Sharp Pebble Sharpening Stones for Wood Carving Tools-Two Whetstones Grit 400 & 1000 Gouge Sharpener- Waterstone Sharpening System for Wood Carving Knives & Chisels with Non-Slip Bamboo Base

It works

Giving this 5-stars despite the fact that I returned this item. I did so because it's much smaller than I realized and didn't fit my needs. It does seem to work as intended, however,

This is a well made set, with some limitations. The stones seem good quality. They have a slightly rough surface finish from manufacturing, which quickly wears into a moderately aggressive stone which seems to wear slowly and provides decent feedback. Use a light touch and keep wetting.Most of these opinions were formed using the back of the stones to sharpen carving tools and X-Acto style blades. With care and a little stropping on leather afterward, one can easily restore the tip of an X-Acto #11 to factory and the edge to better than factory. Given the price of these blades, one could make a case that this set would pay for itself just fixing your X-Acto and utility blades. On gouges and vieners, you're going to need a good set of slip stones to remove the burr form the inside, as this set has only one real convex profile which has a flat top on it, and it's not deep enough to fit many gouge profiles. The four concave grooves fit smaller size gouges well enough, but you will find yourself using the "hip rock" method on your larger gouges with the back of the stone. (See Mary May's gouge sharpening video for details on this technique).While this is a well made neat little set, it's far from a carving tool sharpening "solution", and you might be better off with a pair of the Sharp Pebble flat stones. The stones themselves seem quite good for "budget" stones.Grit is on the kit is a tad coarse side for maintenance sharpening, with both stones feeling a little coarser than rated. The red 400 is more than aggressive enough for minor re-profiling and nick repair, while the Blue 1000 is more like a universal 800, but does a decent job getting you to a refineable edge if you lighten up on pressure and 'step down' your stroke direction to finish. For many applications, it will be adequate by itself, but if you want your Sloyd knife or carving chisels "shaving sharp", you'll want at least a leather strop with green compound, and possibly a 5000+ grit polishing stone to compliment this little kit.All up, it's a good starter kit for smaller tools or hobby knife work, it would pair well with the X-Acto lino carving set or similar small sized tools. If you have a new set of carving chisels, I'd have to say to buy similar flat stones, and for gouge work, a set of slip stones. (and a strop, which is a given for carving tools of any kind) I'm afraid that'll cost you more, but it's about the only practical way to keep your expensive carving chisels at their best.Final word: Worth the money, but it's not an All in one carving tool sharpening solution.

I purchased this set to sharpen a cheap set of linocut tools. It felt like extra money at the time but it's saved me money by being able to properly care for my carving tools. The non slip block is great and the different degrees of sharpening have helped my tools last so much longer.

THE SIZE OF THE STONES AND THE QUALITY OF THE ITEMS INCLUDED WITH THE STONES WERE OF A VERY GOOD QUALITY, AND WILL LAST ALONG TIME. GREAT PRODUCT!

If your printmaking tools are dull to cut, this set is probably all you will need, aside from maybe a leather stropping tool. I'm a sharpening novice, and the 400 grit restored one of my tools with a huge chip in it, and the 1000 grit refined it to a nice cutting edge. Be patient, let the tool do the work! I appreciate that both the stone and the stone holder are rubberized to prevent slipping. I plan on keeping these stones in the cardboard box with foam inserts that they came in; I do wish the box was made from something a bit more durable for this purpose, but I certainly didn't expect it given such a low price.

I can't do any of my carving chisels I use all the time . It's just for the tiny carvers. So if was really disappointed about that. Yes they work well with the tiny ones bit not my main tools in which I use all the time. Do you make a large version for our large chisels that are curved ect.?

My knife loves it