The Internet’s BIGGEST Sharpening Stone SCAM

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Some links referenced in the video⬇️

❌Stone in video⬇️

Alibaba: What You’re really getting⬇️
Search alibaba "sharpening stones"
I had to remove the link due to the possibility of a company claiming Im selling counterfeit items.

✅ What sharpening stone I recommend ⬇️

My website⬇️

FULL DISCLOSURE Some of these links are affiliate links.

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Chapters:
00:00 You Can’t find a BAD review
00:55 A little about the “BAD” sharpening stone
02:45 What these stones actually are..I have to be careful here..
03:36 How the amazon sharpening stone business actually works
09:05 What I have a major problem with!

[OUTDOORS]

🛑I had to remove the links to alibaba in the description, since Pete from @CedricAda ( youtube ) had one of his videos taken down for uploading a similar video under the claims of attempting to sell counterfeit items from the company. I will fight a take down attempt and will name any company specifically who trys. I did leave links to everything else referenced in the video, in the description. Everything expressed here is my own personal opinion based on my experiences. Your opinion and experience may differ. Thanks for watching. 🙂

[TheNightstalker]

Unfortunately, this is not only true for wetstones, but for almost EVERY popular product. Thanks to Amazon Marketplace, dropshipping has grown ridiculously fast and mostly uncontrolled so there's not just a few "black sheeps", but a whole flock...

[tihzho]

You might find this interesting. I worked in China for about 10 years in manufacturing. The prices you see on Alibaba are much higher than directly from the manufacture. About manufacturers, what may seem like a manufacturer is in fact what is called a "trading company" which is a independent sales company buying product to export from the real manufacturer. Some manufacturers do not have a export license to export so they use a trading company or companies. Ok now you're dealing directly with the manufacturer who has an export license, does that mean you're getting the lowest price? No, not at all, because you are say an American importer "you're rich so I can charge you more". In addition an export company will have the Chinese sales tax refunded to them so the "export price" is BS.
Back to the sharpening stones being sold for +$50 the real price from a manufacturer, based on my experience, and my Chinese wife who also works in manufacturing would be around 50cents, based on quantity.

[BenCase]

I bought DMT plates starting fine then 3 others going up 8000. I learned watching your sharpening video and can do freehand mirror finish edges. People act impressed when they find out i don't use a guided system. I have been using those plates for about a year and my dad is happy with one I recommended to him for his chisels. Thanks for not selling out on us.

[Dragnmastralex]

this is why when it comes to buying things on amazon I look at 5 things.
1. who is selling it
2. if it has multiple user reviews from multiple different websites
3. number of reviews has to be over 100 buyers
4. the 5 star rating has to be over 80%
5. read all the negative reviews only to find if there are common problems with the item.

this gives me a better picture of the item in question.
I will never buy anything under 100 reviews that has lower than 80% 5 star rating that has 2 or more negative comments about the same problem.

[davidbroadfoot]

Copyright laws do not prevent you from copying material for the purposes of review or commentary, which is considered "fair use".

[MrRiorust]

The satire had me laughing my tail end off. Great info on the stones the good, the bad, and the ugly. As a rule, I avoid items on Amazon that have too many look alike competitors, all sharing similar reviews, written in poorly executed English. Subscribed because I like your delivery!

[sqeeye]

I took your advice on your "beginner sharpening" video and went with a steel back diamond stone so I didn't need to worry about dishing and because many of my knives have very tough steels like 20CV, Magnacut, S90V, etc.
Really glad I took your advice because I almost bought an identical looking 1k/6k stone. Your advice helps.

[brianlawson]

I purchased a few of these whetstones last year but never used them on anything seriously hard. I just kept them in a tupperware container of water for touching up my cheap kitchen knives. They are messy and a bit of a pain to use compared to the Spyderco stone I bought later. Thanks for pointing out the downsides to these products and being a bit of a goofball while doing it. Your sense of humor makes your videos a lot of fun to watch.

[ricnichols]

I have one of these and I have blamed my technique for not getting razor sharp blades. I saw your review of the Sharpal doublesided and bought that and a Sharpal strop and now the back of my hand is completely hair free. Thank you for the advice.

