I bought a sharpening stone - Page 9

So I have a 250/1000 combination stone. What should be my next stone? 4000?

I didn't really think the 250 cut all that fast. I used it to reprofile some crap knife to 15/15 with a 20/20 back bevel (or as close as I can get with my inexperienced technique) and it still took quite a while to cut down the knife and raise a burr. Obviously not a frequent thing, but for that purpose it seemed fine.

Look at a Gatco or similar systems that have a jig. The use of a jig will accustom you to sharping at a certain angle. It makes a lot of difference.

Something you should also get is some jewelers rouge and a piece of leather and look at POLISHING or stropping the edge. I think a high percentage of the time a knife doesn't need to be sharpened but cleaned. The blade picks up small bits of junk that makes it seem dull. You may not need to sharpen (take off steel), but just take off the tiny bits of stuff it picks up from cutting. As an aside the Japanese refer to sharpening as polishing.

For effective sharpening you need to be sure your stones are flat. Do you already have a flattening stone? If not that should be your next purchase as your combination stone will certainly be slightly hollowed out already. It doesn't take much use at all to create a slight hollow in the stone. Take a straight edge and put it across the stone and hold it up to a light. I bet you'll see light under the edge in the center of the stone. I like the DMT DiaSharp stones for flattening:
http://www.dmtsharp.com/sharpeners/bench-stones/dia-sharp/

After that, something around a 4000 would be a good purchase. I actually go to 8000 after that and can get a mirror finish on the blade. Anything over that I think is overkill. This Suehiro Rika 5K might be a good buy for you:
http://www.chefknivestogo.com/suri50grst.html

BTW, here are a couple of good places to buy stones for anyone who's interested:
http://www.chefknivestogo.com/sharpening-stones.html
http://www.japaneseknifesharpeningstore.com/Sharpening-Stones-s/22.htm
http://korin.com/Knives/Sharpening-Stones_2
Edited by Fred G. Unn - 1/16/13 at 8:50am

I'm thinking about sharpening my own knives. My knives aren't damaged, but rather dull. I'm not looking for razor sharpness. Would this be a good combination stone for my wishes:



?

http://www.knivesandtools.nl/nl/pt/-naniwa-watersteen-korrel-1000-3000.htm

^ since no one else has replied, I'll just say that I'd read good things about Naniwa years ago, and the grits should provide a good edge without a lot of hassle.

Thank you, Thomas. Appreciate it.

Do you think I can do without a coarser grit? My knives are quite blunt. Can I use the 1000 for that, with some (or a lot...) extra patience?

the 1000 grit should be fine for getting the initial edge unless you're starting with a butter knife. Then it may take you a little while. I used the 1000 side to re-set a bevel (to a narrower angle) a few years back and it took, I think, maybe 15 - 20 minutes a side. But you should only have to do that once in a long, long while.

That's what I thought/hoped. Thanks.

One more question. Do you think a clamp like this is useful for a beginner (provided the angle is correct for my knives):



?


I saw it in this video:

Well, hmm. Hard to say. Some gadgets are worthwhile, others not, but outside of that I can't say much more. From the video it doesn't look too bad - functions almost like the spine on a straight razor.

I'm not some purist, mind you. I have a roller-type clampy-thing I use for my chisels and plane blades, because they have a much bigger surface area to grind away and my mind tends to wander badly during those sessions. But that particular gadget works really well once I get it dialed in, because I don't have to govern two objects at once. If I had to hold to things together and then start sharpening, forget it.

Thanks, both.

i
Naniwa stones, the chosera line, are among the finest synthetic stones on the planet. they have good feedback.

A goal is to arrive at a polished edge with a stone 5000+. I find that the polished edges last longer, tough having less micro-serrations has a different feel.

To profile a blade, you should start with a grade <1000, probably around 500. I started with some DMT diamond stones and the blue one is good to start a knife and then flatten stones. I read somewhere and have found it to be a good guide that each step should be around 3X of the last stone in order to remove the scratches. As such, I use 1000, 3000 and then their 10,0000 stone. Sure the last is probably overkill but it is their "sword polishing" stone and has a certain cache.

I probably don,t sharpen them enough but I use a Sabatier 62 carbon 10 inch chef,s knife as my go to. I find the Japanese knives generally light and the blades a little brittle. For example, don,t try knocking the elbow off a chicken breast to airline it with a Japanese knife. For slicing things they re a dream though. I go back and forth but generally like and use more robust tools tht are easy to tune in the field.

Braised

sorry for the delete - I reposted same information.