How high grit of whetstone do you use?

TheDandyLion

TheDandyLion

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Mar 27, 2013
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I'm looking at buying a set of a set of whetstones and I'm wondering how high I want to take the grit. I use my knives and I don't need them to be hair whittling sharp but definitely shaving sharp. How high of grit is needed to accomplish this? What do you have the most success with?

Thanks,

Jake
 
1000 grit will work just fine but if really want a good smooth shave then I'd go with 6000grit

I got a buck vantage avid small that I polish to 1000 grit and I shave with it every 3 days

Good luck

ZTD
 
Not all stones can be compared by number, so exactly what type of stone is important.

That said, I like Japanese waterstones and use my Shapton pro 5k, Nubatama Ume 4k, Naniwa Chosera 3k, Naniwa green brick 2k, and sometimes a Shapton pro 1.5k to finish edges.
 
600 - 1000 is about as high as I go with a stone. I use compounds on strops that are much, much finer.
 
With stones, I'm seldom finding a need for anything more than my 'Fine' DMT (600/25µ) or similarly-rated Fallkniven DC4's diamond side. With some other knives, such as in soft stainless (kitchen knives), I'm often not going much beyond ~320 or so, with inexpensive hardware-store hones in SiC/AlOx, or wet/dry sandpaper; I don't even strop those blades coming off that. With better mid-range steels up to D2 or so, I'll often strop on denim with some very aggressive Sears #2 compound (grey AlOx), which is a very fast polisher and leaves the resulting edges somewhat convexed and wickedly-sharp. I just finished thinning and convexing/polishing an older Camillus-made Buck 311 trapper's clip blade (440A), using the DC4's diamond and following up on the strop combo mentioned, and recently used the same methods for a Case in 420HC and a Queen in D2. In that wide range of wear-resistance, edges are all coming up in beautiful shape in very predictable fashion. :)

On something like S30V, the 'Fine' DMT would likely be the beginning and end of sharpening on that, with minimal or no stropping to finish.


David
 
Depends on the steel , sometimes I stop on my 1200 atoma , and sometimes I stop on my 30k shapton and strop to beyond..
 
In general, about 4k JIS or 1200 grit. My utility stuff is a bit less polished - 1200 JIS or somewhere around 600-800 grit.
 
I normally stop at 1200 grit (EF DMT) but sometimes finish with a hard Arkansas or the BRKT black or even green compound, but not very often. I can cleanly shave arm or leg hair as longs as I pay attention while sharpening and don't get lazy.
 
Norton Economy India or Silicon Carbide stones, the fine sides is generally as high as I go. Than strop with flexcut gold or craftsman #1 compound which I am under the impression is black compound, sometimes both. I found I was able to get a knife to treetop quite a bit of hair with using the fine side of that india followed by the #1 and flexcut gold, not true tree topping standards as it didn't do it reliably but far more than I have ever in the past when I last attempted it. It was quite entertaining to see to say the least. Though that edge was destroyed in a matter of seconds cutting up cardboard boxes and then cut through me like a scalpel while cutting up a carpet immediately after despite it not even being to slice through receipt paper anymore.

I find it's not so much as how high of a stone you go to but it's more of what you do while you're on the stone that makes the difference as it's all technique if all you want is a sharp knife. The different grits just provide different finishes and cutting characteristics from what I've seen so far and read.
 
I usually go up to 8000 grit on my water stone, but I found for most purposes stropping on green compound after 4000 grit or even 2000 grit is sufficient for most tasks shy of hair whittling and can be achieved quickly. I find that the stropping does the most for edge sharpness rather than a stone itself , and helps a lot with removing the burr that usually causes the initial sharpness to deteriorate quickly.
 
That depends; whats the grit of a case brand soft arkansas stone?

Seriously, what is it? Ive been wondering, but i know it gets my knives sharp as hell.
 
Jake,

The question is too vague. What kind of knife? What are you cutting with it?, etc etc.

I have knives I finish at 24 grit and knives I finish at 1.2 million grit and everything inbetween. Generally a 1k edge is a basic sharpened edge, but for finer tasks and finer steels, you can go MUCH higher.

---
Ken
 
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