About five years ago, a fella sent me a sharpening stone that he wanted me to try out. I did try it out and was really quite pleased. So much so, in fact, that it is my ‘go to’ sharpening stone. It sits in my kitchen on the windowsill above the sink and every few days when Im doing dishes I see it and am reminded to pull out my Benchmade folder and touch it up a bit. A few strokes on one side of the blade, a few strokes on the other, repeat a couple times and thats it. It does a magnificent job of keeping my folder ridiculously sharp.

A few weeks ago I got an email from the same person asking if I wanted to try a newer model that had a change made to its composition. Sure, why not? It arrived today.

It has the same footprint..that is to say overall shape and profile…of the original product. I’m given to understand theres a bit more synthetic diamond in the composition and that it sharpens a bit more aggressively. So, with that in mind I rounded up a couple pocket knives that needed a little work. The sharpener is definitly more aggressive than the older one. By ‘aggressive’ I mean that it takes fewer strokes to accomplish the same results as the older stone.

Its definitely as good a product as the older one, and I can tell that the composition of the stone is different by how quickly it works. Again, this is the first stone I go to when I need to sharpen something…including my expensive Henckel kitchen knives. One of the nice features of the stone is that one side has a pointed profile to it that is used for removing nicks in the edges of a blade…and indeed it does exactly that.

The stone is, as you can see from the picture, pretty compact. It’s handy and easy to slip in a hunting pack (strong recommend). It would, of course, also be a handy companion anytime youre spending a goodly amount of time away from your base of operations and need to keep your tools sharp.

If youre looking for a handy and very efficient sharpening stone, this one is a good choice. I don’t think youll be disappointed.