SpydercoBenchStone Sharpening Stone with Polymer Case - Medium Grit - 302M

I would say this stone is actually a great stone to start with for anyone, even for beginners. It is a bit pricier up front, but you will save money by skipping lesser stones (and the stuff to maintain those stones) and just getting this one. The big benefit of a ceramic stone even for a beginner is that it doesn't dish anywhere as soon as a traditional water stone (or effectively at all for most people's use patterns), and as others have mentioned, this stone doesn't need water or oil (although the windex tip actually does improve its cutting efficiency a lot and reduces how much effort you have to put into cleaning it.I say this stone is good for beginners too because it gives you excellent feedback, and you can feel and hear if you're off your angle, even by a little bit. This is a great way to train in muscle memory because you can correct in real time. This stone is also great for a wide range of things that need sharpening, and I've even finished a hatchet blade to hair shaving sharp on this stone, no problem.I will say it is worth it to get a coarse diamond stone to pair with this stone if you have a VERY full knife or are reprofiling often. Otherwise you'll spend a lot of time on this stone (which isn't always a bad thing).I will also say this stone handles very high-end steels just fine, if you are good at maintaining an angle well. I have been able to sharpen S30v no problem at all on it, and to my surprise was able to sharpen K390 and S110v (supersteels) to hair-shaving sharp just fine without a problem, and a marginal increase in time spent. I haven't dulled a maxamet blade enough to try on this stone. I even examined the blades under a microscope and found no chips/microchips in the edge at all.If you're concerned about the loading and cleaning of the stone, don't be. The windex trick is great, but even when I'm lazy I don't do that and just sharpen dry. I tend to clean after every 2-3 knives (dry) but you can probably get to 4 or 5 before it's affecting your sharpening. The easiest and best way to clean the stone is to use Barkeeper's Friend or Comet powder cleaner in a paste. You can use an old toothbrush or a sponge or brillo pad to just scrub a paste of the cleaner on the stone for about 5-10 minutes and it comes out very clean. I suspect the BKF cleaner's oxalic acid is actually dissolving the very fine metal shavings embedded in the stone, leaving behind just the stone.As some have stated, this stone doesn't always arrive perfectly flat (I have 2). One of mine the stone is overall curved longitudinally (think slight banana-like curve) but not enough to notice by eye, only enough to notice by pressing a level up to it. If you are planning on sharpening woodworking tools, I would not use this stone. Otherwise this stone is great for general use knives. I think the people the very minimal curve matters for are already people who have the sharpening skills or needs that justify better or other stones.I will advocate for pairing a leather strop with this stone. An inexpensive Sharpal strop is a good option, and the green (chromium oxide) compound works just fine. Even on the super steels.I have the fine and ultrafine stones, and I use those on nice kitchen knives when sharpening for friends/family for a shinier edge, but for the most part they wouldn't really notice the difference if I didn't. I actually don't use the F or UF stones on my pocket knives, as I find it makes it a little harder to cut through cardboard in the end. Moreover with stropping with the medium stone, I can easily get hair-whittling sharp (usually on Vg10, S30V, and S45VN steel).Finally, I'll say that it's easiest to keep a knife sharp rather than sharpening from dull. This stone is perfect for doing that. After breaking down a lot of boxes, I do 15 passes on each side, then alternate sides for 10-15 passes each side, and get back to hair shaving sharp again. Takes 5 minutes.This stone is easily my most-used and best value in my entire sharpening toolkit. I recommend this to anyone getting started or moving from the beginner into the novice phase of sharpening.

Best stone for getting your knives into shape. It lasts forever and I even bought one for my grandpa.

I own the Spyderco Medium Bench Stone,the Spyderco Fine Bench Stone, &the Spyderco Ultra-Fine Bench Stone.This will be my fourth or fifth edit, and hopefully, last edit...after owning all three several years.Pros:1) Each Will last forever (I've never wavered on this.)2) Not as messy as water or oil stones3) Nice results once I broke them in and started using the edges of the Medium to speed things up. In this way, the Medium is like two stones in one. Using the edges allows a much higher force per area [I got the idea from a Spyderco video on the use of the Spyderco sharpmaker.] It sets the bevel quickly...then I can use the flat sides, finer stones...and a strop. Probably I was never patient enough using only the flat sides.Speaking of "flat" I should say that I was FAR TOO concerned with making the stones perfectly flat. I attacked them with diamond stones and then rubbed the ceramic stones against one another for hours--I did make them flat but I also made the Medium and Fine smoother and SLOWER. If I had it to do over I would break them in with an AXE or a super dull knife. A piece of good news here is that on the edges I achieve such a force per area during knife sharpening that I do expose new material and those surfaces are nice and rough (remember I only use edges on the "Medium" stone.Cons:If you want perfectly flat you will be disappointed:My Medium was bowed quite a bit.The Fine, Was clearly not flat (bowed), and the edges of mine were higher than the center.I see no reason to own the Fine AND UF--because they are (grit wise) too close--I'd say Choose One.Some people complain about the tool marks on the UF. My stone did display such marks when used--like when one takes a notepad and goes over the entirety of the top sheet w/ a pencil and indentations become apparent from writing that was done on previous top sheets. Those marks didn't bother me; It also came w/ something like a boulder on a runway--but I've now been over all my ceramic stones w/ a diamond stone so these features no longer exist...and in the case of the UF I will never complain that I made it too smooth--that's a complaint I only have with regard to the Medium Stone.