I bought a 3 stone Lansky Sharpening system today. It has a red handled stone, green handled stone, and a blue handled stone. The red one says LS 120 Course Stone. The green says, LS 280 Medium Stone. The blue one says LS 600 Fine Stone... I have absolutly NO idea which one to use. Please help me out and tell me which one I should use for touch ups, which one I should use for dull knives, and what the other one is for? I have no previous experience with knife sharpening so I really need help!
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- Thread starter zach2556
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Ok, the red stone is your roughest stone. this would be used for dull knives, as well as for changing edge angles and such. say the knife you are working on is too obtuse for your needs. Then you would use the red stone to remove a lot of metal quickly. Stones that remove metal fast are great, but they leave the edge rough. This is why you have other stones, to polish and refine the edge to get it super sharp. This means that ultimately, you want to wind up using the fine, blue, stone. Alas, there is a big grit jump from the red to the blue, so you would be required to waste a lot of time polishing away with the fine stone. This is where the green stone comes in. you use the green stone after the red stone to start to refine the edge a little bit. Once you are done with that, you can move on to the blue stone to get that razor sharp edge.
If the knife you are working on only needs a touch up, and is already at the right edge angle, then you can just use the blue stone. This will remove the least amount of metal, and just simply touch up the edge.
In some cases the edge might be slightly dull, but at the right angle and undamaged. in this case you could use the green stone, followed by the red stone.
There is a seemingly overwhelming amount of information on the correct way to sharpen knives. If you poke around this forum you will find links and many knowledgeable posts about proper technique and equipment. At the end of the day though, the best teacher is experience. Go pick up some cheap knives and get some practice in, and you will have it in no time!
If the knife you are working on only needs a touch up, and is already at the right edge angle, then you can just use the blue stone. This will remove the least amount of metal, and just simply touch up the edge.
In some cases the edge might be slightly dull, but at the right angle and undamaged. in this case you could use the green stone, followed by the red stone.
There is a seemingly overwhelming amount of information on the correct way to sharpen knives. If you poke around this forum you will find links and many knowledgeable posts about proper technique and equipment. At the end of the day though, the best teacher is experience. Go pick up some cheap knives and get some practice in, and you will have it in no time!
hey Zach,
i would expect the blue stone to be fairly smooth, because it is designed to remove very little metal
. It should be considerably smoother than the red stone for example. The dark gray stuff you see on the stone is just metal that you have removed from the blade. Most people use some kind of powdered abrasive like comet, bar keepers friend, bon ami, etc, and a stiff brush of some kind. i personally stole a sponge with a rough side from the kitchen 
. This will remove the metal shavings allowing the stone to cut like new again.
http://users.ameritech.net/knives/ I stumbled upon this website when i first started sharpening, and found it to have a wealth of information, check it out if you have some free time.
i would expect the blue stone to be fairly smooth, because it is designed to remove very little metal
. It should be considerably smoother than the red stone for example. The dark gray stuff you see on the stone is just metal that you have removed from the blade. Most people use some kind of powdered abrasive like comet, bar keepers friend, bon ami, etc, and a stiff brush of some kind. i personally stole a sponge with a rough side from the kitchen . This will remove the metal shavings allowing the stone to cut like new again.http://users.ameritech.net/knives/ I stumbled upon this website when i first started sharpening, and found it to have a wealth of information, check it out if you have some free time.
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Zach, are you using any oil with these stones? My kit came with a small bottle of honing oil. I have never cleaned my stones other that wiping them down with a rag to remove excess floating steel debris after a sharpening session. Nowadays I don't use the Lansky much and have not looked into what their latest kits include. Do expect the 120 stone to wear much faster that the medium and fine, that is normal.