Can a 1000 grit stone do it all?

myright

myright

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Jan 31, 2008
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Alright fellas - This my first crack at sharpening with a water stone. I got a 1000 grit king in a trade and am wondering if 1000 grit can be used to get the knife sharp enough to not need an additional polishing stone.

I really want to get the hang of using water stones as I really like the method. I'll be shaprning VG-10 Shun Classic's and some cheaper Henkels. The Henkels I'll probably sharpen on my paper wheels more than the stones though so it's really an 8" Chef and 4" paring knife by Shun that I'm looking at using the stone for.

So... Is 1000 grit considered a good all around grit?

Oh - I don't need my knives to be able to whittle hair, shaving sharp is fine.
 
IMO the sharper the better for a kitchen knife, I like using waterstones too for my henkels it seems to get them very sharp, I finish at 8000 grit though. 1000 will get it sharp I just like sharper.
 
I have the same stone. It can do light reprofiling and give a decent edge that can shave arm hair. Though it cuts fast for the grit, you'll want something coarser to set bevels, because it's too slow for removing lots of steel. Other than that, you can get by with this as your one and only stone. You can finish on the stone dry, the effective grit is a bit finer. Cutting speed goes like slurry (coarser) > clean water > dry (finer).

As knifenut mentions, if you find you like waterstones (like me) you'll want a whole set. I like the Naniwa Superstone series the best, they go up to 12k.
 
12k ... wow...

I'll see how good I can get with the 1k stone and I'm sure I'll be getting my hands on more over the next few months. Thanks for the info!
 
myright said:
12k ... wow...

I'll see how good I can get with the 1k stone and I'm sure I'll be getting my hands on more over the next few months. Thanks for the info!
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To clarify, 12k grit is not neccesary for knives. I got it to hone my razor, and since I have it, I use it to give my knives overkill sharp mirror polished edges that make even 52100 steel stain resistant. Probably going up to 3k is enough for knives. You can easily go from a 1k stone to a 3k stone.
 
Good deal - I'll try with one of the cheaper knives first. I've been checking out videos all over the place to get an idea of what technique to use. I've seen people keep the knife in contact on the forward stroke and on the back stroke bringing the knife back to the starting position. Does that sound right.

I figured it would work just any other sharpener. Cut on the push till then do the same on the other side.
 
myright said:
Good deal - I'll try with one of the cheaper knives first. I've been checking out videos all over the place to get an idea of what technique to use. I've seen people keep the knife in contact on the forward stroke and on the back stroke bringing the knife back to the starting position. Does that sound right.

I figured it would work just any other sharpener. Cut on the push till then do the same on the other side.
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Thats how I do all my sharpening, edge always on the stone. I don't know a lot about waterstones but I use a cheap diamond stone to flatten and make a slurry on the stones. I like the slurry from the diamond stone better than the nagura stone, for some reason I don't get as sharp a edge when using the nagura stone on the finer waterstones :confused:
 
myright said:
Good deal - I'll try with one of the cheaper knives first. I've been checking out videos all over the place to get an idea of what technique to use. I've seen people keep the knife in contact on the forward stroke and on the back stroke bringing the knife back to the starting position. Does that sound right.

I figured it would work just any other sharpener. Cut on the push till then do the same on the other side.
Click to expand...

It depends on if you want flat or convex edges. For flat edges it really does not matter what stroke you use as long as the angle is consistent. You can use forward stroke, reverse stroke, run circles, whatever is fastest for you. Remove any burrs with a ceramic rod.

For recurved blades like a BM 710, you need to use a "rolling x" motion. Not much to it. I don't understand why people say sharpening is so difficult, seems pretty intuitive once you get the hang of it.
 
I think most people don't have the patience to learn the right technique.
 
Not a big fan of the $19.99 Chinese 12k stone though. It cuts incredibly slow even for a 12k.
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I don't have one but like they say if its too good to be true than it probably is. Still a good price for that grit stone though.
 
I have a 1000 grit water stone that I got at Lee Valley this summer and am very happy with it. I had a pair of "Razor Edge" stones (not water stones) that never really seemed to work well for me; now I use the coarse stone to flatten the edge at about 11 degrees and the 1000 grit water stone to shape the edge at about 22 degrees. I finish up on a round steel and the result is an edge sharp enough to shave the hair off my arm. This is sharp enough for general kitchen use but to tell the truth I am thinking about getting an offset serraded knife for chores like slicing tomatoes and a mandoline for heavy chores like thin slices of sweet potato for a "Sweet Potatoes Anna," thin slices of potato for gratins, potato chips, julianned strips for steak frites, etc.

Do you guys recommend a finer water stone for kitchen knives? Would, e.g., a 1200 grit stone make a real difference? I'm not sure if it would or if 4000 grit would be overkill for these particular tools.

Also: is there a way to test the particular grit of a particular stone. I inherited what my dad had always called a "water stone" several years ago; it seems as fine as my 1000 grit stone but is there a way to narrow it down to a specific range? Some kind of grit scale?

Best,

Steve
 
slamade said:
Do you guys recommend a finer water stone for kitchen knives? Would, e.g., a 1200 grit stone make a real difference? I'm not sure if it would or if 4000 grit would be overkill for these particular tools.

Also: is there a way to test the particular grit of a particular stone. I inherited what my dad had always called a "water stone" several years ago; it seems as fine as my 1000 grit stone but is there a way to narrow it down to a specific range? Some kind of grit scale?

Best,

Steve
Click to expand...

If the unknown stone produces the same scratch pattern as your known 1000 grit stone, then it's also 1000 grit. These grit ratings are random anyway.

In general, you jump by 2x, so after finishing on a 1000 grit you go on to 2000 grit, then 4000, and so on. I've found that some waterstones cut fast enough to allow you to skip between grits, though.
 
With some care a 1000 grit shapton will treetop hairs. I can only make it grab them a bit without a strop, but with a couple passes on a green CrO loaded leather they will fall over. Just getting a servicable/ armhair shaving edge is pretty easy. I don't have the king 1000, but I do have their 4000 grit stone, and it's much softer than the shaptons. I find the 4000 challenging on knife blades because you need to be really careful about your edge angles, otherwise the blade will dig into the stone and wipe out your edge. If the 1000 king is similar it will be harder to get a fine edge off of it. Certainly though a 1000 or 2000 grit waterstone is all that's needed for a good knife, anything finer is razor or specialty cutlery (chisels, planes, scalpels, etc) territory.
 
It took a while, but I finally got the hang of the water stones. My 220/1000 King stone will catch hair on the back of my head, and stropping will shave above the skin. I use either a leather strop loaded with white buffing compound or a 0.3 micron lapping film stuck to a board. The films are $5 for a pack of 3, and I'm still on the first one after nearly a year. I use microbevels for my finer stones and hand strops, so they wear pretty slowly.
 
If I was gonna buy only one stone, anything between 600-1000 is what I'd pick. My 1000grit Norton waterstone does an awesome job on everything , and if I need to go finer, it's to the strop I go.
 
I tried playing around with it yesterday. I worked up a good slurry but am having a hard time getting the knife sharp. It's my first try though so I'm not too concerned.

I have a hard time controlling the angle when I flip the knife and either pull it towards me or try and use my left hand.
 
Slurry is best for pull strokes, when putting on the final edge either work the stone clean (keep it flushed with fresh water) or use pull strokes only.
 
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