Bought a 60 RC Tojiro DP Gyutou looking for sharpening suggestions

H

Hedonistic

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Apr 8, 2014
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I used to be more of a knife nut, I lost a Benchmade 500BT a Piranha and AG Russell and Deer hunter and a few others. Now I mostly buy less expensive knives. I recently got into cooking and knives. I have mostly Wusthof in my collection and sharpen with ceramic rods. My Lansky is out on a 6 inch knife as is the spyderco sharpmaker as I want to go 10-20 degrees on the edge. I understand the the knife is too hard for a steel and most Japanese knives are maintained on extremely fine waterstones. I do not want to invest a huge amount of money on stones and an almost $200 diamond lap. I am mostly interested in suggestions for Japanese waterstones and a less expensive lap. I want to stay under $100 and may go upto $150. What grits are recommended for maintenance? That said I am open to other suggestions and have thought of the Ken Onion power sharpener and would practice on a basket of dollar store knives. My concern is what all the heat would do to the temper of the edge. I have nothing against spending some serious time on a edge and would invest the time to keep a highly polished edge. I am a bit frustrated with the Wusthof as none of them seem to be a true 58 HRC I only put a 22.5 45 degree included and the edge retention is unimpressive.

Thank you all in advance for your help.
 
I've sharpened enough tojiros to make your head spin, my two favorite finishing stones for the DP line is the Naniwa 2k green brick and the Arashiyama 6k. Prior to those stones most any 1k would be fine. The King 1k is your most basic and wears fast but is a a quality stone, moving up you have Naniwa or Shapton and many others though I'm currently pretty impressed by a 1k Shapton pro.
 
I'll echo knifenut1013's post. I've bought, thinned out, and sharpened several Tojiro DP's for my brothers. It was overkill, but I used a Chosera 400/Shapton Pro 1000/Shapton Pro 2000/Shapton Glass 4000.

You could easily get away with just getting a Shapton Pro 1000 and either a Shapton Pro 5000 or Shapton Glass 4000. A Suehiro Rika 5000 could also take the place of the second stone. You could pick up an Extra Coarse DMT to flatten the stones with, but if you don't sharpen a whole lot that purchase could wait a while.
 
I ended up playing with my lansky and buying a diamond lansky and really learning how to use it. I have had one for 12 years and just learned how to set it up well. I kept the angle pretty much the same and went all the way to the sapphire. A synthetic strop and 0.5 micron abrasive are on the way. Well worth the time and effort I find myself making meals based on how much I get to cut to make it.
 
The major concern with VG-10 is getting rid of the burr, and that is what I need fine stones for. Burrs have to got abraded, a VG-10 won't just fall off as a simple carbon one, and if it breaks off leaves a devastated edge behind. I deburr with very light strokes, basically along the edge, very slightly trailing to avoid a wire edge. I start with Choseras 800 followed by 2k, 5k and Naniwa Snow-White 8k, the last ones only for deburring.
 
For $150 you will not get a very good solution for both reprofiling edges and polishing them too, so I suggest you stick with your most basic steps first - a 1k stone and a lapping plate. Generally I'd suggest a 140 Atoma but the jump from there to a 1k stone is too large so get a 400 Atoma and a 1k stone. Alternatively as a second choice consider the DMT XC plate as a cheaper alternative. Beyond that, there are many alternatives but now we are out of your budget range.

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Ken
 
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