Finest grit for German kitchen knives?--A little long.

J

john4757

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Jan 14, 2008
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I purchased a Lansky sharpening system and sharpened a few of my kitchen knives with it and was very pleased with the results. While sharpening, the drawbacks of this system became apparent quite quickly--they've been mentioned here many times. 1. Sharpening a knife longer than 4 inches is a pain because of unclamping and re-clamping. 2. When using the 17 degree hole, the screws that hold the clamp down can get in the way of the stone movement.

I think I am at the point where the lansky system has done it's job for me with respect to helping me understand the process of turning a dull knife into a sharp one. So I decided to learn how to freehand. I have two combination japanese waterstones that I bought from Lee Valley Tools a number of years ago. One is a 100/220 combination and the other is a 1000/4000 combination. I don't know the manufacturer because the boxes that they came in have the Lee Valley logo but they are made in Japan. I've practiced on a few cheap knives(following all the great advice on this forum) and I feel I'm ready to take the plunge and and sharpen my good kitchen knives.

All of my kitchen knives are German forged--I have both Wusthof and Henkel. My question is what is the finest grit I should use on them? Is the 1000 sufficient or should I go to the 4000? From my reading on this and another forum there does not seem to be a consensus. Some feel that 1000 is enough for German knives while others feel that you need to go finer. I would be interested in any and all feedback. Thanks.
 
I wouldn't go higher than 1000 grit; maybe not even 220 grit, but you won't know what works best for you until you try them all.
 
i personally like a very high (mirror polished) edge grit. i have found that a high polish not only push cuts but also slices really nicely.

any grit will work for you as long as you effectively remove the burr and have a sufficiently thin edge (which wustof and henckels usually do)
 
On a knife that I use for slicing (usually narrower knives) I like to leave a bit more surface roughness and I would finish with 1000 grit. For a chef's knife (or other wide knives used to cut by pushing down on a cutting board) I would go for the finer grit.

Waterstones are pretty soft. I would use light pressure in the later stages of honing. I would also do much of my work with an edge-trailing (stropping direction) stroke. This avoids the edge scraping into the hone.
 
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