FAQ
If you would like to reach out about our sharpening service, shoot me an email BEFORE you send me any knives or razors you wish to have sharpened.
Thank you for your appreciation of our work! Each stone is precision made, cut by hand and carefully inspected. Our knives unless stated in the description are Brand New In Box. Shipping lead time is usually with 1 week. We thank your for your patience, your Knife or Whetstone is backed by our bullet proof customer service, if you have any issues reach out to us and we will take care of you. Our top priority is your satisfaction! We appreciate your choice to invest in your sharpening with Blades from the Kaji Kaizen Shop, and our Wild Whetstones.
Our sharpening stones are a natural product crafted by mother nature! Should you have any issues with your stone, send it back to use and we will give you a replacement no questions asked. We strive for tight quality control and each whetstone is inspected closely for any issues before we ship.
Our natural whetstones are carefully selected for their density and exceptional durability. They dish extremely slowly and rarely require significant flattening after the initial surface preparation. When you receive your stone, it will need to be flattened to remove saw marks from the cutting process. This can be done in just a few minutes using sandpaper or a diamond plate. After this first dressing, major resurfacing is seldom needed.
All of our whetstones can be used with either water or oil. We strongly recommend against dry sharpening, as it creates excessive friction and yields poor results. Like all natural stones, the way you surface your whetstone directly influences its cutting behavior.
Coarse Grit Stones
Our coarse stones range roughly from 600–2000 grit. When dressed with a 120-grit surface, they cut very aggressively. When lapped with a 600-grit diamond plate or sandpaper—or through repeated use—the surface develops a finer texture, offering the upper end of coarse sharpening (approximately 1000–2000 grit). For maximum versatility, consider maintaining two different surface conditions on the opposing sides of your stone.
Medium and Fine Grit Stones
Our medium and fine stones are extremely dense and rich in microscopic silicate abrasives. Their hardness provides versatility without rapid dishing. Instead, the stone’s performance changes based on how loaded with steel the surface becomes, and how you choose to lap the surface. As with our coarse stones, lapping adjustments influence both cutting speed and effective grit. You will not need to flatten these stones after every use, and with time they naturally become finer.
For finishing stones, we recommend using a matching slurry stone to condition the surface and produce mud. This enhances polish and clears metal buildup. Alternatively, a diamond plate can be used to raise slurry. This offers two benefits: the mud creates cushion and glide for polishing, while the fresh scratch pattern from the diamond plate increases cutting aggression.
If you already own softer slurry stones or diamond plates, feel free to experiment—our harder natural stones, such as the White and Yellow Nusantar Ivory stones, pair exceptionally well with a variety of slurry stones and nagura. Their hardness makes them ideal base stones for mixed-medium sharpening styles.
Diamond Plates and Accessories
While we do not manufacture diamond flattening plates, reputable brands such as Atoma, Shapton, and DMT can be found on many retail platforms. We do not recommend cheaper knock-off plates, as their diamond bonding is poor and they tend to shed grit.
You do not need slurry stones for effective sharpening—this is simply one popular technique. Personally, I find a mellow, well-worn diamond plate such as an older DMT 325 (8C) ideal for general dressing. A worn DMT 600 is excellent for producing a very fine surface and creating a finishing slurry. While finer plates like the Atoma 1200 can be used, they tend to be less aggressive both for flattening and as stand-alone sharpening surfaces.
Our stones sharpen quickly yet refine finely when slurried with a worn or fine diamond plate, as this releases additional particles into the mix.
Understanding Slurry
Think of slurry as a “purée” of microscopic gemstone particles and binder material. This mixture creates a creamy, fast-polishing action and promotes extremely high refinement levels.
Recommended Techniques
If your knife is dull, begin with the coarse stone surfaced at 120–220 grit. The Atoma 120 is my personal favorite for this, though sandpaper works well too. Once you’ve established a fresh bevel and raised a burr, you can refine the apex. Flip your coarse stone and use the side that is intentionally allowed to load with steel; this produces a solid working edge around the 2k level—sufficient for most tasks.
Before progressing to finer stones, ensure that your bevel is fully set and that a burr is raised uniformly along the entire edge. Your knife (or razor) should be able to shave arm hair directly off the coarse side before transitioning to fine-grit polishing.
Medium Fine and Super Fine Ivory Stones
When moving to our medium fine or super fine Ivory stones, you do not need to employ dual-sided techniques—simply use lighter pressure and the stone will produce a noticeably more refined edge.
