King "Neo" Waterstone | The best kept secret in freehand sharpening

Can't beat the price of a good plate, they will leave a rougher cut which some like cause it makes the edge more toothy and slices more aggressively at the given grit yet some also dislike this feature since it reduces the push cutting that a smoother finish at the same grit size accentuates in displacing material better.
A rougher finish will also reduce edge stability to a degree.


They may not need to be flattened but the major disadvantage is they wear out and are disposable, it's just a single layer of abrasive grains so when they go they go. Some will argue that they have had their plate for +20 years and still cuts although if a more discerning user got to try the same plate it would be obviously worn well past it's life cycle and no longer cutting efficiently or at the same grit it once was.

It is recommended they be used with light touch to prolong the grain life and avoid tear out but eventually all things wear away and the cutting facets of the diamond wear down and break down over time with use even if tear out is avoided.

I personally prefer bonded stones resin, metallic and vitrified. They have a renewable surface, better surface finish and less prone to tear out. They can cost more due to the stone volume needing to be filled with diamond as well as some of the manufacturering cost of some of the more exotic bonds and machining.

Vitrified is my favorite

chalby said:
I've been looking to get a good multi-purpose stone that works a bit quicker than the 1000 grit King stone I have. I was looking at this one and I was also considering a 1200 grit eze lap. They are both fairly similar in price where I am.

Honestly I was leaning towards the diamond(more because it requires no water, doesn't need flattening, and cleans easily), but I read this link from one of the stickies in this forum and am now a bit hesitant. That link seems to say that even very fine grit diamond stones are not a good choice. What's your take on this?

Love your work by the way. I have learned a lot from your youtube channel and posts here, so thank you.

Edit: I also want something that I can use with Maxamet and M4 etc
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Interesting. I'll have to do a bit more research. It seems that the King Neo would only be a small upgrade to what I have been using for my kitchen knives and lower carbide folding knives.

Ideally I want one maybe two stones that will take care of all my knives without paying too much, lol.
 
chalby said:
Interesting. I'll have to do a bit more research. It seems that the King Neo would only be a small upgrade to what I have been using for my kitchen knives and lower carbide folding knives.

Ideally I want one maybe two stones that will take care of all my knives without paying too much, lol.
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I've used a lot of stones over the years, I find the King Neo to be a great stone that is worth a try.

There are some very Exotic stones that overmatch the King Neo completely but just not in the price range of budget stones due to the raw materials especially.

For Example,
0.353ozs (50 carets) of high quality CBN powder costs almost as much as the King Neo Stone. And is not nearly enough volume to make a stone the size of a King Neo.
 
DeadboxHero said:
I've used a lot of stones over the years, I find the King Neo to be a great stone that is worth a try.

There are some very Exotic stones that overmatch the King Neo completely but just not in the price range of budget stones due to the raw materials especially.

For Example,
0.353ozs (50 carets) of high quality CBN powder costs almost as much as the King Neo Stone. And is not nearly enough volume to make a stone the size of a King Neo.
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Well, I like the idea of it being splash and go(I'm pretty sure it is, correct me if I'm wrong), and from the sounds of it it's a lot faster than the standard 1000 King. I'm just not sure I'll be gaining anything though for the higher volume carbide steels that I have, mainly Maxamet. I would imagine it would still be fairly time consuming on the Neo?

At the moment I'm using eze lap coarse/fine for these knives, which works fine but seems a little too toothy. Also, I cheaped out and got the 6x2 instead of the 8x3. I have used it on my bigger kitchen knives, but I think it would have been easier with a larger surface. That's why I was sorta looking at the super fine eze lap as a do all.

It's interesting your comments about the disposable nature of diamond plate too. I have read a lot of people saying you should have it for life if you use it correctly. In fact if I had any doubts about that when I bought mine, I probably wouldn't have bought it. You live and learn.
 
chalby said:
I have read a lot of people saying you should have it for life if you use it correctly.
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Just goes to show the end user is the biggest variable which I find more facinating than the objective qualities of the stones themselves.
 
