Looking for a single stone for soft stainless steel

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Fass

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Mar 8, 2020
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What single stone can you recommend me for sharpening 'soft' stainless steel (think Victorinox and Opinel inox steel)?
I am looking to get a shaving sharp edge from it, perhaps with some stropping. I am not looking for mirror polished edges and since I like to keep things simple, I am specifically looking for a single stone solution.
I tried a small Fallkniven DC stone but the diamond side seems to take away lots of steel quickly, yet it is too fine to give a good edge (if that makes sense). The ceramic side is really only for polishing.
 
A foldable dmt with extra coarse and fine will accomplish what you want. The diamond works fine and you won't have to switch it out if you get some harder steels. If your looking for stones. I would say the chosera 600 would be a one and done. Cuts fast enough on soft steel and will deliver a good edge. If you ask me what I would go for I would say the dmt. And I've used both. The chosera is about double the price.
 
Listed as For Stainless steel, I have used it on kitchen knives and works OK , Comparable to a King 65 in size. I use it with water but I believe it is ceramic
so probably dont have to soak it much or at all. 250 -1000 grit
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Most any stone type of good quality will work for simple stainless. I like a Norton India oil stone, in Fine grit, for setting & maintaining edges on knives like these. For a higher finish, ceramics from Spyderco work well. With the edges I've set using the Fine India, the medium Spyderco (brown/grey) ceramic follows that beautifully for additional refinement and touchups. And Arkansas stones of good quality will work well for refinement and/or polishing.

For a single stone solution, the Fine India would be my first choice. With that, you can both set and maintain very good edges. For stropping after the fact, either green compound or white rouge (in aluminum oxide) handle these steels very well. The white rouge will polish very quickly, and can also remove heavy burrs when used on hard-backed fabric like denim, canvas or linen. If your burr cleanup technique is good on stones, a piece of plain paper (printer/copy paper or newsprint/phonebook page) laid over the stone can be a good stropping solution by itself. Either that, or stropping on plain leather, with no compound used.

If using diamond hones on smallish & very thinly-ground pocketknife blades in these simple steels (like both Victorinox and Opinel), I'd suggest using nothing coarser than a Coarse (325) or Fine (600) for setting edges. Anything coarser will remove more steel than necessary in setting edges, and will also need more attention in cleaning up the burrs after the fact. With more experience and good technique, coarser diamond can be used in a minimal number of passes at a very light touch to put a very aggressive edge on these steels. That works additionally well if followed with a barely-there microbevel on a very fine stone, like a Fine ceramic.
 
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If you don’t mind oil, then I would also recommend a fine India stone and strop. For the strop, see if you can pick up something that is not 1 micron, like a fine valve grinding compound at 1200 grit. An alternative would be a combination diamond stone in fine and extra fine grit. I rarely use anything but extra fine (1200 grit) for many of my knives. I think that I used the fine stone a few times for a difficult to sharpen old Gerber kitchen knife. I wouldn’t mangle my woodworking blades with a diamond stone, but the 1200 grit DMT is super for kitchen and pocket knives.
 
A nice J-Nat with slurry stones works a charm. Any very hard stone for that matter…I’ve honed straight razors from bevel set to shave sharp with an old Nakayama and a slurry stone.
 
The Victorinox Dual Knife Sharpener would be perfect for what you are looking for, especially for an easily carried option.

I pretty much only use the ceramic rod part, but it's perfect for hiking/camping scenarios because it is so portable(the size of a pen)

The DMT diamond duo stones are probably equally as good or better if you decide to try some higher carbide steels later.
 
Suehiro and King make some very good combo stones that are a nice single stone solution.
The 250/1K would be what I would go with in this instance.
 
I have a King 1000/6000 combo stone that works fine and was only around $35. The only weird thing about it is that the 1000 side is a soaking stone and the 6000 side is splash & go.
 
I’d recommend the Arctic Fox field stone from Baryonyx. One coarse side and one medium side. Put the knife to a strop after that and you’re good to go.

Edit: Maybe you could try the double sided stones from sharpening supplies. Never tried them myself but they look interesting.
 
Norton JUM3, some mineral oil.

After sharpening on the fine side, drag a sheet of paper across the stone to gently collect the fines, and wrap it around the coarse side of the stone - strop away. This is one of my oldest strategies for using combination SiC stones and just used it Saturday to re-edge my Vic Chef's knife.
 
Norton 6” or 8” coarse/fine India stone. I used mine dry or with water but I would use oil now if I had another one.
 
A fine diamond hone about 600 mesh/grit would do to sharpen any steel you come across. That would be my choice for a single hone (but why settle on just one -- a coarse (220 grit) and fine (1200 grit) give you more range.
 
I use a dmt fine diamond plate. I think its a 5x2 plate. Break the plate in first. But then its all about the pressure you use. Good firm pressure will cut in an edge easily on “soft” steel without being to aggressive on the steel. Then lighten your pressure and bring it all home.
 
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