with 2 kitchen knives, both ontario knife co 'tru-edge', both the same size and both dull as can be - my wife doesnt ask me to sharpen the kitchen knives till they are DULL - anyway heres the results:
Norton India Stone med/fine grit, 8X2"
started on the med side, worked on it untill the knife started to 'show some edge', ya could see where it was getting the right bevel, etc - worked app. 5 minutes w/the med grit, then moved to fine - after 15 minutes, knife was sharp enough for kitchen use, but not scary sharp by any stretch - finished up on a DMT duofold, in 5 minutes it was scary sharp - DMT is the fine/Xfine - so 25 minutes to get it there.....
GATCO w/extra extra fine hone, and ceramic hone - started w/the other knife, using coarse stones, progressing to med, then fine, XF, then the ceramic - took about 15 minutes, including setting it up, eg putting knife in holder, etc - after a little less than 15 the knife was scary sharp, no need for the DMT here, and the edge seemed more precise(about 20 strokes per side per hone)
so IMHO ya can get knives sharp FASTER w/the GATCO vs the India stone, even including the time to set the thing up - the results suprised me, i am pretty good w/a stone(and the india stone works pretty darned good, have had 1 for years , very much prefer over ark stones and others) , just got the GATCO last wk, and didnt think it would be faster - but it is - a pretty good setup, but, IMHO, ya gotta buy the XF and the ceramic hones to make it complete, and then i dont know, others may be better for the $$ - due to back orders, i got the kit aover a period of 10 days, so i had time to play w/and w/out the XF and ceramic, and ya just gotta have them to make it work right - but if ya got the stuff, they are hard to beat IMHO
SIFU
Norton India Stone med/fine grit, 8X2"
started on the med side, worked on it untill the knife started to 'show some edge', ya could see where it was getting the right bevel, etc - worked app. 5 minutes w/the med grit, then moved to fine - after 15 minutes, knife was sharp enough for kitchen use, but not scary sharp by any stretch - finished up on a DMT duofold, in 5 minutes it was scary sharp - DMT is the fine/Xfine - so 25 minutes to get it there.....
GATCO w/extra extra fine hone, and ceramic hone - started w/the other knife, using coarse stones, progressing to med, then fine, XF, then the ceramic - took about 15 minutes, including setting it up, eg putting knife in holder, etc - after a little less than 15 the knife was scary sharp, no need for the DMT here, and the edge seemed more precise(about 20 strokes per side per hone)
so IMHO ya can get knives sharp FASTER w/the GATCO vs the India stone, even including the time to set the thing up - the results suprised me, i am pretty good w/a stone(and the india stone works pretty darned good, have had 1 for years , very much prefer over ark stones and others) , just got the GATCO last wk, and didnt think it would be faster - but it is - a pretty good setup, but, IMHO, ya gotta buy the XF and the ceramic hones to make it complete, and then i dont know, others may be better for the $$ - due to back orders, i got the kit aover a period of 10 days, so i had time to play w/and w/out the XF and ceramic, and ya just gotta have them to make it work right - but if ya got the stuff, they are hard to beat IMHO
SIFU