[KastaRules]

I have a ton of those stones (used them to sharpen my chisels) but I remember they were super cheap a few years ago.
The business model of overpriced crap unfortunately applies to pretty much every single item sold on Amazon nowadays.

[yellowdogjb]

I fell for those stones a couple of years ago. I have three different ones with 2 grits each. One big tip off is that many of them come w a bamboo holder and a small rubber mat, and sometimes a plastic angle guide. I must have bought mine before the price took off since I have perhaps $20-25 total in all three. And that is still far more than they are worth. Every bad thing that you said about them is spot on. One of mine even separated where the two different stones were glued together. They are extremely difficult to sharpen a blade on.

I have several old stones I bought for a couple of dollars at garage and estate sales. You can also often get some nice pocket stones for only a buck or two. Most folks used oil on their stones in the past, which can be a problem if you prefer using water. I soak the oiled stones in water with dish washing soap for a couple of days. Sometimes I hit them with a brush if they are really gnarly. Then I run them through an ultrasonic cleaner a few times in water with dish soap and the warm mode turned on. After another bath in dish soap and a fresh water rinse, I let them air dry. The oil is usually gone and they work fine from then on with plain water or soapy water.

Even somewhat dished out or nicked stones can be flattened with sandpaper, or on the cement sidewalk in a pinch. The side of a dismounted 8 inch grinder wheel works pretty well also, just use both sides of the wheel so that you get your stone more flat than you can by only using one side 100% of the time. In my experience any old stones made by Norton or Craftsman are usually worth buying. And many that are labeled Arkansas Stones are good also. Lansky and other name brands are usually good as well. Some of the older stones, especially natural ones, don't cut some of the new super steels that well. But you are generally better off with diamond stones for those anyway.

I use two cheap Harbor Freight stones as flattening or trueing stones for garage sale finds. You'll get the best results if you have 3 stones to work against each other, rather than just two.

Watch Alec's videos on sharpening with a coffee mug, or on a car window if you're still tempted to buy these crappy stones. I think you'll have better results using the bottom of a mug than these stones! Wet/dry sandpaper laid on a sheet of wet glass would also work better than these stones.

[calebshaffer]

I wish I had seen this video a month ago. I knew all those whetstones had to have came from the same manufacturer, but I didn't realize what I'd be getting into. I know maintaining the proper angle is key, but this was nothing like sharpening my pocket knives on smaller stones. Instead, I (while using the guide that came with the stones) ended up dulling my kitchen knives even more. I should have gone with a diamond stone set like I had originally been thinking, but thought I'd save money...but I just flushed it down the drain.

[MeanKoreaNZGamer]

I've beeen a butcher for over 23 years and recently I bought a few of those sharpening stones for home use. I instanly notice that feeling not right. I will never ever buy them again

[ringingears]

The last few minutes had me in stitches. The cynicism and sarcasm was palpable. You sir are one of my new favorite people. Thanks for making my Friday afternoon. 👍

[prjndigo]

I commonly tell people to get a 1k/6k and a stick of buffing compound to practice with but never spend more than $18 delivered for the setup. These stones are GREAT for learning what you're doing wrong because they _will_ actually produce very sharp edges once you learn to do everything right. I use my 1k/6k to polish maring and burn-on out of steel baking sheets and to do rough-in on knives before using my good stones... work fine for that. You can just use a mopping towel to clear the grit between sweeps and none of them have to be soaked before use.

[Fantastic_Mr_Fox]

I hate this phenomenon. It's impossible to know wether a product is good because all the reviews are always positive, I hate it.

[danielmoulton]

I know im old school but buying anything from a nebulous source such as Amazon is an unnatural act. I want to lay my hands on the product and judge its quality from my tactile senses, not by the number of stars or thumbs up icons. Like i said, im sort of old school.

[emk]

I fell victim to those stones when I first started out. I was able to get a good edge but they are a mess and agree they start to dish out almost right away. Based on your suggestion in one of your earlier videos I got a Spyderco Med. grit ceramic and a coarse DMT for removing metal. Very entertaining video thanks very much!

[sirflappington]

Have a feeling this is for people that sharpen knives a lot. I only use my whetstone for kitchen knives very occasionally so I haven’t had an issue, but for people that would use it more often, I can see why a relatively soft whetstone could be an issue