium stone to smooth out your work and progress through the UF. I finish my edges on a homemade leather bench strop with a light touch of chromium oxide. This might be overkill for most considering you will get hair shaving (arm hair w/ pressure) with the fine stone. Bottom line is you won't find a comparable range of sharpening grits in any other form for less $$$. That excludes the sandpaper system which is the cheapest but I'd rather sharpen on a stone than paper on glass, even if my stone is synthetic.

These Spyderco stones are great. I have all three, medium, fine, and ultra fine. I would say they are best for experienced sharpeners though. None of them are particularly aggressive so you can get frustrated trying to bring back a very dull knife. You will want to add something more aggressive to your kit. Do your homework, don't just randomly buy these because you want a 'good' sharpener and don't know where to start. Depending on the steel and the degree of LIGHT pressure that you use, they could load up quickly and stop cutting efficiently. I clean mine with a scouring powder before each use. You can read for weeks on sharpening and get hundreds of opinions on what is 'best'. My main kit includes four dmt diamond stones, x course, course, fine, and x fine. Between those and the Spydercos, I am covered for everything I might need. The Spyderco medium is said to be similar to the dmt x fine. I find it slightly more fine. Maybe they cut similarly, but the Spyderco leaves me with a smoother edge. Some feel the dmt xfine and Spyderco brown are redundant, I don't. Some find the fine and medium too similar, I don't, but I understand their thoughts and experiences. Some prefer the ultra fine over the fine. I only use the ultra for special jobs, others use it routinely. Do your homework, these are good stones, but you need to understand where they fit in a more complete sharpening routine and there are different paths to a great edge.

The stone itself is good, but was thrown in a small bag without any padding or protection and shipped internationally, arrived looking like it had been picked out of a bin. Miraculously didnt arrive broken but i would have no confidence recommending buying this unless it was shown even the smallest amout of care.

Although I am still convinced the best types of sharpening stones are Japanese waterstones and diamond electroplated products like DMT and Atoma, the Spyderco ceramic do fill an important enough niche to warrant purchase. I do not like the Medium stone as its microstructure is far too open and therefore loads up very readily. This combined with it's intended use as moderate to minor stock removal produces a poor result: the stone loads quickly therefore ceases to cut well, thus I find I am constantly cleaning the thing. Neither water nor oil provided a worthwhile result when used to help float away the swarf; the stone still loaded rapidly. The fine and ultrafine, however, perform their functions with aplomb. The fine is an excellent maintenance stone if used for daily touch-ups and its microstructure is closed, allowing for the use of water or oil (I much prefer water) to lubricate the stone and combat surface loading. The ultrafine converts the fine scratch pattern to a clean mirror if you performly your strokes properly. The resulting edge is incredibly crisp, impressively sharp. I usually sharpen my edges on waterstones but I almost ALWAYS finish the edge on the ultrafine. It is a non-friable, extremely hard, and mirror-fine stone that performs the duty of finishing stone/microbeveller with near no equal

Quick delivery. Stable base. Nice job sharpening.

Excellent product. Use it for sharpening speed skating blades.

Expensive but quality product