3 Stone Naniwa Kit and so on, Water vs. "dry" or "oil" stones

[redsquid2]

Not that I am thinking of changing my whole sharpening routine. But I am tempted to try water stones sometimes. I don't think I ever really used one, but maybe I tried one 25 years ago. Just browsing around the Interwebs and saw the 3 stone Naniwa kit. It's "220 - 1000 - 5000" plus a holder for the stones.

Here's my routine for the knives that I make, usually:

I start with the India stone on the course side, get a barbed wire edge. Clean all the oil off the blade, and switch over to a course DMT Dia-Sharp (I think that's what it's called). Then I progress up to fine and extra fine diamod stones. I do the whole job free-handed. Sometime I get a leather strop with green paste to finish things up. I can get an nice hair popping, and almost a shaving edge that way.

I am wondering if any of you have been former oilstone or diamond stone users, then switched to water stones.

I have done a bit of reading, and waterstones strike me as being sloshy/messy. It is my understanding that the samurai sword makers used wetted stones, but I see it as not as practical a method, compared to my current routine. I would like to know what compelled you to make the switch, if you did.

Thank you.

Andy

 

[Gradyw]

I switched from dmt to shapton glass.. it gives a much cleaner edge than the dmts for me.

 

[Gradyw]

I have sg 500 and 2000 and then I will strop sometimes afterwards. When I say cleaner edge it is just a lot more refined or lot closer to mirrored then my dmts.. I have a coarse, fine and extra fine dmt so almost the same.. the extra fine still seams to leave some very light scratches but I also have only had my for a few months but I'm pretty sure it's "broken in"

 

[HeavyHanded]

I picked some up years ago and only used them a little bit. Had a 1200 King and a set of Nortons. Wound up using Smith diamond, India and Arkansas combinations and many other methods before eventually coming back to waterstones. I still use other means, mostly SiC wet/dry, DMT plates, and for minimalist work my Norton Crystalons.

Waterstones have a longer learning curve but ultimately are a great way to go. They don't really load or glaze, are tolerant of a wide range of applied pressure (up to a point) and come in user friendly sets that all work nice together. They tend to make smaller burrs and is easier and faster to remove the burr when it does form. Finishing grade waterstones are far more user friendly than most other fine polishing grades of stone - cut faster and still have good feedback.

With a small bath setup they really are not messy at all. The biggest drawbacks are they don't travel well, they need periodic flattening, and if you use them all the time in a dry environment your hands and fingers tend to dry out. Also, some of them are really not good at some types of stainless - they all seem to work great on carbon steels.

I cannot personally recommend the Naniwa but am pretty sure they have a solid reputation.

 

[Jason B.]

Softer waterstones can be muddy/messy and the Naniwas you are looking at, though not as bad as some, are softer and get a little messy when lapping. They will also wear quickly.

I've always used harder stones... Arks, Spyderco ceramics, DMT... so when I started using waterstones I went the typical route of soft and cheap stones. This made for a frustrating learning process because the feel is very different from hard stones. I purchased stone after stone in search of something that gave me the feel I was after. Oddly enough, when I first started looking into waterstones the Shapton Glass were some of the first recommended yet the last stones I actually purchased.

The Glass stones are hard and slow wearing, only need a splash of water to get working and if you are fine with the amount of mess an oil stone creates then you won't mind the Shaptons. My typical recommendation is the Atoma 140, SG500 and SG2000. The Atoma can be used for coarse edge work but is mainly for lapping the stones before each use. The Shapton stones pride themselves in flatness so you want to make sure they are flat before every use. The 500 is a medium coarse stone and will be the most used so I recommend the extra thick version. This stone will be able to handle most bevel setting and can even be used as a one and done stone, it produces a very nice EDC edge. The 2k is a medium fine stone so it gives you refined sharpness but retains enough tooth in the edge for controlled cutting. Refine with a 1 micron strop and you can have a very scary edge.