Compounded Balsa vs Japanese Stones?

[Rennd]

I'm chasing a perfect v edge, but I'm on a budget so I can get a custom kitchen knife. How do edges on compounded balsa compare to those of, say, shapton 30k stones?

 

[Sadden]

Well what are you using currently?

I prefer to have people go as high as they can on stones first before moving on to strops. With that being said the 15k , and especially 30k do get pricey.

To get as close to repeating the stones edge with compound you would have to use the compound on paper with some type of hard flat backing , glass is ideal here. I cant comment on Balsa as I use Roo or Nanocloth myself. Roo gives an additional burnishing effect that produces a different edge than a comparable stone.

 

[Cynic2701]

As long as your edge is formed properly, you could use compound loaded strops to refine your edge up from whatever stone you finish on.

I would, however, recommend staying away from using diamond stones (with the exception of the coarse ones for reprofiling bevels, with the caveat that you use a waterstone or something equivalent to remove the scratch pattern thereafter) as I and many others have noted that diamonds can tend to cause microchipping in very hard and thin kitchen knives.

Still, though, you will likely end up with a slight convex using strops. You won't see much benefit from moving past 4 - 8k JIS for a general purpose kitchen knife like a gyuto, so a 15K+ stone will probably be overkill for you unless you are sharpening something like a yanagi.

 

[HeavyHanded]

I'm chasing a perfect v edge, but I'm on a budget so I can get a custom kitchen knife. How do edges on compounded balsa compare to those of, say, shapton 30k stones?

I do not imagine the edges would be comparable, but you can certainly get a very refined edge from a hard "strop". On the cheap, nothing is going to work better than simply wrapping a sheet of paper around the coarse side of a combination stone and applying compound to that. For a more refined edge, use the fine side. You can also make a slurry with a few drops of mineral oil and use that on an oak board. All of these methods can make a very nice edge, very inexpensively, and unlike many stropping methods can refine from a fairly rough finish as well as polish with little or no rounding, even at the shoulder transition (these were all inspirational to my Washboard development).

The JWS edge will always be a bit more crisp but will also be (far) more demanding in terms of angle control and pressure, especially if using a backhoning method on the waterstone. There are plenty of compounds commonly and inexpensively available that fall in the 30k range - even the humble Ryobi white comes very close.

I agree with Cynic, in most cases an edge that refined is unnecessary for kitchen cutlery, but many ways to get a very fine edge on most steels that don't involve long dollars.