Foo shops for a Japanese knife

[otc]



Edge Pro "inspired" sharpener order placed.

Now that I have done all of this research, I am 95% sure I am going to end up buying some of the Congress or Boride stones to replace the "inspired" stones long before they wear out (because well...they aren't fancy enough).

Since this will require me buy a can of adhesive and a long piece of aluminum stock that will make more stones than I need....I'd be happy to manufacture some stones for other forum members.

Don't know when I would actually get around to doing it, but for the cost of the stone/aluminum/shipping, I'll cut the backing plates and adhere the stone for anybody who wants some.

 

[otc]

Ordered a Tojiro DP 240mm on amazon, should be here on friday. There are sellers on amazon that have it for less than $70 (and the 210mm for $57) with prime shipping so I figured it would be worth a try.

There were a couple of other knives I was interested in, but a lot of them become more problematic since I am a lefty. I can deal with resetting a 70/30 bevel if I have to, but many have the sides of the blade ground asymmetrically which I can't fix.

The richmond artifex SAB knives (ground to a french profile, but otherwise more of a japanese design) were intriguing, but they are a little longer and I couldn't find many reviews of them.
The Kohetsu Blue #2 was intriguing because it is on sale in the 240mm length, but I am not sure I want to deal with full carbon and I don't think I'd like the handle.
The Suisin Inox looked good. Profile looked like something I would like, pretty handle, but it comes right-handed and costs double the DP...

 

[gomestar]



Edge Pro "inspired" sharpener order placed.

oh, I should note that I bought a bunch of actual Edge Pro stones to replace the "inspired" stones. I'm just going to toss their stones right away.

 

[Manton]

I bought a 2000 stone today. Before that all I had was 1000/6000 double sided. I've been told that I really needed something in between. This does help a lot, I must say. Did four knives and they are singing.

I also bought this polish that supposedly tunes up a "mirror" finish. Yeah, no. Junk.

 

[whiteslashasian]

Polishing knives is the new polishing shoes on SF.

I'm now interested in the similar but different Edge Pro's and building my own stone inserts. What stones would I need to get from Congress?

Also, the Tojiro is pretty awesome. A huge step up from anything I've ever used. The handle actually suits my hand pretty well though I can see how some would criticize it for being a tad blocky. Great balance across the board and wicked sharp out of the box.

 

[otc]

I always knew you would like getting the DP

 

[Manton]

For stones, basically you want a progression. The lower the grit, the more metal it shaves off (or "cuts"). You really don't want to use a low grit unless the blade is chipped, hopelessly dull, or needs to be thinned behind the edge.

For normal sharpening, 1000 is as low as I ever go. Then you work up. The way it has been explained to me is that each successive stone should be 2x the last grit. So 1000, 2000, 4000, 8000 is a good progression.

But this is not "set in stone" (heh). What you don't want to do is make a huge leap, as I had been doing, from say 1000 to 6000. There needs to be something in the middle.

I think in the future that as long as I maintain my knives in good shape I will start with 2000 and skip 1000, which is only necessary if the blade is fairly dull. Anything above 2000 is really only for finely polishing the edge. Above 8000 and the edge will get so smooth there won't be any teeth to grab sinew or skin or peel. So that sort of super fine edge is great for soft fish and for slicing cooked food, but you wouldn't want it on a vegetable or boning knife.

 

[foodguy]

i agree with manton. the low stones are to correct abuses. after they've been corrected, as long as you treat your knives respectfully, you shouldn't need them again. i'm not as down on microserrations as some. i find they're pretty handy as long as you use a slicing motion when you cut rather than a simple up-down.

 

[otc]

Of course grit numbers vary wildly...

The numbers reported on the japanese waterstones are much higher than what might be reported on industrial stones, hence why the edge pro stones top out at 1000. I have seen store websites that equate that 1000 to an 8000 japanese stone, although these two random charts I found online disagree wildly (unless the shapton/chosera stones use different grit measures than other japanese stones)

 

[Manton]

Forget what EP says, Chosera is pretty close to the industry standard. If you look at Korin or CK2G or various other websites that carry a lot of stones, that's the system nearly all of them will use.

 

[foodguy]

it was my impression that that was simply the difference between an american and a japanese measuring system. neither is "wrong". just meters and yards.

 

[Manton]

maybe, but I'm not aware of any waterstones that don't come from japan. There must be some, I guess, but all the places where I shop--in person and online--seem to have only Japanese stones.

 

[otc]

If you want to take it to an extreme...you can use this spreadsheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...RjBaOFJhZXI1RHFsM2F4N1JpVGc&usp=sharing#gid=0

JIS column is the japanese standard
FEPA-F is the grading system used for the boride stones (edge pro)
Shapton and Chosera are listed by name
M.Mstr is the approximate grit reported by Congress Tools for the Moldmaster stones

The Shapton and Chosera values are pretty close to the JIS standard at low numbers, but it looks like there is some "grit inflation" going on at the high end (the 8k and 10k stones falling below the standard for 8k).

So Manton's starting at 1k for normal sharpening and 2k for maintenance jives pretty well with starting around 600 on the edge pro for anything not needing major work.

 

[chogall]

Anyone going all out using diamond pastes for sharpening?

 

[otc]

God dammit amazon prime. I'd threaten to cut you...but you have failed to deliver my knife.

edit: I retract my complaint. Delivery man had already come and USPS website had updated delivery date to not-today...but another delivery was made and my knife is here.

Handle is nice, blade seems quite sharp. Will have to see how the balance feels in actual cutting. I feel like I expected a little more weight forward (especially since it is a longer knife)...there is more heft in the handle than I expected.