Thanks everyone. I have absorbed some of these suggestions and passed on to my friend.
In short:
I went ahead and bought an inexpensive set of waterstones from an arts-supply company called Benicci that for some reason also carries a knife sharpening kit (I got it a few dollars cheaper, $27, from Amazon). Stones are 400+1K mounted together and 3K+8K mounted together. It was cheap and what I call the “Amazon Lemon Factor” (“ALF”), which is the combined percentage of 1-star and 2-star reviews, was only 3% after 1100 total reviews. An ALF of 3% is extremely low.
I’ll hang onto my triangular Arkansas stone blocks, too, probably will pry them off the board, flip and remount as mentioned above.
I probably wouldn’t mention this purchase, at least not before I had a year’s use of it, except for the following. When I got the new kit it looks neat and is nicely packaged, and seems of good quality especially for less than 30 bucks, but the 8K grit stone was chipped along an edge:
The packaging, including the shrinkwrap on the stone itself, had no damage at all. That means their supplier packaged up a damaged stone.
I figure I can deal with the defect fine on my own, but I sent them a courtesy email showing the damage, saying I didn’t want anything in return and was just wanting them to be aware that they might need to have a chat with their vendor about QC expectations.
This was at 6:50 on a Saturday night (last night). By 6:56 I had an email back apologizing and offering to either ship a new set out free, or get a complete refund on the one I have. I explained again that I didn’t need anything and my email was just FYI.
But I don’t think I’ve had a customer service experience like this in many moons.
Ha ha ha.
Seems like they care to maintain their reputation. What brand is this? These look like waterstones. They are fairly soft and easy to chip, but they are great.
Yes, waterstones. Company is called Benicci.
Oh. They actually brand their own waterstones. I thought they were just selling them, but of a different brand. Thanks for your information.
The stones themselves are just ink-stamped “Benicci” and the grit levels. There’s a bamboo holder with their name on it as well, and the whole kit comes in a nice fairly stiff paperboard box (complete with magnetic closures) with their logo as well.
Amazon stock photo below. There’s also a flattening stone and an angle guide. I don’t have a use for the angle guide.
if one needs an angle guide for freehand sharpening, it may not be the best option . . . .
Just grab a nice soapstone.
Not sure what you mean.
Maybe we use different terminology? But to me soapstone is talc, and not useful for sharpening knives.
I use a soapstone as my wet stone. I’ll take a photo of it when I get a chance.
We always called a whetstone a soapstone. Habit I got from my dad. Here’s one I’m considering.
It looks a lot like the Wusthof Tri-Stone but seems to be a much better price. I have the Wusthof and have liked it with caveats…it is a small stone. I’d like larger. It does not come with a flattening stone. I tend to use only the 1000 grit. I am thinking of getting an 8" 1000, flattening stone, and holder from Sharpening Supplies. I like their being proponents of MiUSA sourcing when possible, and they seem knowledgeable and friendly.
Professional sharpening is best, if such is available where you live. When the person I used retired I bought a Chef’s Choice Diamond Hone sharpener. It works well, even with my IKEA vanadium steel knives. It does take a while to get the edges of the knives ground to the angle of the sharpener but once that is done a few passes a couple times a year seems to be enough. And don’t forget to use a steel to maintain the edge between sharpenings.
Sharpening Supplies. Thanks for the rec. I look at their stuff.
Ah, I understand now. This is much like the one I mentioned above - two AK stones plus a coarse synthetic. I’ve been using it for about 25 years and really gotten good results with it, but it’s knicked up and dished so I decided to give the Benicci 4-stone (all synthetic, water stones) a try.
Your version looks better in some ways, worse in others. I like the corncob ears for easy grab and rotate, plus the rubber feet for stability (mine’s a wood cradle and slides unless I put a dish towel under it). But with these stones at 5 inches long I think I’d have trouble doing larger knives well (my old one has 8-inch stones).
Edit - there may be some confusion about the actual product. Up near the top it states
But then down below it states
1 Course Synthetic (400 grit)
1 Medium Synthetic (600 grit)
1 Natural Fine Arkansas Stone (Approx. 1000-1200 Grit)
Quite a number of the unhappy reviews related to their belief the were getting 2 natural stones (from the up top description) when they actually got 2 synthetic.
Use your AK stones as soap. They will smooth out your skin and make it smooth, bright and red all over.
Hey, exfoliation is for plants, not peeps!
Exfoliate the pores. Good scrubbin’. Where I went to high school, we always washed with Comet to avoid acne. Even though we didn’t have acne, rosacea was very common.
I finally took another stab 
at sharpening my knives! It wasn’t a disaster.
According to Amazon Ibought this stone in 2016
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01HFI2KIE/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Wrecked the tip on a knife or two
Bought this guide in 2021 as mentioned here by @Eiron
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00I6H92BC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Here are the directions on the back 
I’m not sure how to use it.
Yes, sometime it is nice that Amazon reminds you what you have bought. To be honest, I have accidentally bought the same video games twice (I guess I like the idea of playing it, but bought it and forgot I bought it, so I bought it again).
Yeah, the Naniwa angle guide is to help set the angle. Most people find the “setting the angle” part to be the most difficult part, so there are many tools for it.
