Looking to step up my sharpening game...Diamond or Japanese water stones?

bpeezer

bpeezer

Joined
Jan 27, 2013
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I enjoy sharpening my knives more than actually using them, and I want some fairly nice stones to help me give my knives a beautiful edge. I like sharpening by hand, so I don't want any angle controlling clamps. I was wondering which would produce more consistent edges, diamond stones or Japanese water stones. Some info:

-Hardest steel I currently have to sharpen is D2, though I am looking into trying out ZDP-189.
-Not super concerned about time involved, as I enjoy my sharpening time.
-I'd like to stay around maybe $150 or less per stone, and preferably under $750 for whole setup.
-I do want to work towards a mirror finish, so I'd like to get 4-5 stones, from coarse (under 500 grit?) to extra extra fine (8k or higher?).
-I'm not an expert sharpener by any means, but I don't necessarily need the stones to be forgiving if I make some mistakes. That just helps me learn.

I'm leaning towards the DMT diamond stones right now but everyone seems to say Japanese water stones are superior. Any suggestions given my budget?
 
i would say both. diamond are definitely harder and can grind some steel as well as fine tune a blade, but in my experience Jap. stone are excellent in really honing a blade.

you may also want to consider an edge pro apex(highly recommended) if your wallet can handle it. It is a long term investment, but it is definitely worth the extra $$$

if you want a mirror polish finish; for a couple of bucks you can get some white green and red honing compound & a strip of leather and really polish the hell out of the edge. for the more spendy buyer they have electric wheel systems that work really well

i prefer doing things by hand, puts more pride in the edge of your blade
 
I don't want the edge pro simply because I think that will take a lot of the fun out of sharpening for me :D
 
A fellow stone junkie, Welcome!

Diamonds are great but your not going to find the "full effect" that your looking for using them. Waterstones on the other hand will be much more enjoyable to use and produce much broader spectrum of possible results.

I would recommend Nubatama stones if you are looking for a more natural stone experience. They produce more mud and less shine to the bevel with more "bite" in the edge for a given grit. If mirror polish is what you want, Naniwa or shapton stones would be a good bet.
 
knifenut, it was honestly your threads (the ones in your signature) that inspired me to "hone" my sharpening skills :) when I use muddier stones I find myself stopping more frequently to inspect the edge, and I think that makes it more difficult for me to maintain consistency while sharpening. Naniwa super stones look like a good way to start out, it seems like I could get a pretty good range of stones for a few hundred bucks. I can get a package of the 1k, 5k, and 8k stones for under $140 shipped. Do you think this is a good way to start out with waterstones?
 
I recently had the chance to test out the Naniwa chosera stones and the 400, ,600,800, 2k, & 3k are all excellent stones. The SS Naniwa stones seem to be better for polishing though as the 5k and 10k chosera stones have a cracking problem.

These are all premium stones so truthfully it would be hard to go wrong.

Your would probably like the chosera stones, they are a harder stone and give results quickly.
 
I do like the look of the chosera stones, and I like that they don't come with a plastic base. Thanks for your help, I'll probably get two or three of those this month and then continually add throughout the summer as I get used to using them.
 
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