I don't like them because every single one of them lost their coarseness over too short a  time. My dad even had a real fancy rod-screws-into-the-brass-handle thingy, and it became dull within two (?) years.

What do you want to sharpen?

A lot of kitchen knives. I have a chef's honing rod, which I use while I work, but after a while, you actually need to sharpen the knife to get the blade back into shape. I have a set of 3 warthog sharpeners with 3 different grits. They work well for this purpose, except the course grit, which is the one you use the most, does not last very long, so I was hoping to get something a bit bigger and more robust with more diamonds.

I have read bad reviews of the cheap shit from China. The course stones loose their diamonds, and the fine stones are contaminated with rough patches and bigger stones, so the final result is not perfect.

The Sharpal and DMT stones get better reviews, but cost north of 1K per stone, and I'm not sure if they are worth it.

I hate cheap wet stones, messy, time consuming and the stone wears quickly and looses its shape over time.

Hence, i was hoping that perhaps there was something "in between" a high quality knockoff 400grit stone for a few hundred buck that will last beyound 100 knives.

I do the vast majority of my knife sharpening on two ceramic Lansky sticks. I've got a black one which I think is in the 800 range and a grey one which is probably >1500. Barely ever use anything else on knives these days. Have some temu diamond plates on order for sharpening tools and will let you know if they are worth the bother. 

The ceramic rods work well - my brother used to be a chef and he swears by them.

I own japanese water stones, but went over to 600 grit sanding paper (?) on a soft piece of leather for a slightly rounded cutting edge. I sharpen much less, the process is quick and just finish them off with a strop afterwards to shave arm hairs.

Please PM me a WA number  - I'll send some photos.

I managed to pick up a 325grit diamond plate from the Warthog factory in George at a great price.

This is an awesome stone for reshaping blunt kitchen knives. I did about 10 in short time, the plate had good feedback, and took a lot off to reshape quite quickly. The edge is not bad just with the 325, and it came with a free strop. There was no sign of diamonds coming off the plate

I still felt the urge to get something a bit finer to touch up my better knives that don't need a full makeover. I found a Made in Japan Shapton 1500 stone at power tool services for R999. A bit pricy, but a quality product. The stone is more aggressive than I expected, so you have to be very precise with each pass so you don't mess up the angles on the edge.

Between these two, I think I have all I need. I just need to develop more skill at hand sharpening to get the angle right on BOTH sides, as I battled a bit with the curve and point of the butcher knives.