Our Yellow Ivory stone polishes beyond the 8000-grit level, offering a clear improvement over synthetic stones like Shapton or Naniwa while resisting gouging and dishing. Our Super Fine Ivory stone is even harder and finer, providing an exceptional final polish. Perhaps in the grit range Beyond 15,000 - 20,000 grit. This is an estimate vs other sharpening stones, NOT one set grit level because surfacing plus slurry techniques and pressure change the feedback of your stone. You do not need both stones; simply choose based on whether you prefer a slightly softer or harder finishing feel. Owning both is advantageous but not required for top-tier sharpening results. If your edge is only moderately dull, an Ivory whetstone alone can restore it without returning to coarse techniques.
For more in-depth sharpening discussions, visit our YouTube channel:
Jade “Viking Whetstones”
Our unique Jade Viking Whetstones are exceptionally strong, durable, and virtually maintenance-free. Jade is harder than steel, which means it will not dish out during sharpening and will never need flattening. Because of this extreme hardness, the stone can be prepared in a variety of surface finishes, allowing it to function at multiple effective grit levels.
Unpolished jade sharpens surprisingly coarse and aggressively, we usually send our stones out with all sides polished so you can then choose a surface if you'd like to grind off the polish to expose the grit making it capable of doing more than just ultra fine honing.
Why Jade Makes an Excellent Sharpening Stone
Many people mistakenly associate serpentine with jade, but serpentine is a softer, inferior look-alike material. True jade may contain trace amounts of serpentine, but its working surface is effectively impervious to gouging or scratching during sharpening.
Jade is also exceptionally impact-resistant. While we recommend avoiding drops, jade can withstand impacts that would fracture any other stone. Diamonds may be harder in terms of scratch resistance, but jade is significantly tougher, making it the closest thing to an indestructible whetstone.
How to Use Jade Whetstones
Jade can be used with water, oil, or even dry. As with all natural stones, the surface preparation determines the cutting characteristics. If you want your stone shipped with two distinct grit surfaces, just let us know in the order notes and we'll grind the back side of the pendant with a diamond plate to open the cutting abilities.
For Dull Knives
For edge repair or dull blades, prepare one side of your jade stone at 80–220 grit. This surface can be lapped using:
a diamond plate (recommended), or
silicon carbide sandpaper (economical option)
This should be done with water. If your stone is a pendant-style piece, be careful not to accidentally sand the polished finishing side—we spend many hours perfecting that surface.
If you ever damage the surface or need guidance, you’re welcome to message us for help or send the stone in for a “spa treatment”.
Finishing and Polishing
After establishing a new bevel and raising a burr, switch to the finely polished side of the jade stone. This side will refine and polish the edge to a mirror finish and razor sharpness. Jade provides a very tactile sharpening experience—you will see metal being removed with every stroke.
The stones we make are precision-crafted and carefully examined for flaws before we ship them out. Each stone arrives relatively flat lapped, but needs to be dressed before use. If you don't have a flattening option yet leave a note in your order and we can flatten the Moss Flower, or Ivory Whetstones for you.
Our Jade Whetstones are exceptionally hard and will not gouge, dish, or require flattening at any point. When you want to increase Jade's cutting speed and metal grinding ability simply chose a surface and with water and light passes using diamond plates or sand paper you can remove the polish that comes on our Jade stones. . This technique opens the surface without altering the stone’s flatness.
Our Coarse Grit Moss Flower (4/5 hardness 4/5 grit,)
Medium-Fine Nusantara Yellow Ivory stone (4.5/5 hardness 5/5 fineness), and Super-Fine Nusantara White Ivory (5/5 hardness 5/5 fineness) stones will arrive close to flat and ready for use within a few minutes.
These stones do need one initial flattening before their first sharpening session and then they remain flat for a very long time afterward. They load slowly, are resist to dishing, and maintain their geometry exceptionally well.
Since all of these stones stay flat with normal use, resurfacing is fast and simple and takes about 20 - 30 seconds when you choose to refresh the cutting action. The initial flattening can be done with sand paper or a diamond plate, OR just let us know you need assitance and we'll spend the extra 10-20 minutes and grind it flat for you.
For added versatility, consider keeping your stones dual-sided by preparing each face differently.
One side can be lapped coarser, around 80–220 grit, for faster steel removal.
The opposite side can be prepared finer, between 325–600 grit, for high-level polishing and refined edge work.You can get even finer results using the matching slurry stone that the Medium fine and Super fine ivory stones come supplied with.
We have many sharpening videos here on the home page of WildWhetstones.com !
Once you are on the home page scroll down just a little ways and you will see
all of my youtube videos are imbedded in 4k HD quality.
Please also consider seeing our full library of videos on our YouTube Channel! If you have a question that one of our videos doesn't cover we would LOVE to put it into our next short or long form content. If you are struggling with where to get started shoot us a question with the website chat option or drop me an email at Gabewaski@gmail.com I will point you to the right tutorial video OR make a brand new one just for you on our channel - https://www.youtube.com/@WildWhetstones