Blues said:
Puts the edge on:

King%2BNeo%2BSharpening%2BStone%2B800grit%2BST-1.jpg


image.jpg
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Well let's see some pics of those great edge (if you don't mind posting :)). Eager to see any additional pics people have of this stone in action, particularly if anyone has a vid or just narrative summary of what kind of finish and sharpness results you have gotten using this on some high carbide steels.
 
maximus83 said:
Well let's see some pics of those great edge (if you don't mind posting :)). Eager to see any additional pics people have of this stone in action, particularly if anyone has a vid or just narrative summary of what kind of finish and sharpness results you have gotten using this on some high carbide steels.
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It was simply a joke about putting an edge on versus taking the edge off. I don't own the "Neo" stone.

I only have one bench size King water stone @ 1000 grit, and a couple of pocket stones 1000 / 6000 that I got from Lee Valley years ago.

The rest of my "water stones" are Shapton Glass, or others of the splash and go variety: Diamond Matrix, Venev, or the AlOx stones from Edge Pro.

I've never bothered taking images following a sharpening.
 
maximus83 said:
Haha ok. For me at least, your second image is broken and doesn't show up in browser, so the humor was sorta filtered out. ;)
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That's what you get for waiting 9 months to get in on the joke. :p

(It was an alcoholic beverage of one sort or another. Takes the edge off...anyway, water well under the bridge now.)
 
I don't understand. The OP states that it would have a hard time with harder steels. Yet in the supplied video it makes quick work of ZDP-189?
I have every grit of Diamond from 50 to 12,000, Is this something I would want? I have a few SIC stones too.
 
ZDP is an interesting steel in that it has edge retention like a steels with vanadium carbides, but I don't believe it has any. It does have a high density of chromium carbide. This is what I recall from knifesteelnerds.com.

My personal experience with ZDP is that it's the first "super" steel I tied to sharpen with my EdgePro alox stones. It took a while, but I got an excellent edge. My thinking was that I didn't need diamonds for super steels. I found otherwise when I tried sharping high vanadium steels with alox stones. For me it sharpens well on stones where high vanadium steels will not.

I'm guessing this stone is not going to sharpen Maxamet well or in a reasonable amount of time.
 
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Thank you. I did not know that about ZDP-189. I still like it. It gets very sharp at 67HRC. I take it it would be a real pain using S125V or even S90V on this too. I think the point of this is if you are not sharpening super steels. You can avoid investing in diamonds. Although there are some decent inexpensive diamonds. Not even mine were anywhere near the prices the OP mentioned.
 
I would not expect S125 or S90V would do well on this stone. Check out BBB's IG feed and Youtube channel. He has knowledge and experience I don't, and has posted about this stone specifically a few times.
 
Any reason for a non professional sharpener to get the 75mm one? It is about three times the thickness for about twice the price. Are you still on your first one?
 
I would have gotten the 70mm if I knew about it. I don't need the extra thickness, but would have preferred one without the plastic base. As BBB has described, this is a surprisingly good stone. I'm a mediocre sharpener and I can can get paper towel cutting edges off this stone on most steels.

It seems to cut faster than I would expect for 800 and somehow finish like an 800 or better. I like the edge I get off it, although I'm sometimes finishing on a 2000 grit stone or stropping.
 
Just got the 70mm in the mail per Shawn’s recommendation (would’ve bought from BBB if it was in stock, next time). I wouldn’t say I’m an expert when it comes to whetstones, but I would say I’m a competent free hand whetstone sharpener. I gotta say, I really like this stone. Overall excellent feel, leaves a really good edge. I like.

93B2D2B1-B05B-482F-831D-D7F48E8F738F.jpeg
 
slalomnorth said:
Just got the 70mm in the mail per Shawn’s recommendation (would’ve bought from BBB if it was in stock, next time). I wouldn’t say I’m an expert when it comes to whetstones, but I would say I’m a competent free hand whetstone sharpener. I gotta say, I really like this stone. Overall excellent feel, leaves a really good edge. I like.

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Yea man, super underrated.
 
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