So I got this email from Henckels answering some questions I had about their whetstones/hones:

"Hello I apologize for the delay.

We do not give out our suppliers but these are made for us by a leading
supplier in Japan who is expert in this field.

TWIN Finishing stone and TWIN stone pro are made of WA, white Alumina.

Raw materials are imported from China and are purifying material in
Japan.

Those stones are synthetic stone and there are two types of stone.

One is vitrified type stone, which was mixed with ceramic material,baked
and molded at quite high, as like 1200 degrees.

The other one is resinoid stone, which ours is, are made by resinoid. It
means stones were mixed with sort of resin and baked around 400 degrees.

Normally whetstone has to soak in the water before using, because
normally those are baked at high temperature and dried-out, but our type
was molded by resin so that sharpening can be started soon after just
putting some water before start re-sharpening. Also this type is not
fragile as vitrified type so that it is much easier to handle.

They said they are producing not only whet stone for knife but polishing
agent of lens and other precision instruments, so that quality is much
reliable against other sharpening stone maker.

- Products produced by a company in Japan for Henckels.

- synthetic ceramic stones.

- made in Japan.

They get rave reviews by experts on knife forum sites. The polishing
stones (#8000 or higher) are considered as best around, producing the
finest mirror polish. The stones at other grits are considered among the
best.

- Convenient box with rubber feet, raising the stone to a comfortable
height for sharpening and assuring a non-slip stand

- Perfect grit stepping for best sharpening results with all kind of
metal knives. Once you have both stones, you can perform all potential
sharpening jobs, from edge repair to the brightest mirror finish.


So when comparing the following, how do you think these Henckels would rank?

-Norton combos 220/1k, 4k/8k
-Shapton Glass 1k, 4k, 8k
-Henckels combos 250/1k, 3k/8k

All sets would be the same price. I'm mainly deciding between the Norton and Henckels, but since Jende is having a sale the Shaptons became very affordable, so could you comment on them?