I'm spoiled!

Joined
Nov 16, 2002
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My wifey and our daughter just got me a huge 1200 grit brick, an 8000 grit polishing stone, and a 1000/4000 combo home all made by Matsunaga King.

Yesh! :D
 
They got you so excited you couldn't sleep and got up at 0500! (Probably to sharpen the entire set of kitchen knives) :)
 
You lucky dog! Although I can't complain too much, as my wife got me a Manix, and she had her sister get me the Spyderco UF benchstone for Christmas.
 
Great stones. The 1000 grit cuts fast and leaves a dull, satin finish. The 1200 grit cuts slower (9 microns versus 15 if they're anything like the US mesh system), but leaves a finish similar to a 1200 grit diamond only with much more forgiveness. The 4000 grit cuts slowly, but leaves a better finish than the 6000 grit stone (looks like the mirror finish of a Norton 8000 grit waterstone, but takes longer). The 8000 grit cuts fast and leaves a great finish. Both the 4000 and 8000 grit Kings (or any other 4k or 8k stone) can be used with a nagura stone to generate a sharpening-friendly slurry. The same nagura can also flatten both stones. It's good like that.

Reflattened my ZDP-189 Delica with the trusty D8XX and polished its relief grind with the 1200, 4000, and 8000 (from whence my opinions are drawn) and set the edge with the 1000, 4000, and 8000. Felt no overwhelming desire to strop the edge after finishing with the 8000 and nothing I cut scolded me for it with high levels of resisting force.
 
That's awesome. I didn't know that 4k/8k can use a Nagura. Do you feel it speeds things up, or makes a better polish? I've been using a Nagura on my Belgian Coticule stones, and the results haven't been what I've been hoping for. I'm interested to see how you feel about it on the waterstones. I don't have King, but I do have the Nortons.
 
The nagura leaves a hazier polish that might go away as the slurry breaks down. The Norton 8K loads up too quickly with the steels I use for me to see a difference, but it helped the Kings start faster and finish finer. King's 1200 loads up way too much, but their 4000 and 8000 don't. Even when not using a nagura to build a slurry, it levels off and cleans/flattens the finer stones.
 
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