A low grit stone is a must for knives that have not been sharpened for a long time, or have sustained an accident in a kitchen (chips & missing tips, for example). In addition, it is a great stone to have for single bevel knives as most single bevel blades will need a bevel setting that can take a while. It will remove necessary materials quickly without tiring the sharpener allowing you to move through the stone progression in a timely fashion. If you are an experienced sharpener that needs to sharpen many blades repeatedly, having the right low grit stone can make all the differences. 

Recommended usage: This is a splash-and-go stone, and on the soft side, meaning it will need flattening often. It excels at removing both hard and soft steel and has great feedback. Regardless, it is one of our favourite low grits, and we recommend it to anyone looking to fix up an old blade or to seriously start a polishing project on a wide bevel blade (Takeda, Hinoura, Mazaki, single bevels etc). Lastly, these Morihei Hishiboshi stones work extremely well as a set, we highly recommend purchasing two to three different grits in the same series to fully benefit from their lineup. 

Brand: Morihei 森平
Product Type: Whetstone
Grit: #500
Producing Area: Tokyo/ Japan